Leaders In Payments

Moving right along with diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) month, my guest this week refers to herself as a global citizen with a broad range of diverse experience and an entrepreneurial career that all started with one question: “Software outsourcing is huge. Do you want to start a business?” As I’m sure you can imagine, the answer was yes, and this led Chargeback Gurus Founder and CEO Srii Sr...

As we continue our deep dive into diversity and inclusion, we meet this week with Covenant Pay CEO Quincy McKnight. A fully registered ISO looking to “really change the payments industry,” one of the questions I have for Quincy is how he prioritizes something like diversity and inclusion in a small company that already has so many priorities when it comes to establishing growth and momentum within...

I can’t think of a better guest to kick off diversity and inclusion month than Remitly Chief Customer and People Officer Rene Yoakum. With more than 40 years in Big Tech, including 19 years at Microsoft alone, Rene is more than qualified to speak to our listeners about this crucial topic.  According to Rene, diversity, equity and inclusion (or DEI) means making sure your workplace offers a broad s...

This week marks the last episode for our Pulse series featuring Open Banking platform Trustly . And to close it out with a bang, I have Trustly President of North America Pete Ohser. Pete is a true industry veteran with more than 20 years in the payments space and a byline that includes an integral part in developing the first risk system for online money transfer platforms. In his own words, Trus...

For someone who never thought he would end up in payments, Fleetcor Group President of North American Fuel Cards Alexey Gavrilenya sure has proven himself wrong. Having been with the company for more than 13 years, Alexey has overseen operations in Russia, London and now stateside in Atlanta. And he credits a lot of his success to his two passions: bringing the future forward and continually learn...

In this episode, I continue my deep dive into the unattended retail sector of the payments space with industry leader Cantaloupe . Their Vice President, GM Micro Markets Michael Johnson is my guest, and he has been in the autonomous retail space for quite some time now so the perspective he offers on this rapidly growing niche within our industry truly gives some food for thought about the future...

Our Open Banking pulse this week is on Trustly VP of North American Bank Partnerships Eric Foust – and for good reason! Not only is Eric a 20-year veteran in the banking space, he’s also the first VP I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with that has almost a super-hero theme to his roles and responsibilities within the Trustly empire. His chosen staff? A Trident. And the responsibilities represented...

What does an avid snowboarder with three degrees (legal, accounting and business) and a lifelong passion for solving problems have to offer to the payments space? You mean besides a genuine desire to accelerate the industry and a resume that includes 5 successful companies to establish his foundation before he even went fintech? A lot!  Anchor Co-Founder and CEO Rom Lakritz has taken his passion f...

A self-driven man with a passion for innovation that changes the marketplace and “doing payments right,” One Inc. CEO Ian Drysdale is a true leader in the payments space, with a resume that includes some of the biggest names in payments. So, how did he get his first job at PNC? He simply cold called the CEO and asked him for it. For those of you that may not know, One Inc. is a leading digital pay...

As we continue this month with our focus on Open Banking, our pulse is on Trustly – a well-established open banking platform that enables merchant commerce, via ACH, in a manner that reduces fraud and promotes a more seamless payments flow.   Today, I talk with Chief Legal Officer Kathryn McCall about Trustly as both a rapidly growing company and a true leader in our industry. For those of you tha...

For those of you looking to quantify and understand all the benefits of open banking, you’ve come to the right place! In this Pulse of Payments episode, I speak with Trustly VP of Enterprise Growth Ross McFerrin – a self-proclaimed payments geek admittedly obsessed with the innovation and disruption within our dynamic ecosystem.  Open banking, by definition, is the use of open APIs that enable dev...

Have you ever wondered how boat racing relates to being a CEO in one of the most dynamic industries our global ecosystem has to offer?  Well, my guest this week has the answer! A boat racing enthusiast from Bavaria, Fraugster  Co-CEO Chris Mangold will be the first to tell you that running a successful company has many parallels to leading a successful sports team. In fact, he gives three core pri...

When it comes to the most payment-driven markets in the global landscape today, India is always top of mind – and for good reason. As a country, they lead the marketplace in digital payments (with more than 100 different digital payment options) and proactively foster a dynamic ecosystem ripe with opportunity for innovation. My guest this week is CashFree Payments Co-founder Reeju Datta and his kn...

What does the EVP and Head of Enterprise Payments at the 12th largest bank in the country have to say about the past, present and future of fintech? A lot!  Ken Gavrity has had a fascinating career and is a wealth of information when it comes to the current challenges the industry has faced on its way towards digital dominance and the benefits that comes with the kind of autonomy that only automat...

Ever wonder what the journey may look like from small-town farm to big-time fintech? Well, I have the answer in this week’s podcast! IDology CEO Chris Luttrell is my guest, and her story is a fascinating one. For starters, when she’s not spending time overseeing one of the most credible fraud-prevention solutions in the industry, she’s raising livestock and food on her small farm in northwest Geor...

A sports enthusiast from northern England with a passion for music and a resume that includes both Sony and Virgin records, Tappit CEO Jason Thomas has taken his love for entertainment to the fintech space and created a name for himself within the industry. With a client portfolio that includes some of the biggest organizations in event management, including the NFL, MLB and MBA (just to name a fe...

A Poughkeepsie NY native with a self-proclaimed passion for “understanding how all the pieces work functionally, operationally, strategically and globally,” Tassat CEO Ron Totaro will be the first to tell you that he has learned more from his failures than his successes. However, the successes have been abundant. Beginning his career working for several big industry players such as American Expres...

How can a Master’s degree in computer science with a concentration in machine-learning algorithms secure you a CEO spot in Fintech? Well, the story is an interesting one.  In this week’s podcast, I talk with Justt CEO Ofir Tahor about his journey through the payments industry. What does it look like to be driven by a professional passion to take complex problems and simplify them through technolog...

What does an Israeli native with three degrees in Fine Arts and a professional career as a New York sculptor have to do with payments? Believe it or not, quite a bit!  Payem CEO Itamar Jobani is my guest on this week’s podcast and his story of a professional career that spans from sculptural artistry to the medical field and eventually to payments is truly fascinating. For those of you who may not...

A self-proclaimed “technology entrepreneur and intrapreneur,” CoreChain CEO Chris Aguas is our special guest on this episode, episode 134 of the Leaders in Payments podcast.   Chris has had a fascinating career in the payments industry. Originally from southern California, Chris graduated from Stanford Business School with a passion for driving change. CoreChain is an embedded B2B payments network...

Robin Gregg, the CEO of RoadSync is our special guest on this episode, episode 133 of the Leaders in Payments Podcast.   A West Virginia native and Harvard graduate with a 15-year payments career, Robin Gregg is the CEO of Atlanta-based RoadSync . Now, when it comes to blazing trails, Robin is no stranger to lighting that fire. Not only did she climb to the top of the corporate ladder in such a ma...

Sam Graziano, CEO of Linear is our special guest on this episode, episode 132 of the Leaders in Payments Podcast.  A New York native with a self-proclaimed passion for filling white space and challenging the status quo, Sam Graziano scratched his entrepreneurial itch all the way from the investment banking world to the fintech space, where he eventually became CEO of Linear – a digital account ori...

Casey Leloux, the CEO of IntelliPay is our special guest this week on episode 131 of the Leaders in Payments Podcast. A California native with an affinity for softball and a passion for selling solutions, Casey may have grown up shelling almonds and playing sports but his passion for sales took him down a very fascinating journey that led him straight to the top… eventually. Now the CEO of Intelli...

Jason Mugford, President and CEO of Ascendant is our special guest this week on episode 130 of the Leaders in Payments podcast.  Jason is a Toronto native and loyal fintech supporter. He talks with me about his journey in the industry and how he went from an aspiring Lacrosse player to a seasoned payments professional.   Ascendant is an international accounts payable and receivable business that f...

Bob Dowd, CEO North America for Moneycorp is our special guest this week on episode 129 of the Leaders in Payment Podcast.  Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with Bob – a man who started his 38-year payments career at Kennedy airport in New York carrying hundreds of thousands of dollars across terminals in a canvas bag. So, how did he go from this to CEO of the only non-US bank in the world t...