MPC - The Digital Commerce Event

Moa Agrell, Senior Banking Partnerships Manager, is focusing on building out and maintaining Trustly’s banking partnership portfolio & open banking partners in North America. Moa was part of Trustly’s Banking Relations team in Europe from March 2018 and transitioned to the North American team in early 2021. Moa is originally from Stockholm, Sweden and she relocated to San Francisco in 2022. Prior to Trustly Moa worked for a Swedish FinTech Online Bank and Stockbroker Avanza and has extensive experience in relationship focused roles. She has a Masters Degree in International Economics from Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

Daniel Baum is a senior vice president and head of payments product management for the Federal Reserve System’s FedNowSM Service. In his role, Dan leads product development and product management efforts for the Federal Reserve’s newly announced FedNow service offering.

Baum previously served as vice president in the Retail Payments Office (RPO) of
the Federal Reserve System, where he led the RPO’s product development group overseeing Check and ACH product development and pricing. He also served as a product development director in the RPO, overseeing key product and pricing initiatives for the automated clearinghouse (ACH) and check business lines. From 1996 to 2005, Baum worked at the Richmond Fed managing day check operations and led the Fifth District’s Check Administration department.

Baum holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Maryland at Baltimore, a master of business administration from Johns Hopkins University, and attended Banking School at Vanderbilt University.

Larry Berlin is founder and principal at Blue Point Advisory Services, a boutique consulting firm specializing in fundraising, strategy, marketing, board relations, accounting and finance. Vertical areas include card processing, bank software, financial and consumer products, cloud services, government services and food related products. Larry has been a mentor/coach in the University of Chicago’s New Venture Challenge at the Booth School of Business since 2017, helping 30 student teams each year build businesses and gain funding from the venture community. Larry serves on multiple boards and charitable institutions and earned his bachelor’s and MBA degrees from the University of Chicago.

Mirza Baig is a dynamic entrepreneur who has excelled in the payment industry. He started as an Inside Sales Rep for BluePay and became a crucial part of the integrated payment team as an Enterprise Sales Executive. From there he joined a startup payment company in healthcare and implemented a payment processing backend to allow it to accept payments with a PayFac license. Mirza an integrated B2B and PayFAC SME with an intimate knowledge of the acquiring backends, As President, he has led PayMaple to exponential growth and brought innovative payment technologies to the automotive vertical.

Bob Bilbruck is Founder and CEO of B2 Group LLC and Captjur, a Visionary Advisor, Business Strategist, Investor, Published Author (Analyst) & Technologist. He sits on multiple company advisory boards and has invested in multiple startups & larger companies. He has had several successful exits. He is seen as a global expert in Connected Health, Wellness, Fitness, Aging & Pharma; eSports, Gaming, IoT & Mobile, Blockchain (Logistics), Investing, Startups, Channel & Partner Programs, Affiliate, Marketplace and eCommerce, Apps & Digital Platforms (PaaS/SaaS), Gig Economy (Models, Last Mile Logistics, Payment Systems), Connected Home, Smart Cities, Capital Raising, Valuation & Exit Strategies.

Chris Boone focuses his practice on regulatory issues related to payment processing, blockchain, and cryptocurrencies. Chris helps clients navigate the federal and state regulatory environments that govern payment processing. Chris also provides counsel on regulatory compliance, contract negotiations, and general business matters. He also regularly assists clients in responding to federal and state investigative inquiries, demands, and complaints from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), state attorneys general, and other federal and state authorities.

Chris Boone focuses his practice on regulatory issues related to payment processing, blockchain, and cryptocurrencies. Chris helps clients navigate the federal and state regulatory environments that govern payment processing. Chris also provides counsel on regulatory compliance, contract negotiations, and general business matters. He also regularly assists clients in responding to federal and state investigative inquiries, demands, and complaints from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), state attorneys general, and other federal and state authorities.

Craig has been a technologist in the industry for over 30 years in the development of large-scale systems for both public and private sector organizations.  He provides thought leadership on the future of technology, payments, economics and money.

Chris Boone focuses his practice on regulatory issues related to payment processing, blockchain, and cryptocurrencies. Chris helps clients navigate the federal and state regulatory environments that govern payment processing. Chris also provides counsel on regulatory compliance, contract negotiations, and general business matters. He also regularly assists clients in responding to federal and state investigative inquiries, demands, and complaints from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), state attorneys general, and other federal and state authorities.

Geoff Brown is the Co-founder and CEO of Highline Technologies, a leading payments fintech that unlocks payroll-linked lending and billpay. Geoff’s background includes over 18 years of banking industry experience, serving as Director of Corporate Strategy at Capital One and Head of Pricing and Analysis at Santander before founding Highline. As Head of Risk at Salary Finance, he gained an understanding of the possibilities and limitations of employer-based lending. Highline is an outgrowth of Geoff’s experiences, taking the concept of payroll-linked lending and creating a model for massive scalability as well as a structure that meets both federal and state regulations.

Wayne Brown has over three decades of experience in the financial services and technology industries, starting as a senior auditor at Irving Bank (acquired by Bank of New York in 1988). With the rise of ecommerce, Wayne decided to gain an understanding of the impact of technology on financial services, and he began by leveraging his auditing skills and extending his network. From there, Wayne held various positions of increased responsibility at large technology companies and global top-tier banks. As product manager at MasterCard International, Wayne’s role consisted of helping to build the MasterCard Remittance Presentment Payment Service (RPPS) network by working directly with new customers. RPPS® became the primary gateway for home banking transactions and at its peak, held 98% of the market. Wayne pursued similar opportunities and achieved great success at Deutsche Bank, Citigroup and ACI, where he held senior roles and helped to improve digital channels for the banks’ commercial customers.

For the last thirteen years, Wayne has focused his advisory practice on collaboration with banks and FinTech companies to identify opportunities for process improvements, the development of new products and/or the identification of new partners. Banks are also looking to identify the right technologies and FinTech partners to take them into the future of banking. Wayne has a successful track record in introducing start-ups to key decision-makers in the financial services community. Banks are known for being complex institutions with complex politics and budgets. Wayne is able to go into even the most complicated of these environments and get a consensus, thereby enabling the parties to create real and lasting change.

Wayne is also a public speaker who continues to present on banking and FinTech topics to both bankers and technology professionals.

Tod Chisholm has more than 25 years’ experience in driving growth for financing companies through the strategic leadership of high-performance business teams, with expertise in technology, automotive, and asset-backed lending. Tod is an entrepreneur and a visionary, and has held executive positions with private, public, and regulated organizations including Travelers Group and Wells Fargo. Tod was named president of the business process outsourcing (BPO) firm IFT in 2021, leveraging a skill set that includes leasing, commercial, prime- and non-prime lending. In this capacity, he is responsible for setting and achieving the company’s strategic objectives, including the development of services

Natasha Royer Coons is a proven entrepreneur and accomplished executive with more than 25 years of experience in the telecommunications industry. She cut her teeth at Sprint before founding TeraNova, a mobility and expense management provider. When TeraNova merged with Advantix in 2018, she became a partner and chief revenue officer at Advantix and was elevated to CEO in March of 2023.

Royer Coons was the first woman and Asian American to be elected President of the Enterprise Technology Management Association (ETMA). Technology publications have recognized her as a visionary, channel chief and DEI champion and frequently quote her as a wireless technology expert.

Tod Chisholm has more than 25 years’ experience in driving growth for financing companies through the strategic leadership of high-performance business teams, with expertise in technology, automotive, and asset-backed lending. Tod is an entrepreneur and a visionary, and has held executive positions with private, public, and regulated organizations including Travelers Group and Wells Fargo. Tod was named president of the business process outsourcing (BPO) firm IFT in 2021, leveraging a skill set that includes leasing, commercial, prime- and non-prime lending. In this capacity, he is responsible for setting and achieving the company’s strategic objectives, including the development of services

In this role, Robert manages the ATDC FinTech program, providing acceleration opportunities to portfolio companies, fostering their development and growth. He also manages ATDC relationships with investors, prospective business partners, CEOs, and community technology leaders to promote market outreach and business development in the FinTech ecosystem.

Robert is an accomplished executive in financial services, management consulting, hedge funds, payment operations, wealth management, and FinTech. Before joining ATDC, he facilitated peer-to-peer sessions with leading companies in the banking, payments, and FinTech space to uncover best practices in their operations, compliance, risk, and fraud units.

Robert received his Bachelor of Science in Management at the Georgia Institute of Technology and his MBA from Georgia Tech’s Scheller College of Business.

Madison Donnini engages with treasury practitioners to optimize their payables and receivables process and enable automation and digitization. In addition to working closely with clients, Madison partners with innovation and product teams across U.S. Bank to ensure solution offerings are meeting the evolving needs of clients. Prior to joining the Global Treasury Management team in 2020, Madison was the innovation lab manager at Elavon, U.S. Bank’s merchant acquirer division, where she partnered with key internal and external stakeholders to automate business processes and developed early-stage digital offerings.

A highly accomplished senior leader who is successful in building and motivating dynamic global teams and delivering positive and meaningful change. Excellent analytical skills, keen attention to detail, ability to analyze situations, and research information to develop sound and ethical business solutions.

Entrepreneurial expertise with a history of accomplishments and know-how in the area of FinTech and, most especially, real-time payments. Continuously demonstrating repeated success leading the design, development, and implementation of strategic and business re-engineering and digital transformations. I am results-oriented and proactive in finding opportunities for improvement and delivery of digital strategy that delivers winning corporate solutions.

Nitin Gaur, managing director of Digital Asset and Technology Design at State Street Digital, is transitioning the company’s clients and financial market infrastructure to the digital economy. As founder and director of IBM Digital Asset Labs – Nitin devised industry standards and use cases, working towards making blockchain a reality. He also served as CTO of IBM World Wire, a digital asset-based cross border payment solution. Nitin holds an MS degree in management information systems and MBA in finance from the University of Maryland. As a recognized IBM Distinguished Engineer and Master Inventor, Nitin has a rich patent portfolio.

Tod Chisholm has more than 25 years’ experience in driving growth for financing companies through the strategic leadership of high-performance business teams, with expertise in technology, automotive, and asset-backed lending. Tod is an entrepreneur and a visionary, and has held executive positions with private, public, and regulated organizations including Travelers Group and Wells Fargo. Tod was named president of the business process outsourcing (BPO) firm IFT in 2021, leveraging a skill set that includes leasing, commercial, prime- and non-prime lending. In this capacity, he is responsible for setting and achieving the company’s strategic objectives, including the development of services

Scott’s passion for payments is derived from over twenty years of being on the forefront of innovation in FinTech. Scott has served in executive management, senior leadership, operations, sales, marketing and product development roles that overlay many facets of the FinTech industry including Issuing, Acquiring, POS hardware, payment systems software, cross border processing, multi-currency processing, ACH payments as well as the most recent real-time payments (ISO 20022) transactions.

Will is a successful, serial entrepreneur who has started six companies since obtaining two Masters degrees from MIT. OV Loop is his fourth mobile payment startup. The three prior were LoopPay (Sold to Samsung and now SamsungPay®), Way Systems (sold to Verifone®), and ROAM Data (sold to Ingenico®).

Will’s companies have won numerous innovation awards in the payments industry. Will has been widely recognized for his thought leadership in payments, and is a regular speaker at key technology, banking and consumer experience conferences and events.
Prior to his business career, Will served as a U.S. Navy Nuclear Submarine Officer for nearly six years, and was the first naturalized China-born immigrant to serve in the program.

Tod Chisholm has more than 25 years’ experience in driving growth for financing companies through the strategic leadership of high-performance business teams, with expertise in technology, automotive, and asset-backed lending. Tod is an entrepreneur and a visionary, and has held executive positions with private, public, and regulated organizations including Travelers Group and Wells Fargo. Tod was named president of the business process outsourcing (BPO) firm IFT in 2021, leveraging a skill set that includes leasing, commercial, prime- and non-prime lending. In this capacity, he is responsible for setting and achieving the company’s strategic objectives, including the development of services

Karen Helmberger spent 23 years in banking, with the last 11 leading bank operations and payments, along with Information Technology for the final 6. She then served bank and credit union clients in the cards arena for Fiserv for over 3 years. Last year, Karen transitioned to the nonprofit space and leads the payments communities for Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC). She is driven to boost collaboration and intelligence sharing amongst members to enhance the cybersecurity and resiliency of the financial services sector.

Will Hernandez is a Media Strategist in the Financial Technology group at BackBay Communications in Boston. Prior to joining BackBay, Will covered the banking, fintech, and payments industries for 12 years, most recently as a technology reporter at American Banker. He also served as the editor for Mobile Payments Today for almost five years. Will graduated from St. John’s University in New York City with a B.S. in Journalism. Will started his 20-year journalism career as a sportswriter for a small newspaper in Eastern Connecticut.

Yogaraj (Yogs) Jayaprakasam joined Deluxe Corporation in May 2022 as Chief Technology and Digital Officer and a member of the Executive Leadership team.

Yogs has an extensive, distinguished background in financial services and payments, leading large-scale technology organizations for American Express, Cognizant Technology Solutions and a Start-up for more than 20 years. His expertise spans Multi-Cloud Payment Platforms, MarTech, Open Banking APIs, Client & Partner integrations, Data & Analytics Platforms, and other key areas. Most recently at American Express, Yogs led the technology teams supporting the company’s B2B Digital Channels, Corporate Cards, Virtual Payments, B2B payments and

Tod Chisholm has more than 25 years’ experience in driving growth for financing companies through the strategic leadership of high-performance business teams, with expertise in technology, automotive, and asset-backed lending. Tod is an entrepreneur and a visionary, and has held executive positions with private, public, and regulated organizations including Travelers Group and Wells Fargo. Tod was named president of the business process outsourcing (BPO) firm IFT in 2021, leveraging a skill set that includes leasing, commercial, prime- and non-prime lending. In this capacity, he is responsible for setting and achieving the company’s strategic objectives, including the development of services

Deb Johnson is the Payments Partnership Manager at Cross River. She joined Cross River in October 2021 and has since been responsible for ensuring client satisfaction, expanding business opportunities, and offering cost-effective solutions for large and strategic accounts. At Cross River, she has been instrumental in driving success with the company’s largest ISO segments.

Prior to joining Cross River, Deb had a diverse background in the payments industry. She held various roles at Worldpay and Chase Merchant Services, where she gained extensive experience in client relations, sales, and business processes.

Throughout her current and previous roles, she consistently achieved targets and milestones, leveraging her expertise to deliver positive outcomes for clients and the organizations she collaborated with. She is passionate about staying up to date with the latest trends and developments, allowing her to provide informed and effective solutions to clients.

Outside of work, Deb enjoys spending time at the lakes in Maine with her family, engaging in boating and outdoor activities.

Shari is a Treasury Management Sales leader with extensive experience in innovation and product co-creation. She has worked in financial services for 39 years in several disciplines. She has a Bachelors in Business Management, an MBA, holds a CTP (Certified Treasury Professional) and previously held a Series 6 license and CPCP (Certified Purchase Card Professional).

Dale S. Laszig, founder and CEO at DSL Direct LLC, covers emerging technology trends for payments industry clients and trade publications. Laszig, a payments industry veteran and member of the Electronic Transactions Association’s Cybersecurity Committee, previously led sales teams for leading POS manufacturers and served on committees for ETA, U.S. Payments Forum, and the Northeast chapter of PayTech Women. She holds graduate and post-graduate degrees from The State University of New York and Argosy University.

Troy Leach has spent more than 25 years advocating for the advancement of responsible technology to improve protection of financial data as well as the quality of living and parity for all to safely conduct commerce.

At CSA, he is responsible for the non-profit’s corporate strategy to provide relevant cloud security education, research and awareness of cloud validation frameworks to financial services.

He helped to establish and lead the PCI Security Standards Council, is a regular subject matter expert in U.S. Congressional Hearings on the subject of security of payment and financial services and is recognized within the World Economic Forum as an expert in blockchain and cybersecurity.

David Leppek, Executive Payments Consultant, has over twenty-four years of payments technology and sales experience.

Richard Love is founder and CEO of AP Technology, whose customers process more than $120 billion in payments through AP Technology products annually. Mr. Love has been a pioneer of advanced technologies and innovations within the Payments Industry for more than 30 years. Mr. Love led the development of the U.S. Treasury’s early check printing system. He subsequently led the development of the first desktop MICR laser printers. Mr. Love and AP Technology continue to pioneer business payments, with their systems capable of processing over $1 billion in Card, ACH and Check payments per day. Richard Love holds four (4) payment-related patents, with 3 additional patents pending. Prior to founding AP Technology, Mr. Love co-Founded Torrey Pines Research, and led teams at Eagle Computer and Troy. He is a certified professional Pickleball coach and enjoys playing Pickleball in his spare time.

Jeremiah Mason is an experienced product leader in the security, data protection, and identity and access management sectors. As authID’s Chief Product Officer, he is responsible for product vision, strategy, and direction of authID’s identity authentication solutions, including its flagship technology, Verified. Since joining the company in 2021, Jeremiah has been laser-focused on ensuring that authID’s products provide the highest levels of security while delivering seamless user experiences. With strong roots in enterprise security solutions, Jeremiah is uniquely qualified to address security needs and deliver next-gen authentication solutions for both workforce and consumer applications.

Andy has been in payments and risk for over 20 years and has served various parts of the market on both the service provider and merchant sides. Prior to Spreedly, Andy was with RetailMeNot managing product and fraud prevention for gift card sales and cash-back programs. He was also a member of the teams at PayPal and eBay where he contributed to various aspects of consumer and merchant payment solutions and fraud prevention. Andy’s experience also includes exposure to multiple payment disciplines as a manager and contributor to product management, fraud, and operations.

Danny discovered his passion for entrepreneurship at a young age, and he has since founded and successfully exited a handful of software companies. Most recently, he founded Zuza, an industry-leading omnichannel software and SuperApp that provides a simple solution for businesses of nearly any size and vertical. With thousands of features, fully customizable settings, and full white-label functionality, Zuza is changing software forever. Today, Danny is the Founder and CEO of Melka Capital, a VC firm specializing in tech and real estate investments. Whether you’re a small startup or a super app, Melka is committed to helping companies grow and achieve their full potential.

David Morris is Principal Analyst leading the payments and demographics teams at Insider Intelligence. He is responsible for shaping and executing content coverage and writing for leaders across the payments landscape.

Previously, David operated his own payments consultancy, working with payment networks, card issuers, consulting companies and research providers. Prior to that, he was a Research Director at Mintel.

David has presented at more than a dozen conferences—most recently at Fintech South and the Retail Innovation Conference—and provided commentary featured in the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and leading trade magazines. He also taught market research and critical thinking classes at DePaul University for 20 years.

David holds a JD from Loyola University Chicago and a BA in English Literature from the University of Illinois.

Dr. Angela Murphy has experience in artificial intelligence, financial technology, and the global payments industry, building on her skills as a storyteller and rhetorician. She engages at the intersection of strategy and insight to drive results for her clients. In her current role as Vice President of Business Development at Photon Commerce, she helps run a team that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to solve complex problems in the payments industry. Dr. Murphy received her Ph.D. from the University of Kansas and currently resides in Kansas City with her husband, Brock, and German Shepherd rescue, Roscoe.

Bohdan Myroniw joined Amadis as Chief Strategic Officer in 2019. In early 2023, Amadis joined Preludd Group, a French company specializing in the secure connection of POS terminals in stores to banks. He is now Sales Director Americas within the group. He is responsible for the development and sales operations in NA & LATAM. Prior to joining Amadis, Bohdan worked at Equinox serving as VP of Strategic Alliances and previously in Verifone’s AJB division for more than a decade, serving as Director of Business Development. Working from Toronto, he successfully contributed to the global reach of these companies in the Retail and Financial Services sectors. Bohdan began his career as a systems project manager, and held multiple senior posts at Fujitsu Consulting, and before that he ran his own IT consulting firm. He is a native of Canada and holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the Richard Ivey School of Business, The University of Western Ontario.

Erin O’Donnell, Founding Partner of Infused Banking, Co-Founder of BankersHub and Co-Founder and former CEO of Bankerstuff oversees product innovation and education. She has over 30 years of experience in strategic event management, specializing in technology and online delivery of content. BankersHub offers education and certification in the banking industry and launched the industry’s first certification for Cannabis Banking.

Sarah has over 20 years’ experience in driving innovation, product development and business transformation. As Chief Product Officer of One Inc, she is responsible for leading the product strategy, design and user experience teams to deliver against the company’s roadmap.

Prior to joining One Inc, Sarah was the Senior Vice President of Consumer Engagement Products at TSYS, a business unit of Global Payments. There, she was the Group Executive responsible for the product strategy, delivery, and modernization of their suite of Digital Customer Engagement Products. She has also held senior leadership roles at WorldPay, Heartland, and First Data Corporation.

Sarah combines her deep payments knowledge with a passion for helping clients transform their digital experiences and is a true champion of innovation, having patented and served as co-inventor for several mobile and digital payment solutions.

Sarah earned her BA in Psychology, at the University of St. Thomas.

Andy is an IT Audit Expert for PWC. He focuses on automating ITGC and ITAC controls.

Thad Peterson is a Strategic Advisor with Aite-Novarica Group, focusing on the evolution of the payment space, the customer payment experience, and merchantacquiring. Recognized as a global thought leader in payments, Thad has a proven track record of identifying and developing new opportunities and technologies in payments and financial services. He has relevant expertise in applying customer behavior to the payments ecosystem in both corporate and startup environments. Thad’s consulting background includes engagements on credit and debit cards, mobile payments, airline payment platforms, consumer and merchant loyalty, payment technology evolution, stored value, and product innovation. He holds patents in customer authentication and real-time mobile-enabled loyalty.

Prior to joining Aite Group, Thad led the mobile commerce practice at inCode Consulting and was managing director of Maritz Real-Time Rewards, leading the company’s mission to build a new industry standard at the nexus of transactional marketing and consumer engagement. While at Maritz, he also served as a division vice president, sector strategy, heading up strategy and solutions development for Maritz’s financial sector. Before joining Maritz, Thad was a partner with global financial services and payments firm Edgar, Dunn & Company, where he led the retail banking, loyalty, and emerging technology practice areas, working with retail banks, card issuers and processors, airline consortiums, new payment technology providers, payment associations, and prepaid card issuers. Thad has also worked as a C-level executive at retail banks and held positions in advertising and customer communications. Thad served as an officer in the U.S. Navy for four years and holds a degree in Special Education from the University of Idaho.

Areas of Expertise: Consumer Payments, Digital Wallets, Merchant Acquiring, Payments Acceptance Technologies

Strategic, analytical result’s driven leader with 25 years industry experience in Enterprise software, Payments, Ecommerce and Fraud Prevention. Demonstrated ability to manage remote teams and exceed quotas. Diverse background in various vertical segments combined with strong interpersonal skills, technical background and strong closing skills to lead teams, consult with stakeholders and solution sell directly. Accomplished, motivated self-starter, expert presenter and contract negotiator to C-Level executives with ability to forge solid relationships across all organizational levels to gain consensus.

O.B. is an accomplished senior-level executive with monumental success in fintech, payments, and banking. As CEO, Global Payment Processing for Paysafe, O.B. was responsible for building a world-class team of sales and support leaders to gain market share, deliver incremental value, and exceed annual revenue objectives. Leading a widespread global team, O.B. was responsible for a cross-section of sales and specialized teams including integrated payments, gaming, indirect and direct distribution, and product commercialization.

Prior to his current role, O.B. served as CEO and President of iPayment, a firm he successfully helped de-leverage and position for subsequent sale to Paysafe in June 2018. His career of more than 30 years also includes senior-level executive roles with First Data, now Fiserv, Hypercom, and Bank of America.

Ali is a senior card and payments consultant with extensive experience in the U.S. and international markets leading major projects with global payments companies, leading banks, international payments networks, merchants, e-commerce companies, fintech companies, and investment firms. His focus is on strategic planning and implementation across the payments value chain assisting clients improve their market position, accelerate revenue growth, manage risk, and modernize their operations and technology infrastructure. He brings a global viewpoint and perspective gained through over 100 consulting engagements and industry experience across 20 countries.

Michael Reed joined Deluxe Corporation in November 2019 as Senior Vice President, Division President Payments and a member of the Executive Leadership team.

With more than 20 years of global experience leading customer-centric and scaled payments solutions, Michael comes to Deluxe from Barclays in London, where he served as managing director, global payment acceptance & product. While there, he managed payment acceptance and led digital transformation and international expansion initiatives designed to transform the customer experience and expand capabilities into new markets. Prior to joining Barclays, Michael spent eight years at Bank of America Merchant Services, most recently as managing director of its European division, where he was responsible for establishing cross-border solutions for clients.

Seasoned payments professional and recognized digital banking and payments expert with significant experience providing strategic planning and analysis to the global banking and payments industry. Named one of Most Influential Women in Payments in 2013 and 2014. Often quoted in industry publications and frequent speaker at industry conferences, including BAI Retail Delivery, Digital Banking Summit, BAI Payments, NetFinance, NACHA Payments and CBA Live.

As Product Head for Fintech Strategy & Partnerships, Bryan Schneider brings a passion for innovation, collaboration and delivering meaningful value to all parties.  He is responsible for U.S. Bank’s Global Treasury Management fintech product strategy and partnerships, and in collaboration with his colleagues, delivering on the vision and promise of embedded finance.

Bryan has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and a Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, both from the University of Tennessee. Away from the office, he enjoys spending time with family and friends, as well as participating in outdoor activities, including big wall rock climbing.

Kim Schwendeman is the Senior Vice President of Payment Adoption at Stax Connect, working to propel payment adoption for Stax Connect partners to drive growth across the United States. Her extensive background includes eighteen years of payments experience across multiple companies, including Openpay, Elavon, hibu, Century Payments, SunTrust Bank, and Worldpay. She is an innovative global payments executive with a successful track record of driving commercial success across partner and integrated channels. Kim holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration for Ohio University. She currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia.

Rob Seidman is the Head of Product for U.S. Bank/Elavon’s point-of-sale (POS) lending solution. Prior to U.S. Bank, he was General Manager of the Long-term lending business and Merchant Product lead at Sezzle, a BNPL fintech where he launched bank partnerships and repositioned Sezzle as a full-suite POS payments provider. He has held SLT roles at Health Credit Services, a fintech healthcare lender that Ally Bank acquired in 2019. Rob began his career at Lehman Brothers and worked for Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and Bank of America in various roles. He received his MPA from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and his B.A. in History from the University of Maryland.

Shashank Singh, CEO & Co-founder, Bakstage, is an ad-tech veteran who has helped build multiple B2B/SaaS companies such as Flurry (acquired by Yahoo), and RUN Ads (acquired by Publicis). He is a user data-privacy champion and a thought leader in the importance of 1st Party Data to navigate the modern AI driven world. He previously co-founded multiple startups – Majikal, Steams and Truffle. Shashank is an engineer by profession and has an MBA from NYU Stern.

Peter Tapling is an advisor, board member and investor at the intersection of payments, risk, and emerging technologies. Prior to founding PTap Advisory, LLC, Peter acted as CCO for Spring Labs, CRO for Early Warning Services, and was founding CEO for Authentify. Peter is an advisor to the board of directors for LzLabs and on the strategic advisory boards for several fintech companies. Peter serves on the Board Advisory Group for the U.S. Faster Payments Council, the Board of Regents for The Payments Institute and as a technology advisor to the Board of Directors for ePayResources. Peter is an Accredited Payments Risk Professional and a member of the Association for Financial Professionals.

Mike Timoney is Vice President of Secure Payments for Payments Improvement within Federal Reserve Financial Services. Mike has responsibility to understand the payments and fraud landscape and identify areas where security must be improved. Mike is responsible to design, develop, and implement key elements of the Fed’s Payment Improvement strategy for payment security including improving fraud data, researching security and fraud trends, and evaluating emerging security and fraud technologies. He identifies and contributes to opportunities for collaboration with the payments industry to improve overall payments security.

It has never been more important for leaders to create highly engaged, high-performing teams. Studies show that employee and team engagement has fallen in the past few years. Organizations have been required to make major shifts. Building high-performing teams are critical for leaders. Most companies were forced to move to a remote model practically overnight that turned into a 2-year pandemic environment. This required leaders to build/rebuild, motivate, and retain talent through some of the toughest times. There are many learnings from leaders who have excelled with remote/hybrid teams and in our panel, we will hear from them. In this panel, you will hear directly from senior leaders sharing their perspectives on:

• What is team engagement and why is it important

• The dynamics of a well-performing, highly engaged team

• Top challenges leaders face especially in a remote and hybrid environment related to employee & team engagement and how can companies and leaders keep their teams “connected”.

• How do you build/rebuild a high-performing team • How does engagement impact retention

• What is the right balance of virtual/in-person engagement

• Best practices leaders can implement right away to enhance team engagement.

Mr. Velazquez leads the Partner Business Development team and revenue oversight of the Partner Channel to ensure future growth with the signing of new MSPs/ISOs/Payment Facilitators/Referral Partners/ISVs/Agents.

He has more than 15 years of experience in the payments industry. Prior to Elavon, his focus was on managing independent sales offices, direct sales reps, and independent contractors targeted specifically to the restaurant and hospitality industry.

Steven has a BA in Business Management and a MSBA with an emphasis on Entrepreneurship from San Diego State University.

Chris Ward is the Head of Wholesale Payments for Truist Financial Corporation and joined the company in August 2022. He oversees the Treasury, Liquidity, Merchant and Commercial Card businesses. Ward has an extensive background managing wholesale payments businesses and is highly regarded in the industry for his
thought leadership.

Ward joined Truist from PNC where he most recently served as head of data, digital and innovation for treasury management. In this role, he was responsible for the innovation of PNC’s treasury management solutions, including digital channels across the wholesale banking business. Previously, he managed product and
operations for treasury management and was influential in driving PNC’s product strategy and investments.

Prior to joining PNC, Ward held leadership positions at Capital One, including head of product management innovation and integration for the treasury management business. He led strategy, product development and commercialization initiatives to drive revenue growth, ensure customer retention and enhance customer
satisfaction. He also spent 11 years at Wells Fargo in various roles where he directed international strategy, payables and receivables, product design and delivery, and technology strategy.

Ward currently serves on the TCH PayCo Board of Directors and Executive Committee.

Ward earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in accounting and computer information systems from Robert Morris University.

With over 25 years in the electronic payments industry, Kris offers extensive knowledge and experience in many facets of the payments ecosystem. She has been on the forefront of industry changing trends with terminal providers, gateways, and contactless payments initiatives. Providing guidance on the needs of integrated solutions for ISOs, ISVs, and merchants, Kris has been influential in creating new and enhanced opportunities to increase the effectiveness and simplicity of payments acceptance. With her current role at Discover, she is consulting with international partners, terminal providers, gateways, and ISVs to create profitable and meaningful payment experiences.

Greg Wilfahrt is the Chief Mobility and Marketing Officer at AP Technology. He has been immersed in the marketing of mobility, payments, entertainment and technology for 25+ years. Greg started and managed six start-ups, including a wireless communications company with nearly 60 million users, achieving mobile billing integration with wireless carriers in 187 countries. Author of the “Global Mobile Consumers Bill of Rights,” and co-author of AP Technology’s “Mobile Payments Bill of Rights,” Greg Wilfahrt’s commentaries on mobility, marketing, payments, content distribution, entertainment, and technology have appeared on/in CNBC Europe, FOX News, NY Times, Forbes, BBC, Businessweek, and other international news outlets. Greg has spoken at conferences such as AFP, CTIA, Global Mobile, NACHA Smarter Faster, Mobile Payments Conference, Mobile World Congress, Transact (by ETA), iHollywood Forums, Connections, and more.

Casey, VP of Global Sales at Kount, an Equifax Company, leads teams in Boise and London and is focused on growing Kount and Equifax’s global footprint. A 12-year software sales veteran who has held a variety of roles at Kount, Casey focuses on revenue growth and strategic partnerships. While leadership is his passion, Casey enjoys working with his team to solve complex identity and fraud business challenges that merchants face daily. When not working, you can find Casey enjoying a round of golf with his friends or spending quality time with his wife Lina, and two kids Nick and Alex.