Wallester appoints CTO and CRO to its Management Board and strengthens AML oversight

Wallester AS, an Estonian-licensed payment institution and Visa Principal Member, has appointed its Chief Technology Officer, Andrei Gornostajev, and Chief Risk Officer, Rein Ojavere, to its Management Board, effective 1 September 2026. In parallel, the company has formally assigned Management Board member Fred Sooläte responsibility for anti-money laundering (AML), counter-terrorist financing and international sanctions compliance. Together, these changes provide the five-member Management Board with direct representation in technology, risk, compliance, and AML.

"As Wallester grows, the structure of the company needs to grow with it. Our Management Board now represents technology, risk, compliance and AML directly. That changes how decisions get made: the right expertise sits in the room earlier, and responsibilities are clearer across the business," said Sergei Astafjev, CEO of Wallester.

Andrei Gornostajev, Chief Technology Officer

Andrei Gornostajev joins the Management Board with responsibility for technology and R&D. He was part of the team that built Wallester's Visa card issuing platform from the ground up in 2017 and returned as CTO in January 2024. His career also includes senior engineering roles at Microsoft, and he now leads Wallester's 70+ person R&D organisation spanning technology, product and design.

"As Wallester scaled, reliability, security and compliance developed into increasingly specialised engineering and governance disciplines. That evolution is also why decisions about providers, cloud infrastructure and key technology partners can become board-level concerns. That is why technology increasingly needs a seat at the table, and that is how I see my role on the Management Board," said Gornostajev.

Fred Sooläte, Chief AML Officer

Fred Sooläte joined Wallester in 2020 as Chief Compliance Officer, leading the company's anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing and sanctions compliance work. In May 2021, he was appointed to the Management Board and, from then, held the statutory Management Board responsibility for that area until September 2023. He resumed the remit from 1 September 2026 and also holds responsibility for Legal and data protection.

"Wallester today is a bigger and more complex business than when I first took this on – more products, more partners, a broader footprint. My task is to ensure that our AML framework continues to develop alongside the company's growth. Having helped build much of it gives me the context to do that quickly," said Sooläte.

He is a trained lawyer who has held a range of roles across other financial institutions, spanning legal, compliance and risk responsibilities, and has led much of Wallester's regulatory groundwork, including its cross-border passporting and AML/CFT framework.

Rein Ojavere, Chief Risk Officer

Rein Ojavere is taking on the role of Chief Risk Officer. He joined Wallester in May 2025 to lead the enterprise-wide risk management function and now holds executive responsibility for the second line of defence, including the compliance, risk management and information security governance functions and the MLRO function within compliance. Fred Sooläte, in turn, is the Management Board member designated under Estonian law as responsible for anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing and sanctions compliance.

"Unifying risk, compliance and information security under one board seat breaks down operational silos. In practice, this means unified oversight, synchronised reporting and streamlined processes – allowing us to move faster while bringing more depth and quality to our overall risk management framework," said Ojavere.

He brings more than two decades in financial services, including board-level roles at Bondora and Finora Bank, and is a CFA charterholder and holder of the Financial Risk Manager certification.

About Wallester

Wallester is an Estonian-licensed payment institution and has been a Visa Principal Member since 2018. Founded in 2016, Wallester helps companies across the European Economic Area to run their finances and launch their branded card programmes. Its team of more than 200 professionals is based in Estonia, Latvia, and France.

Wallester was named Top Startup in Estonia at the 2024 Äripäev TOP100 Gala, and ranked 38th overall in the 2026 FT1000 Europe's Fastest-Growing Companies list – first among Estonian companies and first in the Fintech, Financial Services & Insurance category.

Website: www.wallester.com