Overview
- Pepperstone announced Nigel Fernandes will become chief technology officer effective 1 October 2026 and will be based at the company’s Melbourne headquarters reporting to CEO Tamas Szabo.
- Fernandes joins from Xero where he led global engineering and brings more than 20 years of technology leadership from firms including Publicis Sapient, Coles Group, SEEK and Envato.
- As CTO he will oversee the firm’s global engineering, architecture, security and data teams and take direct responsibility for building the technology that underpins trading and client services.
- Company statements say the appointment supports a move to own more technology and to create an AI-native engineering foundation that delivers faster, more reliable access to trading tools.
- The hire follows Pepperstone’s February 2026 launch of a dedicated Australian spot crypto exchange and signals a deeper shift from an FX/CFD broker into a broader fintech and crypto services provider that aims to offer more personalised and institutional-grade products.