The Most Influential Women in Payments: Next, 2023

July 26, 2023 7:00 AM

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American Banker is proud to recognize its third annual Most Influential Women in Payments, Next honorees. This award, a complement to American Banker's annual Most Influential Women in Payments, recognizes women under 40 who have demonstrated expertise, leadership skills and an ability to adapt in an ever-changing payments industry.

This year's honorees faced challenges in the workplace that are unique to their generation — the still-ongoing struggle between in-office and remote work, the phenomenon of "quiet quitting" and the tasks of providing and receiving mentorship when both workplace culture and the economic forces driving the industry are in flux.

"As leaders, we know that we must first lead ourselves if we want to effectively influence our teams to build and maintain habits that keep them engaged and performing at their best," said Chelsea Puckett, senior vice president for strategic payment systems at Stride Bank. "When we practice what we preach, show up authentically, and model the effort we ask of them, we gain respect and buy-in that surpasses leadership by authority every time."

Puckett and other honorees this year drew upon their strengths and their upbringings to find ways to stand apart. Sophie Schulman, senior director of business development at Visa, said: "My mother is an immigrant and didn't go to college, so she would always tell me, 'Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard.' I owe part of my success to … doing anything and everything related to the task at hand, asking a lot of questions, and focusing on learning as much as possible."

Read on to learn about all of this year's honorees, presented in alphabetical order.

Stephanie Blankenship

Senior Vice President, Head of Foundational Risk and Governance for Enterprise Payments
KeyBank
Age: 39
Years with Company: 17
Years in Payments Industry: 17

Mapping her route
Overseeing a team in charge of governance and risk management for more than 800 commercial clients in KeyBank's enterprise payments arena is a big job, but Stephanie Blankenship worked her way up at KeyBank, taking on her present role earlier this year. Early on, she recognized the importance of long-term career planning. "It's important to do a regular self-assessment around where you are in your role, and think strategically about what your next steps are in 12 months, two years, or five years down the road," she said.

Document what you do
Blankenship cannot overstate the importance of internal networking to advance within a company. "Having people who want to speak of your value to others is invaluable," she said. Another way to demonstrate your value to the company is to document it. "Find data points and metrics proving how your accomplishments are impactful to the business," she advised. Blankenship also continuously challenges the status quo to see if there's a better way to get the job done. "It's all about asking the right questions, pushing people's current perspective and encouraging teams to think differently to drive results," she said.

Jenny Miller

Head of U.S. Product and Country Manager
Wise
Age: 34
Years with Company: 5
Years in Payments Industry: 5

Customers first
International cross-border payments firm Wise added more bank account-like features to its app this year, enabling users to earn interest on balances held in the Wise app, which is FDIC-insured. In heading Wise's U.S. product operations, Miller played a key role in designing the new features, which boosted Wise's U.S. revenue 53% over last year. Making such new tools simple to use requires thinking like the end user, she said. "I always ask: How can we make something half as complex, yet still achieve the same outcome?"

Zoom in, zoom out
Operating within the intense competition in cross-border payments requires a deep understanding of local and global payment schemes, regulations and financial crime-fighting methods. Recognizing colleagues' milestones and encouraging them to share what they learn at every juncture, Miller aims to move smoothly between managing complex, underlying product features while making Wise's customer experience seem increasingly easy and intuitive. "It's easy to get lost in the details or lose sight of the end of a major project, but when these tough moments arise, I rally the team around the end goals."

Patricia Nunez

Head of Digital Product
Santander Bank
Age: 38
Years at Company: 1
Years in Payments Industry: 14

Write it down
Nunez has built the strategic payments vision at her bank for the upcoming years. Her role includes managing a multinational team that leverages global assets to implement payment solutions in the U.S., leading a team of about 20 staffers. Nunez also practices daily guided journaling, or answering prompts about wellness, spirituality, goals or other observations. "I am a strong advocate for the purposeful use of reflective writing to support holistic well-being. It is an effective therapy to increase insight, promote change, drive personal growth and further develop your sense of self. I credit many of my personal and career success to my commitment to creating a transformative positive habit that has helped me raise my [profile.]"

What's next?
Nunez says the biggest challenge to the payments industry in the year ahead is increased regulatory scrutiny and customer demand for instant ways to pay and get paid. "Payment providers need to invest in compliance programs, new technologies, and work closely with regulators to navigate the complex control landscape. I have been diligently working with my team to create a structure that adequately tackles both 'build the bank' and 'run the bank' functions in a way that is nimble and future-forward." Additionally, the bank is transforming its payments technology infrastructure to focus on building digital-first money movement capabilities and improving security across the whole ecosystem.

Chelsea Puckett

Senior Vice President, Strategic Payment Systems
Stride Bank
Age: 36
Time with Company: 12 years
Time in Payments Industry: 12 years

Energized
Puckett oversees a unit at Stride that is responsible for powering payments for products such as Chime's Credit Builder, the DasherDirect card by DoorDash, Lyft Direct by Lyft and the Stash Stock-Back Debit Card. Keeping up with that requires lots of energy. The ability to influence something as dynamic and finicky as motivation is primarily an energy management skill, according to Puckett. "As leaders, we know that we must first lead ourselves if we want to effectively influence our teams to build and maintain habits that keep them engaged and performing at their best. When we practice what we preach, show up authentically, and model the effort we ask of them, we gain respect and buy-in that surpasses leadership by authority every time."

Taking hold
Earlier in Puckett's career she followed a path determined by what jobs were available, something she says is necessary before you can differentiate yourself. "However, it's crucial for women who have secured a seat at the executive table to share our stories about our pivot points. For me, I realized I had elevated to a new level when I shifted my mindset from taking what I was given to taking what I want. I started turning down opportunities, unapologetically saying no to things that weren't the best use of my time to get me where I wanted to go."

Margaret Ryan

Vice President, Emerging Payments Product Management
American Express
Age: 37
Years with Company: 10
Years in Payments Industry: 10

Google docs
Over the past year, Ryan partnered closely with counterparts at Google to launch virtual cards for customers shopping in Chrome. Ryan's work included defining the experience for consumers and determining the go-to-market plan. She also drove the launch of a card-on-file payment partnership with Amazon, enabling customers to save their card with Amazon; and led the team responsible for building and launching American Express Rewards Checking, Amex's first consumer checking account.

Deeper dive
Ryan has focused on open banking, which powers data sharing between financial institutions to enable consumers to access multiple products from a single relationship. And she has also taken a deeper dive into mobile wallet technology over the past year. "I learned more about the customer journey and user needs, how the tech works, the nuances of the partnerships, and new opportunities to expand existing use cases … [and] virtual card numbers have strongly resonated with our customers."

Frances Savage

Associate Director, Strategy and GTM, Crypto and Web3
Worldpay from FIS
Age: 31
Years with Company: 3
Years in Payments Industry: 7

Brain builder
Tasked with spearheading development of crypto-native products at FIS, Savage works within a kaleidoscope of rapidly evolving technology that requires constant learning, reading and networking. She also likes to attend industry conferences and events that enable her to connect with other professionals across the sector. "In doing this, I see the importance of the work that we do in bridging the gap between traditional and digital finance," she said.

Self improver
To navigate her professional journey and make sure she was doing everything she could to meet her goals, Savage sought out a career coach. "I undertook a comprehensive professional survey conducted across my colleagues, which has enabled me to identify my key strengths and weaknesses," she said. As part of that, Savage found an internal mentor, who helps her fine-tune her daily job with FIS' culture and its place in the financial services industry. To ensure balance, she also has a mentor from outside the company who helps her see the broader perspective of how her work and company fit into the big picture.

Sophie Schulman

Senior Director, Business Development
Visa
Age: 30
Years with Company: 4
Years in Payments Industry: 8

Going to work
Schulman is responsible for global business development and partnerships with fintechs, a key task given the recent growth of digitally focused startups in financial services. Amid the talent shortages of recent years, Schulman says she has never been tempted to give into the trend of quiet quitting, or doing the bare minimum of a job and not going above and beyond a job's duties. "My mother is an immigrant and didn't go to college, so she would always tell me, 'Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard.' I owe part of my success to … doing anything and everything related to the task at hand, asking a lot of questions, and focusing on learning as much as possible."

Picture this
At one of Schulman's first jobs, she was an operations lead at a tech incubator, experiencing the journey of hundreds of startups, some in payments and some in other fields. "I learned that passion and determination separate good from great. These qualities aren't just limited to startup success, but are also true in photography, my favorite hobby," she said. "Photography teaches me that a great outcome takes seeing through a wider aperture and from multiple angles."

Read more: How shutterbug Sophie Schulman brought her career at Visa into focus

Allison Shonerd

Director
Bank of America
Age: 38
Years with Company: 4
Years in Payments Industry: 15

Time to celebrate
Shonerd and her team of product managers analyze emerging industry trends, evaluate client needs and collaborate with global stakeholders to build products that allow corporate clients to pay individuals with greater speed, security and ease. Most recently, she oversaw the launch of Recipient Select, a payments platform financed by a multimillion-dollar, multiyear investment. Shonerd says the key to maintaining motivation is to regularly validate that the tasks her team is performing will fundamentally improve the financial lives of BofA's clients and their consumers. "[We're] helping people get paid more quickly to manage very personal needs, and include health care refunds, insurance claim payments and disaster relief. When I'm leading complex multiyear initiatives, the finish line can sometimes feel very distant. To keep the momentum on pace, I carve out time to celebrate each milestone and accomplishment the team achieves."

Not staying still
After many decades of the status quo, the payments industry has in the last 10 years become defined by change, Shonerd said, adding that the rapid pace of new interactions of real-time and digital payment methods has shown no signs of slowing down over the next 12 months. "This dynamic and exciting environment has a number of consequences: it demands an infrastructure that can support a 24/7 payment ecosystem; experts who can stay apace of the industry's evolution and advise clients as to what to focus on; market participants that can identify the leading technologies and that have the means to invest in them; and shifting customer expectations. With such a landscape, my team and I need to be adaptable."

Sabrina Tharani

Senior Vice President, Global Fintech Programs
Mastercard
Age: 33
Years with Company: 11
Years in Payments Industry: 11

Committed to the cause
While many of her peers have jumped from job to job, Tharani has spent her entire career at Mastercard, moving up the ranks so that she now leads Start Path, Mastercard's global startup engagement program. The unit gives startups access to Mastercard's technology and tools to develop new products and innovations in the areas of payments, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, wearables, logistics and financial inclusion. The job is intellectually challenging and thrilling, Tharani says. "Ours is an 'always on' industry, and at times you have to give your all. 50% effort won't get you very far."

Taking a moment
Hard work requires balance. "Burnout is real," said Tharani, a new mother, who also puts a high value on finding quality time to relax. Maintaining long-term perspective is also critical, especially given recent economic setbacks and industrywide cuts in venture capital investment. "This isn't the first time we've weathered volatile market conditions, so I'm optimistic that my team, which sits at the intersection of product, venture capital and fintech, will stay focused on building inclusive products and services that deliver real value to the market, stay close to fast-moving market trends and lean on the power of partnerships."

Read more: At Mastercard, a daughter of an immigrant helps startups find their path

Shamika Williams

Underwriting Manager
Talus Pay
Age: 35
Years with Company: 6
Years in Payments Industry: 16

Idea seeker
In the critical role of setting risk parameters for Talus Pay's merchant card-processing customers, Williams oversees an underwriting team in Dallas, and recently added oversight of the customer relationship management system to her duties. Always striving to streamline processes, Williams constantly scans the horizon for innovations, looking for ways to be at the forefront of solving ongoing underwriting and fraud challenges. "I ask my team to bring at least one new idea to monthly meetings," she said.

Personal touch
Being a forthright and sensitive communicator is one of Williams' biggest strengths. As her duties have expanded, Williams has become an important mentor to other employees, while spreading positive energy and encouraging others. Planning quality time away from work is essential to recharge. Looking back over the last few years as her career has steadily advanced, Williams realized one of the most powerful habits that helps her advance is keeping a journal. "I remind myself of my strengths," Williams said.