Airwallex names Luke Latham to lead ANZ business

Australian-born payments company Airwallex has appointed Luke Latham as general manager for its Australia and New Zealand business.

Founded in Melbourne in 2015, Airwallex offers solutions for global payments, treasury and expense management.

According to Airwallex chief executive and co-founder Jack Zhang, Latham was selected for the role due to his experience working in businesses that disrupt traditional industries, making him the right choice for Airwallex’s expansion in the region

“We did an extensive global search to find the right person to lead our business locally because Australia is where we started and it is a special place for Airwallex,” Zhang said.

The company now has 200 staff in Australia and 1,400 globally, and services customers including Qantas and SHEIN.

“Luke will be a key part of our future success as we grow our network that now spans across North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Middle-East,” Zhang said.

Latham moves to Airwallex from his position at MILKRUN, where he was chief operating officer from 2022 to 2023.

He has also worked for Amazon for four years from 2018 to 2022 as head of product management and retail programs, and then general manager of fulfilment by Amazon.

Latham also has experience as Amazon Web Services’ head of strategy and sales operations in ANZ from 2014 to 2015 and globally from 2015 to 2018.

“Airwallex has seen phenomenal growth because businesses see the appeal of an alternative to the traditional banks across their needs in payments, treasury, expense management and embedded finance.”

“There’s huge opportunity to remove the pain points and high costs you get from traditional banking and financial services, “ he said. 

CRN's sister publication iTnews interviewed Airwallex's head of information security and IT, Elliot Colquhoun, earlier this year.