Meet the Team: Monika Snitke, Chief Operations Officer

Meet Monika Snitke, our Chief Operations Officer (COO).

Monika studied Economics and Accounting at City University London and joined Team TransferGo back in 2012 as one of our first employees. Today, Monika Snitke manages teams responsible for customer service, financial operations and business process management. A few years ago, Monika Snitke was included in the UK Fintech Industry Outlook list of the most influential women in fintech.

Here, Monika Snitke discusses the things she loves about working at TransferGo, what she’s excited about, the lessons she’s learned and much more. 

Monika Snitke, what’s your favourite thing about working at TransferGo?

TransferGo has an amazing culture and it’s full of amazing people. I just really enjoy working here. We’ve been sticking to our company values for years and we’re entirely focussed on that. We’re not moving away from our core values and we’re not changing.

What’s your proudest achievement to date?

I have a lot of successful projects I’m very proud of but I’m the most proud of the team and people I have. My team members have been working at TransferGo for over 5 years. They’re all very ambitious, smart and eager to grow—it’s a big challenge to retain people and keep their motivation at high levels.

What are you currently working on that you’re excited about?

I’m working on end-to-end operations and customer-centricity. I have an idea and a goal of automating all the operational work. We’ve already done this in financial operations; with the help of AI, we’ve automated most of our processes. Now, I want to scale that so that all work is automated across other operational teams.

What are the values that drive you?

Our values of collaboration, building trust, ownership, being at one’s best and doing the work that matters—they’re not just words. They reflect my experience of being here. They’re what we all care about the most. I like meeting people and collaborating. I like transparency; that’s the most important thing for me.

What have you learned while working at TransferGo?

I’ve learned that you have to be brave and speak up. You have to be ambitious and you have to talk to people. There are a lot of smart people here and they’re all happy and willing to listen to you, hear your thoughts and share their own experiences with you.

I’ve been here for 11 years now and I was the second employee so I’ve pretty much learned everything at TransferGo. I’m very grateful as we’ve always had a very strong, diverse and international team and we’ve all had the chance to learn from each other, develop and grow. The company has grown a lot in that time but our core values have stayed the same. That’s why I’m still here.

How do you achieve a healthy work/life balance?

There’s nothing in particular that I do. I just have to prioritise what I need to prioritise. Health is crucial for me. If I get overly tired or too stressed, I get ill very quickly and then my productivity drops. So I’ve learned to listen to my body—I always try to get enough sleep, eat a balanced diet, spend time outside and pay attention to what my body needs. When I’m healthy and full of energy, the balance comes naturally.

How do you unwind after a long day?

I love reading books and my kids love when I read to them. Bedtime stories help me to forget everything, I just disconnect from everything that is happening in the world and focus entirely on the book.

What does your typical weekend look like?

My weekends are usually all about the kids. We like going to the theatre, swimming, meeting friends and visiting museums. Our weekends are usually quite busy and active. We have a small tradition of making pancakes on Sunday morning and watching a family movie in the evening.

Does working from home work for you?

I like working from home because it saves me an hour per day of commuting time. But I do prefer working in the office as I like meeting people. I also think being in the office and having quick chats brings a lot of benefits. Small talk can make a big difference.

Monika Snitke’s quick-fire round…

Favourite city: London

Favourite meal: I love steak.

Favourite restaurant: Dziaugsmas in Vilnius.

Favourite artist: I like a variety of artists; from Coldplay to Andrea Bocelli.

Favourite book: I can’t choose a favourite book, it depends on the year but you can always find a big pile of books next to my bed. 

Favourite movie: A Beautiful Mind

Best advice you were given: Be yourself.

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