2025 Speakers

2025 Annual Forum Agenda Speakers

Scott Adams

CEO/Founder, FraudDeflect

Scott Adams

CEO/Founder, FraudDeflect

Scott Adams, CEO/Co-Founder of FraudDeflect.com is a veteran payments professional with 20+ years of experience in Fraud Fighting and Chargeback Management, online business, the card-not-present financial community, and the affiliate marketing community.

Max Admoni

Senior Director, Partnerships, Riskified

Max Admoni

Senior Director, Partnerships, Riskified

With nearly a decade of experience in the payments industry, Max currently leads global partnerships at Riskified, where he drives strategic collaborations aimed at enhancing fraud security and performance for merchants. Max has gained firsthand insights into the industry's challenges, particularly in fraud optimization and payment security. He is passionate about the role of enhanced data sharing in creating a more secure and efficient payments ecosystem and is committed to advancing innovative solutions in the space.

Vikram Anand

Executive Director, Beachbody

Vikram Anand

Executive Director, Beachbody

Versatile Operations leader with 20 years of hands-on experience in Payments processing, Anti-Fraud operations, Revenue Optimization, Subscription Management, CRM, Call Center Management and Supply Chain Management. Highly successful in managing teams and Vendor relationships in a Business Process Outsourcing as well as Corporate Headquarters environment in multiple geographic locations across North America, Asia and Europe.

Matthew Baum

Senior Manager, Checkout.com

Matthew Baum

Senior Manager, Checkout.com

Matthew Baum is a Senior Manager in the Financial Partnerships team at Checkout.com, where he collaborates with leading U.S. issuers and payment schemes to optimize card acceptance and combat fraud. Passionate about enabling data-sharing partnerships, Matthew is dedicated to creating a safer and more seamless transaction experience for merchants and their customers. His work helps bridge key stakeholders across the payment ecosystem to drive innovation and trust, enabling Checkout's merchants to thrive.

Arthur Bedel

Global Director of Revenue, VGS

Arthur Bedel

Global Director of Revenue, VGS

Arthur Bedel is both the Global Director of Revenue of VGS, and the Co-Founder of Connecting the dots in Payments.... Over the course of his payments' journey, he had the opportunity to lead GTM and strategic initiatives, aiming to improve the overall payment strategy and infrastructure of global companies. Based in San Francisco, his vision and goal is to help shape the future of the payments' industry by bringing payments fanatics together and educating the masses. At Connecting the dots in Payments... Arthur is committed to establishing the platform as the trusted source for payments news, insights and educational content. Arthur is also an ex-pro tennis player and a wine enthusiast.

Jeremy Bellino

Sr Product Manager, Worldpay

Jeremy Bellino

Sr Product Manager, Worldpay

Jeremy is a senior product manager at Worldpay with 14 years’ experience in payments. He is focused on building and scaling flex's suite of payments fraud and consumer authentication solutions to optimize payments performance and minimize exposure to fraud and risk.

Megan Berent

Sr. Manager, Payments, iHerb

Megan Berent

Sr. Manager, Payments, iHerb

Megan is the Sr. Manager of Payments for iHerb, a global health and wellness eCommerece merchant that serves 180+ countries, processes 80+ currencies, and accepts over 40 payments methods. In her role, Megan is responsible for defining iHerb’s payments strategy, managing key vendor relationships, and optimizing payment solutions to support out internal customers while driving down costs.

Alx Block

Head of Payment and Risk Operations, Automattic

Alx Block

Head of Payment and Risk Operations, Automattic

Alx Block leads Risk Operations at Automattic, overseeing fraud prevention and risk strategy for WooCommerce, WordPress.com, Tumblr, and more. With over a decade in digital commerce risk, he builds scalable systems, empowers high-impact teams, and turns risk into a competitive advantage. Fraudsters try every trick in the book, but many end up running into, literally, an Alx Block. Alx lives in Philadelphia with his wife, two teenagers, a cat with trust issues, and a dog who thinks risk management means barking at the mail. He believes the best work starts with clarity, ends with impact, and benefits from a well-placed pun.

Sarah Boehmer

Senior Director, Super.com

Sarah Boehmer

Senior Director, Super.com

Sarah is the Senior Director of Payment Processing & Fraud Strategy at Super.com, responsible for both the merchant (OTA) and issuing businesses.

Michael Brown

Economic Analyst, Visa

Michael Brown

Economic Analyst, Visa

As principle US economist for Visa Inc, Michael Brown is responsible for oversiing Visa's analysis and forecasting of the US economy. Michael leverages economic and payment industry data to generate actionable business intelligence for executives and government leaders. As a recognized payment industry thought leader, Michael's presentations highlight the interlinkages between changing economic conditions and key payment industry trends.

Charlotte Crandall

Sr. Director of Revenue Support Operations, GoTo

Charlotte Crandall

Sr. Director of Revenue Support Operations, GoTo

Charlotte Crandall is a Sr. Director of Revenue Support Operations and Payment Analytics at GoTo. GoTo provides flexible-work software solutions including IT management, Support, and Business Communication tools. Charlotte has over 15+ years’ experience owning GoTo’s Fraud and Payment strategies, including fraud mitigation, improving payment optimization, ensuring compliance, and realizing cost savings opportunities. In addition, Charlotte oversees an international order processing team for GoTo Connect, a Unified Communications and Collaboration solution for SMB, Mid-Market as well as Enterprise businesses.

Spencer Case

Staff Product Manager, Warner Bros. Discovery

Spencer Case

Staff Product Manager, Warner Bros. Discovery

Spencer Case is a product leader with 10 years of experience in the streaming industry. He currently works at Warner Bros. Discovery product managing the commerce in-app experience. Previously, Spencer led the client and in-app purchase teams at Sling TV. A graduate of Princeton University (BA) and NYU Stern (MBA), he resides in Los Angeles with his two dogs.

Kristy Cook

VP Payments Consulting, Amex

Kristy Cook

VP Payments Consulting, Amex

Kristy Cook is the Vice President, Payments Consulting for U.S. & LAC at American Express. In this role, she oversees a multi-national team responsible for providing payment processing expertise and technical consulting to American Express merchants, processors, and service providers. Before joining American Express, Kristy spent 14 years in payments acceptance at Target where she served in several payments industry forums, and she also worked 10 years in various financial roles.

Katie Craven

Senior Director, Visa

Katie Craven

Senior Director, Visa

Katie Craven serves as Senior Director, Acceptance Risk Solutions Management for North America as part of Visa’s Value-Added Services organization. Over her 20+ years of experience, she has worked in retail loss prevention, on corporate investigations, and for solution providers – leading and implementing risk strategies for top digital merchants and acquirers. Katie holds a PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Capella University. Passionate about problem-solving, her work is focused on discovery, education, and strategy development and execution.

Brian Cullen

Sr Payments Strategist, Sony PlayStation

Brian Cullen

Sr Payments Strategist, Sony PlayStation

Brian is a senior payments strategist with over 15 years of leadership experience in global eCommerce, specializing in payment strategy, risk management, and market trend analysis. At Sony PlayStation, he has led transformative initiatives that enhanced transaction performance, increased incremental revenue, and shaped long-term payments innovation. Brian’s background combines deep expertise in payments built on a foundation in derivatives risk management, bringing a unique lens to data-driven risk strategy and optimization.

Mina Deegan

Solutions Engineering, Pagos

Mina Deegan

Solutions Engineering, Pagos

Mina Deegan leads Solutions Engineering at Pagos, a payments data intelligence company that helps merchants improve performance and manage risk through actionable insights. She is responsible for delivering strategic products that drive efficiency and optimize revenue for global enterprise merchants. With a proven track record in effectively scaling teams in companies of all sizes, from fintech startups to established banks, Mina is deeply passionate about—and driven by—merchant success through implementing technical solutions that solve real-world payments challenges.

Drew Edmond

Associate Partner, Glenbrook Partners

Drew Edmond

Associate Partner, Glenbrook Partners

As an Associate Partner at Glenbrook, Drew helps identify and execute optimal payments strategies for businesses throughout the payments value chain. Drew has spent his entire career in the payments industry managing global payments operations directly for leading marketplace and financial services companies, and developing strategy for numerous clients across the payments ecosystem during his time at Glenbrook.

ERICH FRANKEN

Vice President, Bill Pay Industry, Visa

ERICH FRANKEN

Vice President, Bill Pay Industry, Visa

Erich leads the sales team in charge of Visa’s overall relationship with merchant and co-brand partners across the bill pay segment in the US. In his role he assumes the strategic and operational responsibility for this industry vertical and also manages Visa’s relationship with a number of industry associations. In previous roles at Visa Erich managed the Fuel & C-store as well as the retail and grocery merchant segments. Prior to joining Visa in 2014 he worked for American Express on both the issuing and the merchant side of the business. During that time he held increasingly senior positions including general manager of the merchant business for a number of markets in Europe and Global roles in large B2B relationship management while based in Frankfurt a. M., London and New York. Erich started his professional career in retail banking in his native Germany and lives with his wife in Rye, NY enjoying life as ‘empty nesters’.

Sayil Gada

Director of Product, Mastercard

Sayil Gada

Director of Product, Mastercard

Sayil Gada is a product leader at Mastercard, overseeing the development of Ethoca's Subscription Management solutions to address consumer pain points and create value for issuers and merchants. Sayil has over 10 years of experience in product management and strategy, having worked across several industries and global organizations, developing deep expertise in consumer behavior.

Alex Godoy

Strategic Partner Manager, Google

Alex Godoy

Strategic Partner Manager, Google

Alex is a Strategic Partner Manager within Google's payment partnerships group and is the global business development lead for card acceptance. Alex is also focused on Google's account-to-account strategy in the US. Before Google, Alex worked in multiple roles at Mastercard, and EY's financial services consulting group.

Dan Gonzalez

Vice President and National Acct. Director, Federal Reserve Financial Services

Dan Gonzalez

Vice President and National Acct. Director, Federal Reserve Financial Services

Dan Gonzalez is vice president and national account director for Federal Reserve Financial Services (FRFS) heading the FRFS National Account Program and is based out of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Gonzalez’s responsibilities include collaborating and engaging with the payments industry to define and prioritize system improvements that advance payment speed, efficiency, and security. He has overall responsibility for the Federal Reserve’s Financial Services relationships with the top 27 financial institutions in the country, as well as payment networks and service providers.

Alexander Hall

Trust and Safety Architect

Alexander Hall

Trust and Safety Architect

Alexander Hall is a Trust and Safety Architect at Sift with 17 years of experience in fraud prevention. He helps businesses design holistic fraud strategies, enhance user identification, and protect their operations by delivering innovative solutions that benefit Sift’s customers and the industry as a whole.

Kristian Hansen

Director of Product, Asurion

Kristian Hansen

Director of Product, Asurion

Kristian Hansen is the Director of Product at Asurion and leads their Payments Experience team. Previously he ran the payments at Crunchyroll (the world’s largest Anime SVOD company) and Levi-Strauss. When he’s not tracking authorization rates, you can find him trail running in Montana’s backcountry.

Sana Haque

Head of Payment Opt. Strategy, PayPal

Sana Haque

Head of Payment Opt. Strategy, PayPal

Sana Haque is a Principal Product Manager at PayPal, where she leads Payment Optimization Strategy for value-added services and smart routing. With over a decade of experience in the payments industry, she has built and scaled AI/ML-powered optimization products that help global brands improve their authorization success. Sana’s work sits at the intersection of technology and strategy, enabling businesses to drive better outcomes through intelligent payments infrastructure. Before Braintree, she held product and engineering roles at American Express and Tata Group, focusing on secure and scalable payment solutions. She brings a strong mix of technical depth, business acumen, and customer-centric thinking to her work.

John Hierholzer

VP Operations & Infrastructure, Mastercard

Bonnie Holland

Mngr Business Development, Mastercard

Tyler Huen

VP, Digital Payments, Adyen

Tyler Huen

VP, Digital Payments, Adyen

Tyler Heun has extensive experience working with merchants and partners to set the future direction for their businesses and solve some of their most challenging problems through payments innovation. Spanning 15 years in the payments and banking space, he collaborates with some of the world's most sophisticated partners and merchants to leverage technology to optimize their payments ecosystem. He is an advisor for PaymentsEd, PayCLT, and RevTech Labs. He is also an active member of Merchant Risk Council, Merchant Advisory Group, Electronic Transaction Association, and Merchant Payments Coalition. He resides in North Carolina with his wife and 3 kids.

Detective Mark Hwang

Tourist Oriented Policing Team, Anaheim Police Department

Detective Mark Hwang

Tourist Oriented Policing Team, Anaheim Police Department

Detective Mark Hwang is a ten-year veteran of law enforcement (Los Angeles Police Department and Anaheim Police Department) and holds a Bachelor's Degree in Business Concentration in Accounting from the California State University of Fullerton. During his career, he has been involved in every type of criminal investigation at the local, state, and federal levels. Detective Hwang served as a Field Training Officer, Drug Recognition Expert, and Mobile Field Force. Detective Hwang has assisted other instructors with Identity Theft/Fraud investigations.

Christian Johnson

Director of Payments Public Policy and Affairs

Christian Johnson

Director of Payments Public Policy and Affairs

Christian manages industry engagement and strategies on regulatory trends for global payments advisory firm CMSPI, finding creative and innovative ways to develop evidence-backed and data-driven narratives on some of the biggest issues in the payments industry. Christian works with stakeholders across the payments industry to promote competition and foster a more productive payments ecosystem, drawing on CMSPI’s market-leading data insights.

Joshua Karoly

Director, Payments, Netflix

Joshua Karoly

Director, Payments, Netflix

Josh leads Payments Product at Netflix in California, focusing on enhancing the e-commerce consumer experience through strategic payment innovations. His career has been dedicated to optimizing revenue, expanding international payment capabilities, and integrating meaningful payment methods. Before joining Netflix, Josh led payments at SurveyMonkey, the world's largest online survey platform, and previously at Ancestry.com, the leading online family history resource. He holds a bachelor's degree from BYU and an MBA from Westminster College. Outside of work, he enjoys spending as much time as possible with his wife and five boys.

Vaibhav Kaul

Head of Engineering, TapTap Send

Vaibhav Kaul

Head of Engineering, TapTap Send

Vaibhav Kaul is a seasoned technology leader with extensive experience in the payments industry. Currently serving as the Head of Product Engineering at Taptap Send, Vaibhav is at the forefront of innovation in financial technology, focusing on creating seamless and efficient money transfer solutions for users around the globe. His expertise lies in building resilient systems that enhance user experience while ensuring security and compliance. Vaibhav has previously held key positions at Meta and SeatGeek, where he led engineering teams and contributed to the development of scalable payment systems and marketplace solutions. His work has consistently centered on optimizing transaction processes and improving operational efficiency. Vaibhav holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science from New York University, where he specialized in advanced database systems and distributed computing. He is passionate about leveraging technology to solve complex problems in the payments sector and is dedicated to driving positive change in the industry.

Akash Kedia

Head of Payments Costs Optimization, Uber

Akash Kedia

Head of Payments Costs Optimization, Uber

Akash is responsible for understanding, reporting, and optimizing the cost of payments across the globe.

Pete Kovacs

Sr. Product Manager, Warner Bros. Discovery

Pete Kovacs

Sr. Product Manager, Warner Bros. Discovery

Pete has a wealth of knowledge in the global subscription and payments space. Over the past 10 years, he has worked to help brands build their global presence by strengthening their ecommerce and payment capabilities. As Sr. Product Manager at Warner Brothers Discovery (HBO Max), Pete is charged with providing payment capabilities that align with WBD’s growth strategy.

Arpit Kumar

People & Risk Products Leader, PayPal

Arpit Kumar

People & Risk Products Leader, PayPal

Results-driven product leader with a proven track record of building high-performing product teams and driving significant revenue growth. Adept at developing and executing product roadmaps, particularly for risk and dispute management products. Proven expertise in mentoring product managers and fostering a culture of innovation and customer-centricity. Successfully co-led teams to achieve multi-million dollar revenue targets, exceeding them in multiple instances.

Aleksandra Lach

Business Manager, Capital One. 

Aleksandra Lach

Business Manager, Capital One. 

Aleksandra is a Business Manager at Capital One and the lead analyst for Direct Data Share (DDS), an authentication optimization product. She works closely with acquirers and merchants to enable legitimate spending while preventing fraud, helping to drive smarter, more secure transactions across the payments ecosystem.

Jonathan Lee

Senior Manager, Payment Reliability & Partnership Strategy, Netfilx

Jonathan Lee

Senior Manager, Payment Reliability & Partnership Strategy, Netfilx

Jonathan Lee is on the Payments Operations team at Netflix in Los Gatos, CA. His team works to ensure that subscribers have a seamless experience by maximizing authorization rates and minimizing payments-related churn. Jonathan works closely with strategic market leads, finance, and engineering teams for global initiatives and optimizations.

Raymond Lee

Payments Performance, Stripe

Raymond Lee

Payments Performance, Stripe

Raymond has extensive experience working with merchants on transforming their payments strategy. He joined Stripe in early 2018 and is a founding member of the Payments Performance Team. The team is responsible for optimizing conversion for Stripe’s largest merchants across auth rates, authentication, fraud, and costs. Prior to Stripe, Raymond was a Senior Director at Visa on the Commerce Solutions team, driving innovative loyalty solutions like card-linked offers programs for merchants like Uber and Rakuten.

Matt Leman

Executive Director, J.P. Morgan Chase

Matt Leman

Executive Director, J.P. Morgan Chase

Matt Leman is the Head of Partnership Initiatives for J.P. Morgan’s payments business. J.P. Morgan Payments is the global payment acceptance and merchant acquiring business of JPMorgan Chase and a leading provider of payment, fraud management and data security solutions. Matt has more than 27 years of financial services experience. He has been a featured speaker at many industry events including PaymentsEd and Treasury Institute conferences speaking about PCI compliance and data security as well as emerging payment trends such as contactless acceptance. Matt earned a bachelor’s degree in business/economics and Spanish from Wheaton College and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He resides in the Chicagoland suburbs with his wife and two sons.

Ryan Leven

Founder, Aspen Jewelry

Ryan Leven

Founder, Aspen Jewelry

Prior to entering the payments space I spent 10 years as a merchant, bootstrapping and growing my businesses from the idea phase, to established industry competitors. There is no better way to learn the ins and outs of business and e commerce than taking your own ideas to market, scaling them, and finding out the hard way just how difficult yet rewarding it is.

Joshua Lockhart

CTO at Aeropay

Joshua Lockhart

CTO at Aeropay

Josh Lockhart is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Aeropay, a financial technology company redefining pay-by-bank transactions. Since joining in 2024, Josh has brought deep expertise in payments infrastructure, security, and scalability—gained from his experience at PayPal, Braintree, and as Vice President of Engineering at GoFundMe. Josh is committed to leveraging his expertise to enhance Aeropay's technological capabilities and drive innovation in the payments industry.

Colin Luce

CEO & Founder of Basis Theory 

Colin Luce

CEO & Founder of Basis Theory 

Colin Luce is the Co-Founder & CEO of Basis Theory. Before, he held various operating roles at Klarna, Yodlee, and, most recently, Figure. He’s also an active Fintech angel investor.

Anthony Macchia

Senior Payments Data Analyst, McAfee

Anthony Macchia

Senior Payments Data Analyst, McAfee

Anthony Macchia currently works at McAfee in Payments Analytics. Prior to that, he worked at Save the Children for five years working in private revenue finance and payments strategy. Anthony has had a long career in payments spending an additional 12 years at the Synapse group managing teams, executing analytics, and implementing new processes to reduce risk and maximize revenue capture. He lives in Fairfield, Connecticut with his wife, two girls, and a menagerie of pets. Fun fact: I have triplet siblings *and* triplet cousins.

Stephanie Lew Meyers

System Manager, Payment Card Operations, CommonSpirit Health™

Stephanie Lew Meyers

System Manager, Payment Card Operations, CommonSpirit Health™

Stephanie Meyers brings over seven years of expertise in healthcare payments to her role as System Manager for CommonSpirit Health's Treasury Payment Card Team. In her current position, she oversees the day-to-day processing of both patient and non-patient payments, ensuring operational excellence across the organization's vast healthcare ministry. Her responsibilities also include managing critical vendor relationships and spearheading payment-related projects that drive innovation and efficiency. An active leader in the payments industry, Stephanie serves as a Special Interest Group (SIG) leader with the Merchant Advisory Group, where she contributes to advancing best practices and fostering collaboration. She is also recognized as a leader within the Women in Payments network, reflecting her commitment to mentorship and industry engagement. Stephanie is eager to bring her expertise to her new role on the Merchant Board, collaborating with PaymentsEd sage leadership to further the association's mission of advancing payments innovation and education.

Jay Matthews

Director, Global Payments and Retention, Yahoo

Jay Matthews

Director, Global Payments and Retention, Yahoo

Jay Matthews has worked in the area of billing and payments for 20+ years. His areas of responsibility include payments and fraud mitigation strategy and billing process management. During his time in the industry, Jay has had the opportunity to view payments from three different functional areas, Finance, Operations, and Marketing, which has given him a unique perspective on strategy development. Jay holds a B.S. in Economics from Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Ross McFerrin

VP of Enterprise Growth, Trustly

Ross McFerrin

VP of Enterprise Growth, Trustly

Ross McFerrin, VP of Enterprise Growth for Trustly, is a FinTech and Payments veteran with over 15 years of experience driving innovation and disruption in payments for financial institutions, billers, and enterprise merchants. Ross also represents Trustly as a member of the Faster Payments Council. Prior to Trustly, Ross held leadership positions at Wirecard North America, formerly Citi Prepaid, as well as MoneyGram International, and began his career at First Data. Ross attended Creighton University for his Masters of Business Administration and graduated from Central College with a Bachelor's degree in Communication Studies and Business Management.

Mike Miller

VP of Network Policy & Standards, Amex

Mike Miller

VP of Network Policy & Standards, Amex

Mike Miller is the Vice President of Network Policy & Standards leads a team of professionals who create and evolve payment standards, develop technical specifications, and policy (operating rules) for American Express’ Network business to support emerging products and capabilities, protect the Amex brand, and ensure compliance with regulatory and legal requirements.. In his 15 years at Amex, he has also worked in merchant capabilities and customer service operations in jobs in both the United States and the United Kingdom. He also spent 7 years working as a professional services consultant in the Higher Education space prior to joining Amex.

Steve Mott

Principal, BetterBuyDesign, LLC

Steve Mott

Principal, BetterBuyDesign, LLC

Steve Mott has spent more than four decades working in electronic payments and security for merchants, corporations, banks, networks and third party providers. He has also held positions and assignments with various industry groups involving online and mobile commerce, electronic checks and account transfers, all things concerning payments cards and processing, and real-time payments. He also serves as an expert witness on major payments cases.

David Newell

Lead Growth Mktg. & e-Com, LastPass

David Newell

Lead Growth Mktg. & e-Com, LastPass

David Newell leads growth marketing and e-commerce at LastPass, driving profitable growth through payments and experimentation, with over 15 years of global revenue experience. Passionate about customer-centric strategies, David has used experimentation to improve retention, pricing, and fraud prevention. With international leadership experience and a commitment to continuous learning, David brings a practical and global perspective to payments innovation.

Kiel Cook

Principal Product Manager, IXOPAY

Kiel Cook

Principal Product Manager, IXOPAY

Kiel Cook is a seasoned payments expert with nearly 20 years of experience in financial services and technology. As Principal Product Manager at IXOPAY, he plays a pivotal role in driving product innovation and delivering scalable, secure payment solutions to a global client base. Throughout his career, Kiel has developed deep expertise across the payments ecosystem, with a focus on product development, system optimization, risk management, and strategic operations. His ability to lead complex initiatives and align cross-functional teams has consistently resulted in high-impact outcomes for clients and partners alike. Kiel is known for his collaborative leadership style and customer-first mindset. He is committed to ensuring IXOPAY’s platform evolves in step with the rapidly shifting needs of modern commerce, helping businesses optimize their payment infrastructure for efficiency, security, and long-term growth.

Jason Harding

Sr. Director, Product Mngmnt, Worldpay

Jason Harding

Sr. Director, Product Mngmnt, Worldpay

Jason joined Worldpay in 2019 and has been working in payments since 2014 .Jason leads a team focused on authorization performance and payment optimization focused on maximizing acceptance rates. He has spent most of the last 11 years focused on payment acceptance, both from the provider and merchant perspective. Jason has an MBA from Bentley University and a BS from Miami University. He has lived in Massachusetts since 2009.

Ami Patel

VP, Ecosystem Engagement and Advocacy, Visa

Ami Patel

VP, Ecosystem Engagement and Advocacy, Visa

Ami Patel is the Vice President of Ecosystem Engagement and Advocacy at Visa. Known for her transformative leadership, she has helped revitalize businesses, fortify risk management, and enhance customer experiences throughout her career. During her 25-year tenure in payments, Ami has held various roles across consulting, risk, and innovation at leading financial institutions in North America, Europe, and Latin America, including Citibank and Barclays Group. With a unique global perspective and strategic vision, Ami has been pivotal in shaping Visa's risk strategy.

Sofia Posada

Head of Growth APMs, dLocal 

Sofia Posada

Head of Growth APMs, dLocal 

With deep expertise in cross-border payments and local market dynamics, Sofia has a proven track record of building strategic partnerships. She has extensive experience working in the payments industry, working with a wide range of merchants to enhance their payment solutions and growth potential.

Josh Pynn

Sr. Mngr, Merchant Advisory Group

Josh Pynn

Sr. Mngr, Merchant Advisory Group

Josh joined the MAG in 2023 to supercharge the creation and delivery of all payments related content to the membership. He is responsible for events such as webinars, conference sessions, and other thought leadership regarding their messaging, placement, speakers, and more. Josh comes from a background of assisting merchants with their payments arrangements and creating meaningful thought leadership, along with economic and market analysis of the payments industry.

Julie Ransom

Sr. Payment Operations Manager, Ancestry

Julie Ransom

Sr. Payment Operations Manager, Ancestry

Julie Ransom is a seasoned payments professional with over 15 years of experience in payment strategy, fraud prevention, and risk management. As Senior Payment Operations Manager at Ancestry, she leads global payment initiatives, optimizing acceptance, reducing friction, and mitigating fraud. Julie has a deep understanding of chargebacks, network compliance, and payment vendor management, ensuring efficient and secure transactions at scale.

Marc Roth

Partner, Cobalt LLP

Marc Roth

Partner, Cobalt LLP

Marc Roth is a nationally recognized advertising, marketing, privacy and transactional attorney. Marc assists clients develop and implement free trial, continuous service and auto-renewal subscription programs in compliance with federal and state laws and rules and merchants card rules. He is a former Federal Trade Commission attorney and Chief Marketing Counsel for a Time Warner subsidiary. Marc is a frequent speaker and author on subscription marketing legal issues

Animikh Sen

Sr. Director, Product – North America, Visa

Animikh Sen

Sr. Director, Product – North America, Visa

Animikh Sen is part of the North America Product - Client Strategy & Solutions leadership team. He is a 10-year veteran at Visa, where he holds a Global Patent on non-fungible token (NFT) and other trade secrets and is a Hackathon winner. His team at Visa works with payment ecosystem partners including Enablers, Merchants, and Fintechs, with a focus on improving consumer experience for digital payment, reducing fraud, and improving authorization performance, all while expanding acceptance. He is also a part-time Assistant Professor at the Coles College of Business at Kennesaw State University in Georgia. When he is not being a payment geek, he can be found with his camera, capturing moments to mountains to monuments.

Melissa Shields

Head of Payments Strategy and Solution Design, Starbucks & Chairman of the Board, PaymentsEd

Melissa Shields

Head of Payments Strategy and Solution Design, Starbucks & Chairman of the Board, PaymentsEd

Melissa Shields is a senior payments executive with extensive knowledge in subscription, payments, and product verticals. With a passion for innovation in the space, she has led initiatives to expand and simplify recurring transactions as well as evolve new acceptance strategies with Fintech partners. As the Director of Payment Strategy and Operations at Starbucks, Melissa and her team of experienced partners are charged with providing the payments strategies for both card present and card-not-present experiences throughout Starbucks.

Martha Southall

Chief of Staff, CMSPI

Martha Southall

Chief of Staff, CMSPI

Martha Southall is the Chief of Staff at CMSPI, a leading payments advisory firm that optimizes payments for the world’s largest merchants. Previously, she led CMSPI’s Client Insights department globally, with technical specialisms including multi-acquiring, tokenization, and Alternative Payment Methods. Martha is co-chair of the PaymentsEd Education Committee.

Suhil Srinivas

Sr. Director of Product, LinkedIn

Suhil Srinivas

Sr. Director of Product, LinkedIn

Suhil Srinivas is the Senior Director of Product at LinkedIn, where he leads the LinkedIn Business Platform (LBP) team, driving go-to-market systems across the company including Payments. With over 20 years of experience in product and technology leadership, Suhil has deep expertise in the payments space, including his time at PayPal, where he worked on core payment capabilities and payment infrastructure. Throughout his career, he has built and scaled billing, monetization, and enterprise payment solutions at both consumer and B2B companies, bringing a unique perspective on the intersection of product strategy and operational scale.

Ashley Arce

Hd of Retail, Merch Services, J.P. Morgan

Ashley Arce

Hd of Retail, Merch Services, J.P. Morgan

Ashley Arce is the Head of Retail for JPMorgan Merchant Services. Her team provides payments acquiring solutions for several segments, including consumer retail, QSR, grocery, petroleum, convenience stores, and lodging. Across JPMorgan, she works closely with Product, Banking, Treasury, Product, Payment Networks, Marketing, and Operations to continue to drive efficiency and end to end payment solutions to deliver growth for clients. Before stepping into her current role, Ashley managed global clients of all sizes in her 12 years with JPMorgan with a focus on global ecommerce and optimizing our product suite. Known for her leadership and mentorship of colleagues in the workplace, Ashley supports Women on the Move, Parents at Work, and Autism Awareness. Ashley has a Bachelor of Arts in Business and Marketing from the University of Oregon. She is based in Dallas and is the proud mom of three energetic boys under age 10.

Mike Thomas

Sr VP, Head of Instant Payments, U.S. Bank

Mike Thomas

Sr VP, Head of Instant Payments, U.S. Bank

Mike Thomas is a senior payments executive with more than a decade of experience working in instant payments. In his role as the Head of Instant Payments at U.S. Bank, Mike is responsible for expanding the value delivered by Instant Payments across the enterprise: for the bank and each of its customer segments. Under his leadership, U.S. Bank has expanded its products to include both real-time payments and request for payment experiences across consumer, small business, and corporate and commercial customers. It has also built a growing portfolio of industry use cases for real-time payments ranging from brokerage account funding and merchant services settlement to title payments and earned wage access. Prior to joining U.S. Bank, Mike was Vice President, Product Development, for The Clearing House where he helped to launch the RTP system in 2017.

Fred Tyler

VP, Digital Auth. PM, NA, Mastercard

Fred Tyler

VP, Digital Auth. PM, NA, Mastercard

Fred Tyler is VP of Digital Authentication Products at Mastercard, leading the North America product strategy for Identity Check (3DS) and Token Authentication. His passion is partnering with industry stakeholders to evolve the payments ecosystem by enhancing digital identity and trust, focusing on the adoption, performance and scalability of device-based biometrics and data sharing. Prior to his current role, he worked at Mastercard in global acceptance and has over 20 years of experience in international payments and e-commerce acquiring, including various positions at JPMorgan Chase, Fiserv and at Group4 in the UK working on EMV chip migration. He holds a BSc from the University of Manchester, UK.

John Albin

Dir. of Recurring Payments, Optimized Payments

John Albin

Dir. of Recurring Payments, Optimized Payments

John has nearly 20 years of experience in subscription operations, with a focus on the Magazine Publishing industry. He has tackled complex user flows across multiple billing platforms and payment processors. Previously, John worked at Hearst, Conde Nast, and Outside Magazine, where he helped manage operational systems, including chargebacks, authorizations, and retry policies. He also has experience in fulfillment consulting, providing similar services to numerous clients.

Lam Van Lund

Merchant Support, Mastercard 

Lam Van Lund

Merchant Support, Mastercard 

Lam Van Lund supports merchants within the Mastercard North America Market Development team. In this role, she is responsible for defining and driving technology enhancements to improve processing efficiencies. In addition, she advocates and provides merchant’s voice back to internal team related products, rules, etc., to help improve acceptance, cardholder benefits and security of the ecosystem.

Laura Varela

Sr Manager, B2B & SaaS Marketing, Paypal

Luke Wickman

Sr. Commercial Strategy Manager, Adyen

Luke Wickman

Sr. Commercial Strategy Manager, Adyen

Luke is a Senior Commercial Strategy Manager at Adyen focusing on their Digital Content and Online Retail verticals. He develops and drives prioritization of Adyen’s new products and commercial strategy for these verticals. Prior to his current role, Luke was a Senior Account Manager working with Adyen’s most strategic clients. Consulting enterprise merchants to help them fulfill their global payments strategy, including international expansion, new payment methods, auth rate optimization, scheme requirements, reducing fraud and cost of payments. Before Adyen he was a consultant at Deloitte focusing on fintech and platform technology companies.

Kaleb Winn

Payments Success Manager, Boulevard

Kaleb Winn

Payments Success Manager, Boulevard

Kaleb is a Payments & Fintech professional with over 15-years of experience in SaaS merchant processing inclusive of Operations, Sales, Dispute Management, KYC/AML/BSA/PCI Compliance, AI & Machine Learning, Strategy, B2B Relationships, and Customer Experience. In his current role, he performs as a Payments Success Manager for Boulevard.

Detective James Woo

Tourist Oriented Policing Team, Anaheim Police Department

Detective James Woo

Tourist Oriented Policing Team, Anaheim Police Department

Detective James Woo is a twenty-year veteran of law enforcement (Buena Park Police Department and Anaheim Police Department) and holds a Bachelor's Degree in Criminal Justice Management from the Union Institute & University. During his career, he has been involved in every type of criminal investigation at the local, state, and federal levels. Detective Woo served as one of the tactical negotiators for SWAT. Detective Woo has assisted other instructors with Identity Theft/Fraud investigations.

Hanjie Xiao

VP - Global Treasury & Payments, Semrush

Hanjie Xiao

VP - Global Treasury & Payments, Semrush

HanJie Xiao is originally from Vancouver, Canada. He is currently VP Treasury & Global Payments at Semrush. HanJie holds an MSC in Finance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and has over 15 years of experience in the Treasury and Payments space. HanJie has expertise in managing a multi-PSP system with strategic traffic routing, retry logic improvements, and payment acceptance enhancements. He implemented advanced tokenization, L2/L3 data transmission and local currency billing initiatives, while overseeing large-scale reconciliation and fee benchmarking projects across PSPs. Prior to Semrush, he worked at Wish in San Francisco, where he helped build out the Treasury function and Payment systems to support international expansion.

Vivek Yadav

Engineering Manager, Stripe

Vivek Yadav

Engineering Manager, Stripe

Vivek joined Stripe in 2017 as a seasoned engineering leader, responsible for building Stripe's network costs infrastructure that forms the basis for how we optimize network costs for our customers. His team also builds our dashboard tooling that helps businesses identify network costs trends and optimization opportunities. Prior to Stripe, Vivek was a tech leader at India based fintech Zeta.

Veronika Young

Payments Senior Manager– US & C, Netflix

Veronika Young

Payments Senior Manager– US & C, Netflix

Veronika is the US Senior Payments Manager at Netflix. The mission of the Payments Team is to ensure that payment never stops someone from signing up, nor is it the reason why they leave Netflix. The passion for Payments and commitment to members drive the team to create a better payments ecosystem. Netflix is constantly pursuing the best, most seamless, and safest payment experience for their members, thereby driving incremental revenue. Prior to joining Netflix, Veronika held payments positions at Starbucks and The Walt Disney Company. Each of these roles has deepened her passion for the nuances of payment optimization

David Beck

Payments Partnerships Lead, Instacart

David Beck

Payments Partnerships Lead, Instacart

David has extensive experience implementing strategies to drive growth and scale for merchants via payments. He joined Instacart in 2022 and leads the Payments Partnerships Team, which is responsible for developing and executing Instacart's overall payments strategy and vision. Prior to Instacart, he was a Strategy Consultant at Accenture (formerly First Annapolis) for 5 years specializing in partnerships and strategic initiatives across the payments value chain. He resides in Birmingham, Alabama with his wife and son.

Ray Watson

SVP Channel Partnerships, FlexPay

Ray Watson

SVP Channel Partnerships, FlexPay

Ray Watson is the Senior Vice President of Channel Partnerships at FlexPay, a leading payment recovery solution for companies with recurring and subscription revenue. With over 20 years of experience in the global payments industry, Ray has held strategic roles at JPMorgan Chase, Ingenico ePayments (acquired by Worldline), and Litle & Co (now part of Vantiv/FIS). He holds an MBA from Texas Christian University (TCU).

Greg Witten

VP of Sales, Visa

Greg Witten

VP of Sales, Visa

Greg leads the merchant sales team to drive adoption of Verifi’s solutions across enterprise, mid-market, and SMB businesses in North America. His experience shows a strong analytic ability, a proven track record of achieving growth and stretch metrics, all while challenging the status quo. With more than 15 years of experience in business management, business development, sales and marketing, strategy, and operations across a range of industries, Greg is responsible for leading multiple sales organizations and initiatives key in pioneering what is now called the integrated payments segment. Greg holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Colorado.

Bobby Wright

Director - eCommerce, Zillow

Bobby Wright

Director - eCommerce, Zillow

Bobby is a seasoned payments professional with over 15 years’ experience in the FinTech space. Having served roles on both the processing/acquiring side, as well as the merchant side, he brings a unique perspective into the world of merchant services. As the Director of eCommerce Payments at Zillow, he is responsible for providing strategic direction and operational oversight across all Zillow lines of business. Prior to joining Zillow, he led an enterprise implementations team at FIS/WorldPay, which allows him to provide strategic insight across a wide range of merchants (enterprise, government, utility, insurance, and FIs) and their common challenges.

Trey Jackson

Director, Retention Marketing, Fox Network

Trey Jackson

Director, Retention Marketing, Fox Network

Trey Jackson is Director of Retention Marketing at FOX, where he leads payment strategy, fraud mitigation, and chargeback management across all properties. He also leads lifecycle analytics for Fox One, FOX’s soon-to-launch streaming service. With over a decade of experience rooted in analytics and data, Trey focuses on improving authorization rates, reducing churn, and building scalable systems that balance growth with security.

Paul Rabil

Professional Lacrosse Player and Co-Founder of the Premier Lacrosse League (PLL)

Paul Rabil

Professional Lacrosse Player and Co-Founder of the Premier Lacrosse League (PLL)

Paul Rabil is a former professional athlete, entrepreneur, and influential figure in sports entertainment and innovation. He is the Co-Founder and President of the Premier Lacrosse League (PLL), named the 2020 Sports Business Journal’s Sports Breakthrough of the Year and the 2023 and 2024 Best Places to Work. Under his leadership, the PLL has grown into a prominent eight- team league with major partners like ESPN, Champion, Ticketmaster, and Gatorade. Rabil also served as an executive producer on Fate of a Sport, the 2022 ESPN documentary chronicling the PLL’s creation. In November of 2024, he launched the Women’s Lacrosse League (WLL), which debuted in February of 2025. Rabil is widely regarded as one of the greatest lacrosse players of all time. He holds the all-time professional scoring record and has won championships and MVP honors at the NCAA, professional, and international levels. A two-time World Lacrosse Champion with Team USA, his legacy on the field is matched by his impact off it. Off the field, Rabil has built a robust multi-channel brand with over 1 million fans. In 2017, he launched the award- winning Suiting Up Podcast, featuring interviews with leaders like Bill Belichick, Steph Curry, Venus Williams, and Tony Hawk. He is also an internationally regarded speaker, appearing at events like Cannes Lions and as a guest on ESPN’s Get Up. In 2024, Rabil released his book, The Way of a Champion, offering insights on success, mindset, and leadership. His media accolades include being named a 40 Under 40 honoree by Sports Business Journal, “Best Athlete in a Web Series” by Cynopsis Sports Media, and “Most Tech-Savvy Athlete on the Planet” by SportTechie. Named a “Top 40 Most Entrepreneurial Athlete” by Entrepreneur Magazine, Rabil is also an active investor through his firm, Rabil Ventures. Additionally, he founded the Paul Rabil Foundation in 2011 to support children with learning differences through programs and scholarships, blending his passion for sport and philanthropy to make a meaningful impact.