The Most Influential Women in Payments Next, 2024

August 27, 2024 6:00 AM

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Most Influential Women in Payments Next cover slide, 2024

American Banker is proud to present the fourth annual list of rising stars in the payments industry.

The Most Influential Women in Payments: Next honors women 40 years old and younger who are making a major impact on their businesses, inspiring colleagues and changing the industry early in their careers. The award is a complement to American Banker's yearly Most Influential Women in Payments list, which we publish each spring.

This year's honorees are deeply involved in the major challenges and opportunities facing the payments business, working in real-time payments, new forms of artificial intelligence, product development, digitization and security and risk management.

The fast pace of change presents a chance to do more and to be bold.

"When any opportunity presents itself, one of the most common questions I ask myself is whether the time is right for me to pursue it," said Molly Hugar, senior vice president and lead commercial bank payments advisor at KeyBank. "My advice? Take a leap of faith. If you are tapped for an exciting new opportunity, there is a reason they asked you."

The ever evolving payments industry also requires fast-learning leaders who are adept at learning and teaching.

"Embracing opportunities that may at first seem beyond one's skills or experience, these are opportunities that allow for the most growth and learning," said Esther Shin, vice president and enterprise risk manager at The Clearing House.

Here's the list of this year's honorees, in alphabetical order.

Lisset May Cervantes

Senior Vice President of Sales and Customer Operations
Kueski
Age: 39
Years with the company: 3
Years in the payments industry: 13

Buy now/pay later pioneer
At Kueski, Cervantes fosters merchant partnerships to bridge Mexico's financial gap. She led Kueski Pay to become the first buy now/pay later service for Amazon México, expanding Kueski's reach and providing Mexican consumers with flexible payment options. Buy now/pay later has become one the world's most popular products in recent years as consumers attempt to manage higher prices in the wake of the pandemic, placing Cervantes in the middle of that trend.

New skills for new tech
Cervantes and her eight-person team are preparing for the broader implications of generative AI by investing in training and skill development. Financial institutions are weighing how to use gen AI, which uses advanced data analysis to produce original content, providing opportunities to streamline work and product development while adding security and compliance risk. Cervantes is focusing on training her staff and other departments in the company in an effort to improve how the company presents gen AI to clients. —John Adams

Jessica Chiu

Vice President, Strategic Partnerships, North America
Airwallex
Age: 38
Years with the company: 3
Years in the payments industry: 3

Paving the way for partnerships
Jessica Chiu works with third-party companies partnered with Airwallex to maximize growth and monetization. She has helped grow partnerships with some of the largest global marketplaces, including Amazon and Walmart, which account for billions of annualized transaction volume on the company's payment rails.

Mentorship made easy
Chiu is a proponent of being deliberate about mentor-mentee relationships, especially in today's largely hybrid work environment. She spearheads a formal program at Airwallex to pair mentors with mentees based on common goals and interests. "Mentorship can certainly happen organically, but many employees may be hesitant to proactively seek mentors on their own, particularly among senior leadership. A more formalized program can better signal leadership's accessibility and ensure more employees opt into the benefits of deeper one-on-one relationships," she said. —Joey Pizzolato

Brittany Eden

Vice President of Marketing
VGS
Age: 36
Years with the company: 1
Years in the payments industry: 15

Breaking the glass ceiling
When Brittany Eden joined VGS last year, she became the first female member of the company's executive team. She's charged with overseeing all content, branding, public relations and digital media at the payment tokenization company. During the past year, Eden has been busy leading VGS' rebranding efforts, an in-house website relaunch, and driving a marketing strategy entirely dedicated to payments.

Working smarter
Eden believes that AI will help streamline manual, inefficient processes and tasks that are prone to human error, and "do wonders for marketing copywriting" to help marketers brainstorm ideas and find data points or sources. "If used well, AI can help marketing accomplish twice the work in a fraction of the usual time," she said, but noted that she makes "sure any AI tools at work are used in ways that are fully transparent to our risk and security team." —Joey Pizzolato

Galia Beer-Gabel

Partner
Team8
Age: 40
Years with the company: 4
Years in the payments industry: 10

Building something new
Galia Beer-Gabel specializes in product-market fit, strategic road maps, new business generation and fundraising, and was one of three founding members of venture capital and creation firm Team8's financial technology business creation fund. Since founding the fund, she has helped raise $100 million in funds and has had a hand in the creation of four payment and fintech companies.

Nurture young female talent
In a world where AI is ubiquitous, Beer-Gabel believes that leveraging capabilities traditionally dominant among women can provide a significant competitive edge for startups. "Highly developed emotional intelligence is especially valuable in an era dominated by machine learning and algorithm-driven decision-making. These 'soft' skills remain irreplaceable by machines and are more crucial than ever," she said. "By nurturing women's unique strengths and potential from a young age, we can improve female representation in high tech, contribute to a healthier economy and foster innovation." —Joey Pizzolato

Molly Hugar

Senior Vice President and Lead Commercial Bank Payments Advisor
KeyBank
Age: 38
Years with the company: 3
Years in the payments industry: 13

Team goals
During the past year, Hugar led the reorganization of client coverage and helped analyze the bank's data and process work stream as part of a broader realignment of Key's commercial bank. That included creating a group of employees with differing levels of experience and expertise into a cohesive team of payments advisors and bankers.

On brand
In today's world everyone is a brand so it's important to ensure that the narrative created about you reflects who you are, according to Hugar. "As a starting point, it is important to be able to define your purpose and to understand what values you would like to embody," Hugar said, adding she started working on her brand by handwriting the answers to these three questions: What do you stand for? What is important to you and why? And what do you want to be remembered for? "Once I was able to answer those questions, then I could tackle my vision and mission statement both personally and professionally," she said. —John Adams

Brittany Kelley

Vice President of Financial Solutions
Pathward
Age: 36
Years with the company: 16
Years in the payments industry: 16

Going to market
Kelley, who manages a line of business servicing and supporting financial institutions and corporate clients, recently redefined the strategic direction and go-to-market process of a Pathward service that is designed to tailor product sales based on the demands of that customer at a specific time. For example, the client may change its model, grow or add new offices. Called the Solutions for Financial Institutions, Kelley and her team integrated Pathward's sales strategy with its product development unit.

Two-way street
It's essential not to rely solely on your mentor to drive the relationship, Kelley said. "Actively engage in conversations and seek knowledge, leveraging your mentor's expertise while driving the dialogue towards your growth objectives," she said. "Maintaining regular connection points is essential. Without a defined meeting cadence, check-ins and mentorship meetings can easily slip through the cracks. Clear communication and scheduling help maintain consistency and ensure the relationship remains productive." —John Adams

GARY HORN

Courtney Mitchell

Head of Consumer Deposit and Payment Products
TD Bank
Age: 38
Years with the company: 12
Years in the payments industry: 12

Essential work
Mitchell has left her mark on at least two major initiatives at TD Bank in the past two years. She led the fastest internal product launch in the bank's history, TD Essential Banking, a low-cost, no-overdraft-fee deposit account aligned with the bank's efforts to support unbanked and underbanked communities. Mitchell was also pivotal in revamping TD's overdraft policies by working closely with internal stakeholders and regulators to introduce TD Overdraft Relief. And in 2023, she helped lead the bank through a time of tremendous deposit pressure following the failure of several regional banks.

The virtue of transparency
Being transparent allows others to see your strengths and truths while also connecting with your human side, according to Mitchell. "My hope is that it, in turn, encourages my teams to also be transparent with me so we can best solve project related problems as they arise, and we can support them both personally and professionally," she said. And empathy is non-negotiable as a part of my personal brand, Mitchell added "For me, it's cultivated by checking in with my team and building open communication that creates a place where they feel seen and valued." —John Adams

Lauren Morrison

Vice President of Card Products and Services
VyStar Credit Union
Age: 37
Years with the company: 4
Years in the payments industry: 13

Building a credit card brand
At Vystar Credit Union, Lauren Morrison cut her teeth developing modeling products, which included optimizing credit card campaigns and collections. Today, as VP of card products and services, Morrison oversees the bank's credit card and debit card portfolios. Recently, she was responsible for launching a co-branded credit card with the NBA's Orlando Magic and a credit card loyalty campaign called "Endless Summer Sweepstakes." Notably, she also implemented changes to the portfolio that generated millions of dollars in income within the first year.

Don't neglect your personal brand
The professional landscape in financial services is more competitive than ever, making personal brands all the more necessary to stand out in the crowd, Morrison said. "A strong personal brand not only distinguishes you from your peers, but also shapes how others perceive your professional abilities. At the core of building a personal brand is a clear understanding of personal vision and values." —Joey Pizzolato

Tiffany Patrick

Senior Vice President AML, Payments and Innovations
Citibank
Age: 38
Years with the company: 16
Years in the payments industry: 3

Solving problems with AI
Tiffany Patrick is responsible for anti-money-laundering oversight of global payments and receivables at Citibank, and is a key stakeholder in the bank's review of generative AI and large language models. Patrick looks for common pain points across the bank's payments business and compliance teams to identify where AI can be deployed, brings a unique method for solving problems and is able to create a true sense of camaraderie uniting team members under a common goal.

Never stop learning
Artificial intelligence has the potential to redefine payments, and Patrick aims to stay ahead of the curve. "We are in a defining era," she said. "The best way to prepare is to start educating yourself and don't stop. Advanced technology requires perpetual inquiry." Still, AI usage needs to be intentional. "It's key to take your existing pain points — the ones that needed solutions before AI was even an option — and start there to make sure you are creating value with an AI solution and not just using AI because it's available." —Joey Pizzolato

Rebecca Schultz

Chief Marketing Officer
Boost Payment Solutions
Age: 40
Years with the company: 3
Years in the payments industry: 20

Demystifying payments
As a self-proclaimed "payments geek," Rebecca Schultz understands that to be effective, marketing strategies need to not only educate and inform, but simplify and demystify the complex B2B payments ecosystem. Since joining Boost in 2021, she has notably redesigned the fintech's website, implemented new content strategy and launched a new payments platform called Boost100.

Reverse mentoring
Schultz may have 20 years of experience in payments, but she's not above learning from her reports. One key strategy she employs is "reverse mentoring," which flips the mentor/mentee relationship on its head and pairs a senior leader with a junior mentor. "Want to know more about the latest technology or software that you should be using? Looking to better understand how to motivate your direct reports? Have questions about how to build a collaborative, inclusive work environment? Reverse mentoring is the perfect solution to soliciting authentic and effective feedback," she said. —Joey Pizzolato

Aimee Schumaker

Head of Partnerships, B2B
Flywire
Age: 36
Years with company: 6
Years in payments business: 6

Globe trotting
Schumaker has expanded Flywire's presence in China by signing deals with card networks that were designed to reduce processing costs and improve payer experience. She also launched new payment methods that allowed Flywire and its clients to expand their global reach, and helped develop new payment products that aided Flywire's strategy in Latin America and elsewhere.

Making mentorship work
Mentorship isn't something one asks someone for. It works best when there is already a relationship and both parties are invested in each other's success, Schumaker said. "With this in mind, I work to develop personal relationships with people I respect in my industry, and I then expand those into mentorships. Often, it's not a formal arrangement. It's just clear that I respect their business opinion." —John Adams

Esther Shin

Vice President of Enterprise Risk Management
The Clearing House
Age: 32
Years with the company: 3
Years in the payments industry: 3

Standardizing the format
Shin played a big role in the conversion of CHIPS, the world's largest, private-sector high volume clearing system, to the ISO 20022 message format. ISO20022 standardizes the information that's included in payments, and is considered a key element in supporting interoperability for real-time payments and other digital transactions, a major strategy as TCH develops the RTP Network.

Building a network
Maintaining genuine relationships with colleagues and/or industry peers not only has proven to open doors to unexpected opportunities but can also build trust with those who ultimately present such opportunities, according to Shin. "Relying on those mentorships and genuine relationships with leadership within The Clearing House who present opportunities to me, allows me to trust that the organization wants me to succeed in these roles, and that my success aligns with the success of the company's objectives." —John Adams

Jaqueline Sousa

Director, CashPro Payments Product Team Lead
Bank of America
Age: 35
Years with the company: 5
Years in the payments industry: 8

Getting started
Sousa was born in New Jersey to Portuguese immigrants and became interested in economics at a young age. She is the first in her family to go to college, graduating from Bentley University with a double major in Finance and Economics and Imagination & The Human Experience. Following stints at Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan Chase, she joined BofA in 2019 as a product manager for CashPro Payments and was quickly promoted to lead the team in 2022. She now manages a multimillion-dollar budget and helps a five-person team develop tech products that require input from disparate groups across the bank.

Don't hide
In the corporate world, blending in is the opposite of what you want to do, Sousa said. "To succeed, you need to stand out. Unfortunately, however, I see people in my industry hiding themselves or putting on a façade. There could be good reasons for this, with fear of being rejected most likely. This is understandable when the stakes are high in the workplace. But that fear is not going to help you succeed nor help you truly connect with and enjoy what you do." —John Adams

Brooke Turner

Director of Sales, North America
Troy Group
Age: 39
Years with the company: 2
Years in the payments industry: 14

Safe and secure
Turner conducts webinars and training sessions on secure payment methods, and works with businesses and banks in combating fraud. As part of her job in sales, Turner has also worked with the largest ten banks on fraud provision techniques. And In 2024, she helped a credit union identify and recover $750,000 in potential losses within 90 days of the potential theft.

Generating AI
In preparation for the impact of generative AI, Turner is involved in exploring how these new forms of technology can be integrated into her company's existing fraud prevention frameworks. "This involves staying informed about the latest advancements in AI and understanding their potential applications in secure payment methods. For instance, AI can be used to detect anomalies in transaction patterns, identify potential fraud more quickly and provide real-time alerts, thereby enhancing our proactive and reactive support mechanisms." —John Adams