Tesla engineer joins Xinja

Xinja, the Australian start-up building a 100% independent digital bank, or 'neobank' for mobile, has announced that Tesla senior engineer, Thomas Vikstrom, has been appointed to the Xinja board.

Vikstrom has 20 years' experience leading product development and engineering programs at Ford, Noble Metal Processing, SSAB HardTech Inc and, most recently, Tesla, where he has worked for nine years, helping to develop and introduce Tesla products.

Vikstrom said of his appointment at Xinja: "Banking, like automotive in the past, is an industry ripe for change. I'll be looking beyond what is, and imagining what could be, enabling Xinja to disrupt banking and improve the lives of people and the world in which they live."

Xinja CEO and co-founder, Eric Wilson, added: "Thomas is an adaptive leader who possesses a rare combination of strategic and critical thinking. He brings to the Xinja Board a business acumen and entrepreneurial drive, along with the global experience Xinja needs, to really help us change the banking industry."

Vikstrom joins fellow new appointee, and 'Neobank pioneer', Brett King, whose appointment as a permanent board adviser was announced in October 2018.