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Women in Payments

The Most Influential Women in Payments: Next

By Kate Fitzgerald, John Adams, David Heun, Michael Moeser , Daniel Wolfe
May 6, 2021 5:01 AM
Women in Payments Next 2021 cover slide

For many years, PaymentsSource has honored the women leading the transformation of the global payments industry. Today, we extend that honor to the next generation of leaders, with The Most Influential Women in Payments, Next.

The honorees are women under 40 who have demonstrated a strong talent for leadership and an expertise in their respective fields. They also took on crucial responsibilities to help their organizations navigate the complexities of the pandemic, and set their companies on a path for continued growth.

The women featured here represent companies as large as Bank of America and Walmart; as well as newer fintechs like Stax and Featurespace. They manage businesses from around the world and have won the praises of their organizations' CEOs.

Please join the honorees at a special event recognizing their achievements alongside the honorees of American Banker's Most Powerful Women in Banking, Next on May 18-20, 2021. Register here.

Meredith Altenhofen, Marqeta

Meredith Altenhofen, Marqeta

Head of strategic accounts

Where she's based: Denver, Colorado

What she does: Altenhofen leads the strategic customer segment for Marqeta in North America and is responsible for setting the segment strategy and driving revenue. She leads a team of six business development and customer success professionals focused on establishing new customer relationships and expanding existing ones.

"Meredith stands out as a phenomenal leader who has the unique ability to be both strategic and visionary, while still grounded and execution-oriented, leading the strategy for establishing some of Marqeta's most impactful partnerships."
— Renata Caine, senior vice president, International, Strategy and Planning

Read her full profile
Alina Ciocan, Finance Operations Manager, Kani Payments

Alina Ciocan, Kani Payments

Finance operations manager

Where she's based: Newcastle upon Tyne

What she does: Ciocan helped lead development and implementation of the company's reconciliation program. She also sparked a new awareness of the importance of not only occurring data, but providing a sophisticated understanding of how the management and analysis of financial processes impact a fintech's economic health.

"She has demonstrated the behaviors of a leader, a collaborative and supportive peer who cares about others succeeding and growing, while delivering her own work to the highest standard."
—Aaron Holmes, CEO

Read her full profile
Amy Gentile, Head of strategy and research, Impact Labs, FIS

Amy Gentile, FIS

Head of strategy and research, Impact Labs

Where she's based: Denver, Colo.

What she does: Gentile is one of the co-founders of Impact Labs. She has grown the Lab's staff from 4 to 46 and has hired her own team of 8 staffers, on the way to 11. She also designed elements of FIS' innovation process and established a pipeline of 150 concepts, with three new ventures set to launch in 2021.

"Amy Gentile has displayed incredible leadership skills and has spearheaded numerous innovations and initiatives since I have had the pleasure of working with her."
—Steven Walchek, chief innovation officer

Read her full profile
Kelly Haren, director of payment services, Walmart

Kelly Haren, Walmart

Director of payment services

Where she's based: Bentonville, Arkansas

What she does: Haren is responsible for in-store electronic payments at Walmart Inc., which includes both Walmart and Sam's Club domestic segments. In this role, she has oversight of day-to-day business and operational support for processing billions of transactions annually.

"Kelly often goes above and beyond to take on challenges outside of her 'core' responsibilities … Over the past year, she has become the leading voice for diversity and inclusion within our team, specifically participating in Walmart's 'Race Ahead Series' and actively mentoring two internal female associates."
—Mike Cook, senior vice president, finance and assistant treasurer

Read her full profile
Elizabeth Kowal, chief product officer, MineralTree

Elizabeth Kowal, MineralTree

Chief product officer

Where she's based: Cambridge, Massachusetts

What she does: Leads product development for MineralTree, a provider of cloud-based AP automation systems for businesses.

What he said: “In addition to gaining the respect of the leadership team since her arrival in 2019, Elle does important work behind the scenes to make sure initiatives keep moving forward, while giving people the space to own projects and add their unique value.”
—Vijay Ramnathan, president

Read her full profile
Alexandra Limerick, director, business solutions, global product and innovations group, WEX

Alexandra Limerick, WEX

Director, business solutions, global product and innovations group

Where she’s based: London

What she does: Limerick leads the product and innovations group which creates transformative products and services for the Corporate Payments Solutions unit, which brings in $39 billion in annual payments volume.

“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.”
—Jay Dearborn, president of corporate payments

Read her full profile
Krystal Little, Stax

Krystal Little, Stax

Senior director of revenue operations

Where she's based: Orlando, Florida

What she does: Creates automated systems to attract, enroll and retain merchants for payment processing services.

“Krystal takes a three-pronged approach to leadership with her accountability, vulnerability and gratitude and ingrains those qualities in people around her.”
—Suneera Madhani, founder and CEO

Read her full profile
Megan Mountain, director of product, Paya

Megan Mountain, Paya

Director of product

Where she's based: Atlanta, Georgia

What she does: Mountain heads the product function for Paya's ACH platform. In that role, she leads strategy and supporting use cases, while collaborating with sales, marketing operations and engineering on product development. Paya processes $35 billion in volume annually.

"Megan is a culture carrier — driving and demonstrating all of the characteristics of a Paya leader. She not only delivers and is committed to quality work … she also engages throughout the organization to help coach, motivate and lead by example."
—Andrea Kando, head of product and marketing

Read her full profile
Tiffany Rusin, VP, head of cyber security Asia Pacific and Global Services

Tiffany Rusin, Fiserv

Vice president, head of cyber security Asia Pacific and Global Services

Where she's based: Singapore

What she does: Rusin is responsible for information security for the diverse and highly-wired markets in the APAC region. Her responsibilities span encryption, data loss prevention, identity and access management.

"Tiffany displays all the qualities of a true, inclusive thought leader in all things cyber and digital payments, and is widely respected across the organization."
—Ivo Distelbrink, executive vice president and head of Asia Pacfic

Read her full profile
Araliya Sammé, head of financial crime, Featurespace

Araliya Sammé, Featurespace

Head of financial crime

Where she’s based: London

What she does: Sammé is the managing director for a new business line that is focused on providing anti-money laundering (AML) solutions to Featurespace clients. She is responsible for driving the company vision and strategy for the AML business and to make sure that her team delivers on the business plan across all areas beginning with marketing and sales to product, data science and engineering to ending with successful client delivery of solutions.

“One of Araliya's greatest strengths is her ability to walk into any situation and perform exceptionally well. Whether it's a senior management team discussion, a sales meeting or even a technical discussion about Featurespace solutions, Araliya uses her vast knowledge and expertise to appropriately adapt to the situation and audience.”
—Matt Mills, chief commercial officer

Read her full profile
Stephanie Schultz, vice president, head of emerging strategic partnerships, American Express

Stephanie Schultz, American Express

Vice president, head of emerging strategic partnerships

Where she’s based: New York, New York

What she does: Schultz focuses on forming new strategic partnerships with payment, commerce and technology companies that will make American Express a more essential part of customers' digital lives by creating seamless digital payment and servicing experiences.

“Stephanie stands out by leading with an external perspective and bringing others along with her while she is motivating & influencing change… Along the way, Stephanie focuses on driving collaboration across teams to build commitment & buy-in for novel ideas. By applying these leadership behaviors, Stephanie has unlocked industry-first products & partnerships (e.g., Send & Split).”
—Doug Buckminster, vice chairman and group president, global consumer services group

Read her full profile
Luvleen Sidhu, chair, CEO and founder, BM Technologies

Luvleen Sidhu, BM Technologies

Chair, CEO and founder

Where she's based: New York, New York

What she does: Runs BM Technologies’ BankMobile, a white-label digital banking platform company she founded in 2015 and recently took public.

“Luvleen created an innovative company by leveraging technology, and when she ran into obstacles she sought guidance from banking veterans who helped her pivot strategies.”
—Pankaj Dinodia, CEO, Dinodia Capital Advisors

Read her full profile
Anuradha Somani, U.S. Bank

Anuradha Somani, U.S. Bank

Senior Vice President, head of faster payments and payments innovation

Where she's based: New York, New York

What she does: Somani leads the development and commercialization of the next generation of faster payments solutions at U.S. Bank. She is responsible for setting the strategic vision and roadmap execution of two payment innovation studios, a new Treasury Management initiative, with the intent of disrupting the process of product creation in banks.

"Anu has cemented our position as a leader and innovator in the faster payments and payment innovation space by leading the launch of several market firsts … We could not have accomplished this without Anu."
—Richard Erario, executive vice president, head of global treasury management

Read her full profile
Mareike Turner, director of operations and CX, Payability
Mareike Turner, director of operations and CX, Payability

Mareike Turner, Payability

Director of operations and CX

Where she's based: New York, New York

What she does: Coaches teams lending funds to e-commerce entrepreneurs.

“Few have been more critical to our growth than Marieke, who was promoted from a manager to a director within her first five months. She rapidly scaled our customer services department from scratch and tailored it into a white-glove experience.”
—Keith Smith, CEO

Read her full profile
Tiffany Wan, Bank of America

Tiffany Wan, Bank of America

Director, head of product strategy in global transaction services

Where she's based: New York, New York

What she does: Drive the technology and business strategy for Global Transaction Services, a division of BofA with a lengthy portfolio and range of clients. Businesses, multinational corporations, financial institutions and governments turn to GTS for tasks as different as liquidity management, payments, receipts, trade and supply chain finance, foreign exchange and commercial card services.

"Tiffany has the rare ability to translate complex technology and product development topics so they can be understood by all."
—Faiz Ahmad, managing director and head of global transaction services

Read her full profile
WiB Next 2021 cover art

The Most Powerful Women in Banking, Next

Continue reading to see American Banker's Most Powerful Women in Banking, Next.
Kate Fitzgerald
Senior Editor, Payments
John Adams
, American Banker
David Heun
Associate Editor, American Banker
Michael Moeser
Senior Content Strategist, Arizent
Daniel Wolfe
Content Director, Payments and Credit Unions, American Banker
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