Dexter Cousins — fintech's executive search partner.
We connect high-growth fintechs, banks and investors with the leaders who scale them - through retained and interim executive search across Australia and beyond.
Executive search, built for fintech.
Tier One People is a specialist executive search firm dedicated entirely to financial technology.
We partner with founders, boards and investors to place the CxO, commercial, technology and product leaders who turn startups into billion-dollar companies. We know the sector because we work in it every day: payments, from embedded finance to stablecoins and digital assets; digital banking, from SME and consumer lending to home loans; and wealthtech, insurtech and regtech.
Our approach starts from first principles — we bring the same thinking our clients use to build their companies to the way we hire for them. Every search is led personally, backed by a network built over a decade and a genuine understanding of what makes fintech leadership different.
Meet Dexter Cousins.
Dexter has spent his career at the intersection of finance and technology, advising and placing leadership teams across some of the region's fastest-growing fintechs. He founded Tier One People to bring genuine sector specialism to executive search - pairing deep networks with an insider's read on what great fintech leadership looks like.
He's also the host of Fintech Chatter, Australia's #1 fintech podcast, where across 380+ episodes he sits down with the founders, operators and investors shaping the industry.
What sets our search apart.
We don't dabble across industries. Every mandate we run is in financial technology, so our market map and references are always current.
You work directly with the person running your search - not a rotating cast of junior researchers, AI agents and offshore resources handling the brief.
The best fintech leaders aren't applying to ads. We reach them through relationships built over years in the ecosystem.
From permanent C-suite appointments to interim leaders who pivot and scale, we match the engagement to your moment.
Great teams are built on diversity of experience. We hold ourselves to genuinely diverse slates on every search we deliver.
We measure success in leaders who stay and thrive, not placements made. Most of our work comes from returning customers and people we've placed before.
Let's find your tier one team.
Whether you're hiring your next executive or exploring your own move, start the conversation.