Meet Florence Le Pecq Vicentini, Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) at Neterium.

Neterium is an innovative API-native company reinventing Financial Crime Prevention and responding to the explosion of market demand for highly performant, scalable and efficient watchlist screening.

Neterium’s ultimate goal is to allow clients and partners to achieve excellence in compliance while delivering frictionless customer service. Built and developed by senior industry experts and top-notch technology specialists, Neterium’s team is unique.

To spotlight the best insights of Neterium’s excellence, we ask a few questions to the inspiring crew behind it.

As part of our series, Behind The Insiders, today we’re speaking to Florence Le Pecq Vicentini, Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) at Neterium

1. Hello Florence, can you tell us a little about yourself and your role as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) at Neterium?

Yes, of course. I have over 20 years of experience in the Financial Crime and Compliance domain, with a particular focus on sanctions, anti-terrorist financing and KYC. I had various sales roles but mostly developed and managed international networks of partners and alliances. I joined Neterium in 2020 as Chief Commercial Officer to support its mission to reinvent financial crime prevention by offering unparalleled performance and superior efficiency.

I have known the Neterium team for a long time and naturally chose to embark on the great Neterium adventure with them. There is no doubt that Neterium is led by a team of unique industry experts in the Financial Crime Compliance (FCC) field. Before joining Neterium, I worked for many years in a fast-growing Regtech specialising in developing financial crime compliance solutions. I held senior leadership roles in Europe, Asia and the United States. In this sense, my career is quite atypical. My role today at Neterium goes far beyond sales management.

I have a scientific background, I like maths, and always want to understand things. But I am also very social and like to interact with people. So, a job behind a desk or in a laboratory would not have suited me. On the other hand, my scientific background and my analytical mind are instrumental today in my activities within Neterium: they allow me to understand Neterium's products in detail, which is essential if you want to sell a product well. That is my strength. I was also always fascinated by foreign cultures, and I got very early the desire to go and work in other countries to understand different cultures, other ways of doing things, and negotiating. That's what's fascinating in an international sales and partnership role: to free oneself from one's own culture and understand the needs and challenges of my clients and partners. A good negotiation is where all parties are satisfied without saying yes to everything. I think it is important to have a long-standing and trustworthy relationship with clients and partners. Once I sign a deal with a client, it is the beginning of our journey, not the end. I believe in people and human relationships. That's why I chose to join Neterium, after a career working all around the world. I also like a job where you need to multitask and must constantly adapt. This is what I do every day at Neterium.

“A good negotiation is where all parties are satisfied without saying yes to everything. I think it is important to have a long-standing and trustworthy relationship with clients and partners.”

2. What are the critical skills you need as the CCO of an innovative RegTech?

Many skills are required to be a good business person in a fast-growing startup. I won't list the traditional skills, but I’d like to focus on the importance of "soft skills", listening to the customer first and foremost and knowing the product's potential inside out. It helps if you also have excellent stress resistance, able to multitask and are versatile. A good salesperson is not just someone who fills in order forms; it is the one who is the best ambassador for the company, who promotes the team as a whole, the expertise of each person, who creates bridges and options for future partnerships. In short, a good CCO is the one who creates the conditions for the company's expansion. That's why you have to be able to talk to C-Levels execs and also be there for your team, even for minor tasks. I am close to all teams inside Neterium, and pay attention to people (and not only when I need something from them).

3. If we had to single out one of your international experiences like living in Singapore: What do you retain from this experience that you apply in your daily work at Neterium?

I spent five years in Singapore, which is a massive financial centre in Asia, very active and willing to bring in international foreign investments. I was exposed to a robust, agile and innovative ecosystem. Moreover, Singapore mixes three main cultures: Chinese, Indian and Malay. It is, therefore, a very cosmopolitan country. It is fascinating to navigate different cultures and understand the subtleties of negotiation. It is also a country that is turned towards the world, with a global vision, which I share. At Neterium, our market is global, and we are in a "problem solving" approach above all, serving our clients efficiently wherever they are. Hence, all my international experiences have been key to adjusting my ways of doing business around the world and have helped me every day in my work at Neterium.

“A good salesperson is not just someone who fills in order forms; it is the one who is the best ambassador for the company, who promotes the team as a whole. I am close to all teams inside Neterium, and pay attention to people (and not only when I need something from them).”

4. In the scope of a few weeks, you have secured significant business partnerships for Neterium, each constituting a significant achievement. What are the two key elements of concluding a successful partnership?

The activities have been very intense these last months at Neterium, indeed. These partnerships highlight the quintessence of Neterium's business strategy. We have a screening API, and our objective is to be the screening module in all platforms. I believe that thanks to these partnerships, we are responding to a strong market demand, allowing platforms a faster go to market. To me the two key elements of a partnership are trust and transparency which are essential to build success in the long term.

“These partnerships highlight the quintessence of Neterium's business strategy. We are responding to a strong market demand, allowing platforms a faster go-to-market.”

5. You shared with me that you did a 24-hour sailing race. Would you say that the best quality of a good CCO is endurance?

I would say it’s more about resilience than endurance. Developing the company's business requires a continuous effort with a high intensity. You must know how to adjust your effort, sometimes speeding up, but always holding on, even against all odds. This is why the parallel with sailing is a good metaphor. Like a sailing captain, a CCO must take decisions rapidly adjusting to each situation. Responsiveness is everything. You have to react quickly, manage timing, and always be on the lookout because things move around a lot, while keeping an open mind because you may have to change tactics from one moment to another.

6. Who is your role model, and why?

I don't have a role model, and I'm not a big fan of having one. Each person is unique, and each person has their own qualities and strengths. Choosing is giving up options, and I don't want to. I always want to discover the best in people and try to do my best. I am deeply free, and I always follow my intuition.

“Choosing is giving up options, and I don't want to. I always want to discover the best in people and try to do my best. I am deeply free, and I always follow my intuition.”