Leaders In Payments

My guest this week has a passion for creating something new that will change the industry and leave a legacy he can be proud of. In a fast-paced world and a time of life where everything seems to have already been done and you always hear people say there are no new ideas under the sun, Engage People CEO Jonathan Silver has managed to come up with something quite innovative. For those of you who m...

My guest this week is a self-proclaimed “accidental entrepreneur” with a passion for facilitating the extraordinary. Justifi CEO and Cofounder Joe Keeley has had a fascinating journey through the world of entrepreneurship that all began with an employment ad that “wouldn’t be found anywhere but Minnesota.” It was during his undergraduate career, and he was just looking for a way to make some extra...

What does a math challenged sales guy that migrated into the merchant industry by accident have to do with going Beyond in payments? Quite a bit, actually… Beyond CEO and President Mike Peters is a north Jersey native with a passion for helping people reach their goals and facilitating a genuine team player environment that has everyone working towards a common goal. For those of you who may not k...

As we continue our spotlight on women leaders in payments this month, this week’s episode features Monneo Managing Director Lili Metodieva. A talented artist with a childhood dream to become a pilot, you may wonder how Lili ended up in fintech? The answer is simple: she thrives in dynamic, fast-paced environments and it most comfortable when she’s out of her comfort zone. Lili was born in the sixt...

As we continue our journey through honoring our women in payments leaders this month, my next guest is another exceptional individual that does nothing short of inspire. Her name is Lixia Zhu and she is the global head of product for Vynamic Payments at Diebold Nixdorf .  For those of you who may not know Diebold Nixdorf is an innovation bank with more than 150 years processing, 22,000 employees a...

My guest this week marks our first impressive female leader in payments to kick off our Women Leaders in Payments monthly special. Her name is Kathleen Pierce-Gilmore, and she is the head of payments at Silicon Valley Bank . For those of you who may not know, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) is often referred to as “the bank of innovation” and is very popular throughout the fintech space. SVB caters spec...

My guest today is a self-proclaimed “black sheep recovering banker” who is still trying to figure out how to make the world a better place and save customers money on the cost of doing business. C2FO CEO Sandy Kemper is at the pinnacle of a fascinating career spanning decades in the payments space.  For those of you who may not know, C2FO is it a decentralized financing platform that services appr...

This episode is sponsored by Citizens Pay. Designed to streamline the buying process, Citizens Pay is a leader in “Buy Now Pay Later” that provides merchants the security of a premier national bank on an omnichannel platform which drives sales and builds loyalty. If you want to learn more about Citizens Pay, visit https://citizensbank.mvk.co/2hycr where you can find additional information about Ci...

My guest this week has a genuine passion for building things that create a significant impact and then using it as a mechanism for change. But according to Inscribe CEO and Co-Founder Ronan Burke, the true fulfillment in this comes with creating the opportunity on your own and not waiting for someone else to give it to you. For those of you who may not know, Inscribe is a fraud detection automatio...

This episode is sponsored by Citizens Pay. With Citizens Pay, merchants have the security of a leading national bank and an omnichannel platform designed to streamline the buying process.  If you want to learn more about Citizens Pay, visit https://citizensbank.mvk.co/2hycr where you can find additional information about Citizens Pay and the buy now pay later payment model.  My guests today are Pr...

My guest this week has a passion for learning and evolving as a leader, as well as keeping in touch with his employees and understanding what their day-to-day looks like. In fact, it’s his favorite way to spend his coffee break. SEON COO and Co-Founder Bence Jendruszak is a leader in the fraud prevention space with a proprietary platform that offers a plug-and-play API and a data enrichment advant...

My guest this week has a vision for payments and a passion for ice cream! Orum CEO Stephany Kirkpatrick comes by her entrepreneurial spirit naturally as the daughter of an immigrant who came to the U.S. with nothing and “built from zero to something.” This in and of itself gave her passion for what our financial system can do to power the American household.  Fast-forward several years later and S...

My guest this week has a burning desire to take the road less traveled and a passion for interacting authentically with others who have different lived experiences. He comes from a family of entrepreneurs and always knew he wanted to start a business that would make a positive impact on the world. So, of all the different businesses he could choose to start, why did he choose technology? According...

My guest this week has laid a truly impressive foundation for his company fueled by skill, passion, ingenuity, and a tremendous amount of grit! Blackthorn.io is a Salesforce application company that started back in 2015. And according to CEO Chris Federspiel, the road to success has not necessarily been an easy one. Chris talks about the go-to-market phase of his company in a manner that is truly...

My guest this week has a passion for figuring out “how to do things different and better,” and his first experience of moving money was helping Fannie Mae move their federal funds across telephone lines. Verituity CEO Ben Turner keeps his philosophy pretty simple when it comes to business: “All you should ever have to say is how much to who and when, and the rest should just happen.” And for those...

My guest this week is an avid tennis player with a passion for alternative payments. She started her career as a programmer in the brokerage business, with a degree in computer science, and ended up the CEO of alternative payments platform Payverse . So, how did she get from one end of the spectrum to the other? You’ll have to tune in to find out! According to CEO Sandra Blair, Payverse is a compa...

My guest this week started as a software engineer but soon discovered he had a love for payments. Brightwell CEO Larry Hipp has had a fascinating journey throughout the fintech space. He has a genuine passion for seeing people succeed and places a tremendous amount of intention and importance on the resiliency that a strong company culture can provide. For those of you who may not know, Brightwell...

What does an avid Squash player with an underdog mentality and a passion for sales have to do with payments? A lot! My guest this week is Engagesmart CEO Bob Bennett. He has run four different companies over the last 30 years and been in the payments ecosystem long enough to acquire a passion for the electronic payments industry and a desire to create differentiation within that space. For those o...

My guest this week has been in the payments industry for 20 years and credits the lifespan of his prolific career to a small decision that was motivated by an empty gas tank. It all started in the basement of a dental office, at a startup ISO space with no windows, and an inclination that maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. But he needed enough gas to get to where he was going next, so he decided...

My guest this week has an absolutely fascinating background in the payments industry. He’s still as competitive now as he was when he was in his 20s and has a driving passion for sales, competition and, of course, winning. Trust Payments Group Chief Commercial Officer and CEO of Trust Payments U.S. Jonathan O’Connor gives a dynamic interview you don’t want to miss!  For those of you who may not kn...

My guest this week has had a truly fascinating journey to the top! SpotOn Co-Founder and CPO Doron Friedman comes from a family of Holocaust survivors that were forced to take the entrepreneurial journey after losing everything they had. He’ll be the first to say that his father discouraged any of the children from becoming an entrepreneur, so Doron’s first ambitions were towards investment bankin...

So, how does a professional basketball player become president/CEO of a fintech payments company? Well, he’s 6’8" with a passion for solving problems and a love for transformative technology. PayZen President and CEO Itzik Cohen is on a very bold mission to revolutionize the healthcare payments industry.  How? The mission-driven goal of PayZen is to underwrite each individual customer into a...

An Australian native and previous casino dealer, Identitii CEO John Rayment is passionate about people, payments, and a bucketed approach to life. He is a global citizen with a global platform and his company, of course, drives a global initiative. In his own words, Identitii “helps the global financial services industry reduce their regulatory risks without having to replace legacy technology.” T...

For my guest this week, I have a one-time Disneyworld employee who was once recruited by Visa and MasterCard simultaneously. Finexio CEO and Founder Ernest Rolfson has a self-proclaimed passion for creating transparency around what he perceives to be a very opaque industry by teaching people about payments, software and all things that move money. For those of you who may not know, Finexio is an a...

As we wrap up diversity and inclusion month, I speak with Cantaloupe Director of Human Resources, Alyssa Braniecki, on what it looks like to employ D&I as part of the total employee experience.  Alyssa credits her ability to find her voice as a female in the workplace to growing up in a blended Hispanic/Italian family with two volumes: loud and louder. She originally got her degree in psycholo...