Director, business solutions, global product and innovations group
When the global pandemic hit, WEX's Corporate Payments Solutions division was growing at a 21% annual rate with some of the largest online travel agencies (OTAs) such as Expedia as clients.
Yet when the global pandemic was declared and countries shut down international travel, businesses that specialized in travel payments found themselves in a unique position that would require significant transformative efforts to survive the shutdown.
“We first started seeing the trend of travel slowing in Asia,” said Limerick. “But then the tsunami hit and flattened the business. Our travel business stopped overnight due to COVID. Not only did we no longer have any new business coming in, we also had a large lending portfolio to our corporate customers so it was a big concern.”
The pandemic exposed a number of issues that stretched beyond the immediate loss of travel business including an overreliance on a single cards-based payments channel, the need to attract new clients, implement mobile payments and solve for a large loan portfolio to corporate institutions.
Limerick was tasked with leading the “Pandemic Pivot Strategy” for the travel unit at WEX. Her responsibility shifted to guiding the global team, providing a clear vision around next steps and setting the business direction.
One major goal for Limerick was to attract new revenue from both the existing travel sector as well as to diversify beyond travel. To pursue new business, she collaborated with her team to brainstorm a total of 42 new ideas that could generate business for the company.
After leading a feasibility and profitability analysis of each of the ideas, she identified an opportunity in insurance payments that could scale quickly while leveraging WEX’s teams and infrastructure.
Certain leaders like Alex inspire confidence and faith that in their hands great things will happen at an organization … She has taken data-driven approaches to ground strategic vision, then instigated immediate actions across cross-functional groups to turn that vision into an achievable reality, resulting in highly collaborative deliverables of new product offerings, necessary regulatory compliance actions and customer wins across the globe.
The new focus brought a win in her home country of Australia by bringing in the National Disability Insurance Scheme(NDIS) of Australia as a client. The NDIS is a government program that provides people with permanent and significant disability, under the age of 65, with funding and support for care. Limerick noted that there is an $11 billion total addressable market in Australia for the payments and that the next step is to take this win and bring it to other countries.
While solving for the diversification of revenue, Limerick also kept scanning the horizon for the existing travel business as well, winning Booking.com, one of the world’s largest travel companies.
Along with bringing in new business, Limerick led her team to add product capabilities such as a non-card bank transfer solution as well as mobile payments offering, allowing customers to diversify beyond simply card payments.
Limerick's navigation skills don't stem only from the business world; she holds Skipper’s License in the U.K. to sail yachts. Growing up she learned to handle the rough waves as her parents were avid sailors in Australia. When she came to the U.K. she learned to sail in Europe.
“I love putting all of the pieces together of a business, especially when the pressure to succeed is on,” said Limerick. “It forces you to look critically at all of the elements to decide what’s most important."
Limerick noted that resilience is key as it can help a leader to continue to move forward, learn, grow and adapt to any situation, no matter the circumstance or hurdle.
Nominating executive:
Jay Dearborn, president of corporate payments
What he says:
“Certain leaders like Alex inspire confidence and faith that in their hands great things will happen at an organization… She has taken data-driven approaches to ground strategic vision, then instigated immediate actions across cross-functional groups to turn that vision into an achievable reality, resulting in highly collaborative deliverables of new product offerings, necessary regulatory compliance actions and customer wins across the globe.”
