Being in the C-suite is a high-pressure job with long hours, board responsibilities, and intense scrutiny. But what is it like to be a top executive when you’re off the clock?
Fortune’s series, The Good Life, shows how up-and-coming leaders spend their time and money outside of work.
Today, we meet Bianca Zwart, the 33-year-old chief strategy officer of Bunq, one of Europe’s fastest-growing digital banks.
Zwart’s story began with the simple decision to study Spanish at university.
“Not because it would lead to a specific job or boost my CV,” she tells Fortune. “I just wanted to do something I genuinely enjoyed. In a world focused on clear career paths and practical choices, it felt like a refreshing thing to do.”
Perhaps surprisingly, the experience led her to working at a bank straight after graduation—they needed multilingual staff. But the stint in the summer of 2015 opened her eyes to the reality of the industry: You’re making money out of other people’s money, so clients without large accounts are treated as “irrelevant” and those with money to their name are hounded.
After randomly hearing about Bunq, a more modern, user-first digital bank in a stand-up, the millennial searched for jobs there straight after the meeting and handed her notice in just weeks later.
That bold leap in 2016 took her from a frontline support job at a 30-person startup to the youngest chief strategy officer in European banking history.
Her ascent was swift and unorthodox: She went from team lead to head of PR to launching two of her own ventures, before boomering to Bunq in 2022 after “successful” exits.
Alongside founder Ali Niknam, Zwart has helped scale Bunq from an Amsterdam startup into Europe’s second-largest neobank, with over 700 employees and 17 million users on the continent. Over 20,000 people apply to work at the company every month. And Zwart’s role puts her at the center of this growth—with U.S. expansion next on her to-do list.
“Now, we’re scaling fast, aiming to build the first truly global neobank for people who live and work beyond borders,” the young exec says. And she’s herself become an example of living beyond borders, splitting her time between Rome and Amsterdam.
But wherever she is in the world, her routine stays consistent: She wakes up “ridiculously early” to work out, refuses to wear a watch (“I don’t need a ticking symbol of urgency strapped to my wrist”) and unwinds by learning new languages. She can already speak 5.
Zwart tries to take proper time off from it all, but admits it often results in just answering emails “from better-looking places.” But she thinks it’s part of the parcel of having a high-flying job.
“And honestly, I like it,” she adds. “For me, it’s less about switching off and more about switching perspective.”
The finances
Fortune: What’s been the best investment you’ve ever bought?
My Oura ring, which I quite randomly bought in NYC last year. I’m super disciplined, I love sports, and I’m always go-go-go—so having something that literally tells me to calm the **** down has been a game-changer. I’m still too stubborn to always listen, but I do take recovery more seriously now, and it’s made me smarter about how I train and rest.
And the worst?
An ab wheel for my home gym. Used it once, fell flat on my face. Pretty sure it was designed as a prank. Tiny wheel, no support, all the pressure on your lower back and none on your actual abs. Definitely not invented by someone who’s ever had abs… or empathy.
“Now, we’re scaling fast, aiming to build the first truly global neobank for people who live and work beyond borders.”Bianca Zwart, chief strategy officer of Bunq
What are your living arrangements like: Swanky apartment in the city or suburban sprawling?
I split my time between Amsterdam and Rome (plus whatever city I end up in for work). I thought I wanted more space, so I moved a bit further out of the city (it’s still just a 20-minute bike ride from the office). Turns out, I miss the noise. So I’m now looking to move back into the city of Amsterdam.
How do you commute to work?
Like a real Dutchie, I’m married to my bike. Rain or shine, we’re in this together.
Do you carry a wallet?
I get around just fine with my phone. Otherwise, it’s my Bunq metal card. The best part? With every €100 you spend, you help to plant a tree!
Do you invest in shares?
Yes, through multiple platforms, amongst which are Bunq stocks!
What personal finance advice would you give your 20-year-old self?
Compound interest is your friend. Start that business sooner rather than later.
What’s the one subscription you can’t live without?
Todoist. There’s so much going on every day, and it keeps it all out of my head. It’s basically my second brain. It’s worth every single cent.
Where’s your go-to wristwatch from?
I don’t actually wear a watch. Even without notifications, it still adds noise. It’s this constant reminder of how late you are, how fast the day is going. My brain already runs on deadlines—I don’t need a ticking symbol of urgency strapped to my wrist.
The necessities
How do you get your daily coffee fix?
I’ve got an Italian Moka at home. It’s a bit of calm and beauty at the start of the day, especially when everything else is already moving incredibly fast.
I love the Italian way of drinking coffee: a quick espresso at the bar, standing, no nonsense—pay 1 euro and you’re out. When I’m in Rome, I fully adapt to that. But when I’m in Amsterdam, I switch to a more “Northern-European” style: longer coffees, more milk-based, and usually something to-go.
What about eating on the go?
I probably love eating while continuing to work a bit too much. I’m a sucker for efficiency, so in Amsterdam I often eat on the go—grab something at the station and keep moving. In Rome, I slow down, sit down, and actually enjoy the meal.
In Rome, there’s this spot called Sano, più o meno (“healthy, more or less”). It’s a family-run place that makes fresh sandwiches, salads, and warm meals daily. The vibe is exactly what I need: more or less healthy, no pressure, good food. In Amsterdam, for a proper sit-down, my favourite is Zoldering.
Where do you buy groceries?
Albert Heijn, the store Dutchies love most. Or I order from Crisp, especially when I’m in between trips. Lately it’s been more like: one meal at home, then back to the airport.
That said, my favourite place to do groceries is actually in NYC when I’m there for Bunq. Brooklyn Fare is a dream—800 types of snacks I’ve never seen before, colour-coded shelves, everything perfectly arranged.
How often in a week do you dine out versus cook at home?
I eat out quite a bit—usually at least twice a week—but I also love cooking healthy stuff when I can. In Rome, it’s more common to go out for dinner during the week to catch up with friends or family, so I’ve definitely picked up that habit. It’s about the food, of course —but even more about being in the moment.
What would be a typical work outfit for you?
When I’m not speaking on stage: jeans, loafers, oversized shirts. We’re a real tech company—people wear whatever makes them feel comfortable.
The treats
How do you unwind from the top job?
Sports keep me sane. I’ve done them at a high level: Synchronized swimming, kickboxing, and now I run marathons. I usually work out in the morning (and get up ridiculously early), so after work I can actually hang out with friends and my dog, Nacho. I recently rekindled my love for Pilates, like half the planet apparently.
I also love learning new languages (I speak five, although to be honest, they start to blur after four—I just go with whatever language shows up in my brain mid-sentence). And I love reading, even if I wish I had more time for it. Right now, I’m in the middle of “A Little Life” by Hanya Yanagihara – just a light, uplifting read… kidding. But it’s beautiful.
How do you treat yourself when you get a promotion?
I usually end up with a new challenge to tackle. That’s my version of a reward, something new to learn, build, or figure out. It keeps things interesting and keeps me moving forward
Take us on holiday with you, what’s next on your vacation list?
The Dolomites, Italy. Hiking during the day, spa in the evening. I’ve never been, so I’m really looking forward to it. After that, I’m off to Curaçao for a wedding. One of the perks of having lots of international friends: I get to turn their weddings into little adventures.
I’m all about exploring new places—there’s still so much out there I haven’t seen. No holiday home (yet); I like the freedom of staying on the move. I travel a lot for work too, so I’ll often bring a friend along and turn it into a mini adventure. Work during the day, explore the city at night—it’s a pretty good setup.
How many days annual leave do you take a year?
I do try to take proper time off, but in reality, I often just answer emails from better-looking places. It comes with the job (and honestly, I like it). I find that a change of scenery gives me fresh ideas and helps me stay focused. I’m not great at sitting still anyway. For me, it’s less about switching off and more about switching perspective.
Fortune wants to hear from leaders on what their “Good Life” looks like. Get in touch: orianna.royle@fortune.com
He said it four times in seven seconds: Somali immigrants in the United States are “garbage.”
It was no mistake. In fact, President Donald Trump’s rhetorical attacks on immigrants have been building since he said Mexico was sending “rapists” across the border during his presidential campaign announcement a decade ago. He’s also echoed rhetoric once used by Adolf Hitler and called the 54 nations of Africa “s—-hole countries.” But with one flourish closing a two-hour Cabinet meeting Tuesday, Trump amped up his anti-immigrant rhetoric even further and ditched any claim that his administration was only seeking to remove people in the U.S. illegally.
“We don’t want ‘em in our country,” Trump said five times of the nation’s 260,000 people of Somali descent. “Let ’em go back to where they came from and fix it.” The assembled Cabinet members cheered and applauded. Vice President JD Vance could be seen pumping a fist. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, sitting to the president’s immediate left, told Trump on-camera, “Well said.”
The two-minute finale offered a riveting display in a nation that prides itself as being founded and enriched by immigrants, alongside an ugly history of enslaving millions of them and limiting who can come in. Trump’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and deportations have reignited an age-old debate — and widened the nation’s divisions — over who can be an American, with Trump telling tens of thousands of American citizens, among others, that he doesn’t want them by virtue of their family origin.
“What he has done is brought this type of language more into the everyday conversation, more into the main,” said Carl Bon Tempo, a State University of New York at Albany history professor. “He’s, in a way, legitimated this type of language that, for many Americans for a long time, was seen as outside the bounds.”
A question that cuts to the core of American identity
Some Americans have long felt that people from certain parts of the world can never really blend in. That outsider-averse sentiment has manifested during difficult periods, such as anti-Chinese fear-mongering in the late 19th century and the imprisonment of some 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II.
Trump, reelected with more than 77 million votes last year, has launched a whole-of-government drive to limit immigration. His order to end birthright citizenship — declaring that children born to parents who are in the United States illegally or temporarily are not American citizens despite the 14th Amendment — is being considered by the Supreme Court. He has largely frozen the country’s asylum system and drastically reduced the number of refugees it is allowed to admit. And his administration this week halted immigration applications for migrants from 19 travel-ban nations.
Immigration remains a signature issue for Trump, and he has slightly higher marks on it than on his overall job approval. According to a November AP-NORC poll, roughly 4 in 10 adults — 42% — approved of how the president is handling the issue, down from about half who approved in March. And Trump has pushed his agenda with near-daily crackdowns. On Wednesday, federal agents launched an immigration sweep in New Orleans,
There are some clues that Trump uses stronger anti-immigration rhetoric than many members of his own party. A study of 200,000 speeches in Congress and 5,000 presidential communications related to immigration between 1880 and 2020 found that the “most influential” words on the subject were terms like “enforce,” “terrorism” and “policy” from 1973 through Trump’s first presidential term.
The authors wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that Trump is “the first president in modern American history to express sentiment toward immigration that is more negative than the average member of his own party.” And that was before he called thousands of Somalis in the U.S. “garbage.”
The U.S. president, embattled over other developments during the Cabinet meeting and discussions between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. envoys, opted for harsh talk in his jam-packed closing.
Somali Americans, he said, “come from hell” and “contribute nothing.” They do “nothing but bitch” and “their country stinks.” Then Trump turned to a familiar target. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., an outspoken and frequent Trump critic, “is garbage,” he said. “Her friends are garbage.”
His remarks on Somalia drew shock and condemnation from Minneapolis to Mogadishu.
“My view of the U.S. and living there has changed dramatically. I never thought a president, especially in his second term, would speak so harshly,” Ibrahim Hassan Hajji, a resident of Somalia’s capital city, told The Associated Press. “Because of this, I have no plans to travel to the U.S.”
Omar called Trump’s “obsession” with her and Somali-Americans “creepy and unhealthy.”
“We are not, and I am not, someone to be intimidated,” she said, “and we are not gonna be scapegoated.”
Trump’s influence on these issues is potent
But from the highest pulpit in the world’s biggest economy, Trump has had an undeniable influence on how people regard immigrants.
“Trump specializes in pushing the boundaries of what others have done before,” said César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, a civil rights law professor at Ohio State University. “He is far from the first politician to embrace race-baiting xenophobia. But as president of the United States, he has more impact than most.” Domestically, Trump has “remarkable loyalty” among Republicans, he added. “Internationally, he embodies an aspiration for like-minded politicians and intellectuals.”
In Britain, attitudes toward migrants have hardened in the decade since Brexit, a vote driven in part by hostility toward immigrants from Eastern Europe. Nigel Farage, leader of the hard-right Reform U.K. party, has called unauthorized migration an “invasion” and warned of looming civil disorder.
France’s Marine Le Pen and her father built their political empire on anti-immigrant language decades before Trump entered politics. But the National Rally party has softened its rhetoric to win broader support. Le Pen often casts the issue as an administrative or policy matter.
In fact, what Trump said about people from Somalia would likely be illegal in France if uttered by anyone other than a head of state, because public insults based on a group’s national origin, ethnicity, race or religion are illegal under the country’s hate speech laws. But French law grants heads of state immunity.
One lawyer expressed concerns that Trump’s words will encourage other heads of state to use similar hate speech targeting people as groups.
“Comments saying that a population stinks — coming from a foreign head of state, a top world military and economic power — that’s never happened before,” said Paris lawyer Arié Alimi, who has worked on hate speech cases. “So here we are really crossing a very, very, very important threshold in terms of expressing racist … comments.”
But the “America first” president said he isn’t worried about others think of his increasingly polarizing rhetoric on immigration.
“I hear somebody say, ‘Oh, that’s not politically correct,’” Trump said, winding up his summation Tuesday. “I don’t care. I don’t want them.”
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Contributing to this report are Associated Press writers Will Weissert and Linley Sanders in Washington, John Leicester in Paris, Jill Lawless in London, Evelyne Musambi in Nairobi, Kenya, and Omar Faruk in Mogadishu.
President Donald Trump and his administration insist that costs are coming down, but voters are skeptical, including those who put him back in the White House.
Despite Republicans getting hammered on affordability in off-year elections last month, Trump continues to downplay the issue, contrasting with his message while campaigning last year.
“The word affordability is a con job by the Democrats,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. “The word affordability is a Democrat scam.”
But a new Politico poll found that 37% of Americans who voted for him in 2024 believe the cost of living is the worst they can ever remember, and 34% say it’s bad but can think of other times when it was worse.
The White House has said Trump inherited an inflationary economy from President Joe Biden and point to certain essentials that have come down since Trump began his second term, such as gasoline prices.
The poll shows that 57% of Trump voters say Biden still bears full or almost full responsibility for today’s economy. But 25% blame Trump completely or almost completely.
That’s as the annual rate of consumer inflation has steadily picked up since Trump launched his global trade war in April, and grocery prices have gained 1.4% between January and September.
Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance pleaded for “patience” on the economy last month as Americans want to see prices decline, not just grow at a slower pace.
Even a marginal erosion in Trump’s electoral coalition could tip the scales in next year’s midterm elections, when the president will not be on the ballot to draw supporters.
A soft spot could be Republicans who don’t identify as “MAGA.” Among those particular voters, 29% said Trump has had a chance to change things in the economy but hasn’t taken it versus 11% of MAGA voters who said that.
Across all voters, 45% named groceries as the most challenging things to afford, followed by housing (38%) and health care (34%), according to the Politico poll.
“If the crisis threshold—the floor below which families cannot function—is honestly updated to current spending patterns, it lands at $140,000,” he wrote. “What does that tell you about the $31,200 line we still use? It tells you we are measuring starvation.”
Apple is currently undergoing the most extensive executive overhaul in recent history, with a wave of senior leadership departures that marks the company’s most significant management realignment since its visionary co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs died in 2011. The leadership exodus spans critical divisions from artificial intelligence to design, legal affairs, environmental policy, and operations, which will have major repercussions for Apple’s direction for the foreseeable future.
On Thursday, Apple announced Lisa Jackson, its VP of environment, policy, and social initiatives, as well as Kate Adams, the company’s general counsel, will both retire in 2026. Adams has been Apple’s chief legal officer since 2017, and Jackson joined Apple in 2013. Adams will step down late next year, while Jackson will leave next month.
The scope of the turnover is unprecedented in the Tim Cook era. In July, Jeff Williams, Apple’s COO who was long thought to succeed Cook as CEO, decided to retire after 27 years with the company. One month later, Apple’s CFO Luca Maestri also decided to step back from his role. And the design division, which just lost Dye, also lost Billy Sorrentino, a senior design director, who left for Meta with Dye. Things have been particularly turbulent for Apple’s AI team, though: Ruoming Pang, who headed its AI Foundation Models Team, left for Meta in July and took about 100 engineers with him. Ke Yang, who led AI-driven web search for Siri, and Jian Zhang, Apple’s AI robotics lead, also both left for Meta.
Succession talks heat up
While all of these departures are a big deal for Apple, the timing may not be a coincidence. Both Bloomberg and the Financial Times have reported on Apple ramping up its succession plan efforts in preparation for Cook, who has led the company since 2011, to retire in 2026. Cook turned 65 in November and has grown Apple’s market cap from about $350 billion to a whopping $4 trillion under his tenure. Bloomberg reports John Ternus has emerged as the leading internal candidate to replace him.
Apple choosing Ternus would be a pretty major departure from what’s worked for Apple during the past decade, which has been letting someone with an operational background and a strong grasp of the global supply chain lead the company. Ternus, meanwhile, is focused on hardware development, specifically for the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch. But it’s that technical expertise that’s made him an attractive candidate, especially as much of the recent criticism about Apple has revolved around the company entering new product categories (Vision Pro, but also the ill-fated Apple Car), as well as its struggling AI efforts.
Now, of course, with so many executives leaving Apple, succession plans extend beyond the CEO role. Apple this week announced it’s bringing in Jennifer Newstead, who currently works as Meta’s chief legal officer, to replace Adams as the company’s general counsel starting March 1, 2026. Newstead is expected to handle both legal and government affairs, which is essentially a consolidation of responsibilities among Apple’s leadership team, merging Adams’ and Jacksons’ roles into one.
Alan Dye, meanwhile, will be replaced by Stephen Lemay, a move that’s reportedly being celebrated within Apple and its design team in particular. John Gruber, who’s reported on Apple for decades and has deep ties within the company, wrote a pretty scathing critique about Dye, but in that same breath said employees are borderline “giddy” about Lemay—who has worked on every major Apple interface design since 1999, including the very first iPhone—taking over.
Meanwhile, on the AI team, John Giannandrea will be replaced by Amar Subramanya, who led AI strategy and development efforts at Google for about 16 years before a brief stint at Microsoft.
Hitting the reset button
All of the above departures cover critical functions for Apple: AI competitiveness, design innovation, regulatory navigation, and operational efficiency. Each replacement brings specialized expertise that aligns with the challenges Cook’s successor will inherit.
The real test will be execution across multiple fronts simultaneously. Can Subramanya accelerate Apple’s AI development to match competitive threats? Will Lemay’s design leadership maintain Apple’s interface advantages as AI reshapes user interaction? Can Newstead navigate regulatory challenges while preserving Apple’s privacy-first approach?
What’s certain is the company will look fundamentally different in 2026—and the executive team that grew Apple into a $4 trillion behemoth is departing. The transformation could be as profound as any since Jobs handed the reins to his COO at the time, Tim Cook, 14 years ago.
Politics8 years ago