Wex's New CEO Circulates Memo: She's Pregnant

She is a former chief financial officer, a sitting CEO and, according to industry publication PaymentsSource, one of the most influential women in the payments space. And soon Melissa Smith will be adding another role to her bio: mom.

Smith, the president of Wex since last May and its CEO since the start of this year, announced in a company memo on Wednesday that she is due in September with her first child.

A report in the Wall Street Journal about the memo and Smith's plans suggests shades of Marissa Mayer's experience at Yahoo, which named her CEO knowing that she was pregnant and planning a short maternity leave. Smith tells the paper, "It's a very unusual place to be when you're talking to a board member about your pregnancy before you're talking to a lot of people in your family."

Smith, 45, is scheduled to be a keynote speaker at American Banker and PaymentsSource's Card Forum & Expo conference next month in Orlando, Fla., where she also will be participating in a panel discussion with other executives named to PaymentsSource's list of the Most Influential Women in Payments.