Global identity verification provider ID-Pal has named Sara West, an industry veteran in the B2B software and payments space, as the company’s new commercial director.

West will also become a member of ID-Pal’s Executive team and in her new role will be responsible for the strategic development of ID-Pal in the UK market, where ID-Pal formally launched in 2022, as well as support the delivery of ID-Pal’s ambitious overseas expansion plans. West has a proven track record of leading commercial teams to manage and grow strong client partnerships, delivering high-value revenue growth and quality commercial engagement and brings over 20 years of expertise within the technology sector to ID-Pal.

Her appointment is driven by increased demand for ID-Pal’s award-winning identity verification solution in the UK, which now attributes to over 30% of ID-Pal’s revenue.

West joins ID-Pal from W2 Global Data, where she served as Chief Commercial Officer since 2017 and was also appointed to its Executive Board of Directors in 2019. Before W2, West, who studied Marketing & Business at Harper Adams University, held positions at FIS, as Head of Card Sales Debit and Prepaid and at allpay Limited, as Card Services Director. Her previous experience also includes over eleven years at digital security company Oberthur Technologies, where she had commercial responsibility for a number of key Banking and Pay TV clients as well as securing new client opportunities in the banking sector.

West has established herself as a true industry connector, having started an Industry Networking Group ‘Harben & West’ which won an Industry Contributor Award from the Payment Association as well as more recently involved in establishing ‘Payment Industry Group’. She is passionate about developing relationships amongst peers within the payments and fintech space as well as mentorship to enrich not only industry members careers, but the future of the industry itself.

Her move comes at an exciting time for ID-Pal, following a year of rapid growth , with the company seeing both its global customer base and global team doubling in size in 2022, following the completion of a Series A funding round in July, led by Inspire Investments.

On joining ID-Pal as commercial director, Sara West said:

“I am thrilled to be joining the team at ID-Pal. The growth it has seen in just 12 months pays testament to its market-leading proposition: In a world that is increasingly digitalized and aware of the risk of fraud, providing a simple, secure and convenient identity verification solution is powerful. This is an exciting new chapter for the company and I look forward to leading ID-Pal’s growth globally and driving it to the next level of commercial success.”

On the announcement Colum Lyons, founder and CEO of ID-Pal, comments:

“The strength of our offering delivered impressive results for us in 2022. Appointing Sara to lead our commercial team will allow us to continue this momentum under her strategic direction and extensive experience, enabling us to support more organisations globally with our world-class identity verification technology.”

ID-Pal’s ISO 27001 certified identity verification solution, is a fully customisable off-the-shelf solution that allows organisations of any size, and in any sector, to verify identities and addresses within seconds. Configurable in any language, across 200 countries and jurisdictions, ID-Pal currently serves over 30 sectors globally, providing Anti-Money Laundering and Know your Customer (KYC) compliance as either a standalone or integrated solution.