Director of product
Megan Mountain rose to the role of director of product at Paya in late 2019. Everything about her background and skill sets demonstrated during her previous nine years at the company had some sort of "development" process attached to it.
Whether it was working as an agent manager, implementation manager or product manager as part of Paya's ISO support network, Mountain showed the organizational and operational skills to tackle most any task.
But aspects of her job outside of having a knowledge of payments technology and trends have brought some extra challenges in the past year for Mountain, an honoree in PaymentsSource's 2021 Most Influential Women in Payments NEXT, highlighting young executives making a difference at their companies.
As if the pandemic raging since early 2020 wasn't enough of a challenge for everyone at Paya, Mountain experienced emotions that were stirred during a year of heightened political unrest and racial divide.
"In June, our diverse team came together for an honest conversation about the civil unrest and social justice issues we were facing as a country," Mountain said. "I remember listening to the heart-wrenching stories, painful realities and genuine fears that were affecting my colleagues, my friends."
It was a lot to take in, Mountain admitted.
"I could literally feel the weight in my heart," she added. "I wanted so bad to help but felt powerless. I was called upon for my thoughts and just burst into uncontrollable tears. I am grateful to work with such an extraordinary team."
She not only delivers and is committed to quality work … she also engages throughout the organization to help coach, motivate and lead by example.
She has been happy to see an increase in the number of businesses and organizations appointing non-traditional C-suite roles, such as a chief diversity officer.
"Collaboration between [chief diversity officers], or similar roles, along with passionate members of longstanding diversity networks can significantly accelerate the improvement of equalizing the gender and racial imbalance we face today," Mountain said. "Not only in the senior ranks, but organization-wide."
Company shareholders have a role to play in this shift as well, she added. "They can push companies to adopt better practices and improve their performance in terms of gender equality."
Mountain points to Andrea Kando, the head of product and marketing at Paya, as a key mentor for her career.
"Andrea's sponsorship role has played a vital role in my career advancement," she said. "It began when she helped me confront bias and afforded me the opportunity to apply my extensive cross-functional experience in a new and challenging role as product manager."
Kando also introduced her to a network of professional women and encouraged her to become an active member of the Women's Network in Electronic Transactions, while also nominating her to join the Women in Technology forum's committee.
Mountain has adopted a laser-focused mindset about what comes next, combining her experiences at Paya with her previous jobs in mentor training and customer service at Citi Cards. Plus, she left the workforce for a period of time to be a caregiver for military personnel.
"I can genuinely say that I have never been more excited about my career trajectory," Mountain said. "Andrea's leadership, passion and dedication have inspired me to kindle growth in the next generation of female leaders."
With that sort of positive momentum at work for Mountain, she has her career sights set on being a vice president in about five years — a role that would help her continue to set growth strategies for financial services technology.
"I will continue to foster mentor relationships to help other women grow alongside me," she added. "Looking further ahead, I plan to be one of the women in the C-suite, making strategic decisions with the women at the table next to me."
Nominating executive:
Andrea Kando, head of product and marketing
What she says:
"Megan was asked to jump in and design a solution (completely beyond her typical scope of work) and not only created an elegant process but quickly aligned the team around her work plan and execution. She also created customer-facing materials and documents to help position the solution, capture requirements, and roll it out to customers."
