Women in Payments

Ask Carleigh Jaques to build a new digital payments system, and there's a very good chance she'll turn to her "inner architect" and deliver the goods. After all, the senior vice president and global head of digital products for Visa has designed and built three houses — in her spare time.

Kim Schwendeman's story is one of toughness, learning, perseverance, and the special job that teachers perform every day.

One of the reasons Alice Milligan loves the payments field is because there’s so much room to improve processes. This satisfies her on many levels.

One way to get a sense of Walmart’s massive transition to an agile omnichannel retailer is to examine the company’s mobile app, which bears the influence of Karla Allen, Walmart's senior director of mobile wallets.

Susanne Steidl loves building things, which suits her job as chief product officer for Wirecard, where she continualsly develops new use cases for digital payments in everything from the gig economy to global travel.

As CEO and president of Blackhawk Network, Talbott Roche has presided over some significant changes in the industry, notably the growth of third-party retailing of gift cards, but this wasn’t necessarily an easy sale to skeptical retailers.

How do you get to the top of the payments stack at one of the nation’s preeminent digital-forward banks? You reach for every challenging opportunity you see, according to Reetika Grewal, head of payments strategy and solutions at Silicon Valley Bank.

In a 26-year career at Discover Financial Services, it would seem that Amy Parsons has earned the title of a "doctor" of payments.

As chief fraud policy and control officer for Early Warning, it’s Donna Turner’s job to ensure security when consumers enroll through the Zelle app, and protect consumers and participating banks when users zap payments to recipients at different institutions.

To hear Archie Puri tell it, the technology changing the payments market is every bit as dramatic as laser eye surgery is to someone with poor vision.

Deborah Liu’s career in the payments industry has included roles at some of the best-known Silicon Valley giants — including eBay and PayPal — before her current job leading payments at Facebook. But for a California tech firm, Facebook is drawing a lot of its influence from overseas.

This year, as PaymentsSource honors The Most Influential Women in Payments, a new pattern has emerged. This year's list recognizes the contributions of entrepreneurs who took their ideas directly to market, showcasing new ways of handling business in an industry that is forced to quickly adapt to rapid changes in technology and global culture.

Countries all over the world are embracing faster payment processing, and Di Challenor is one of the major forces behind the movement in Australia.

Andrea Dunlop has more than two decades of experience in the payments industry following a stint in military service. At Paysafe, she competes in an increasingly digital and borderless technology environment.

Against the backdrop that is the contentious immigration debate in the U.S., Louise Pentland can say she has a passion and firsthand experience for improving the lives of those navigating the process of being accepted into this country.

It still surprises Debbie Gamble that a chance summer job she took at a bank turned into nearly a 30-year career leading to her current post influencing Canada’s payments technology at Interac, the national debit system.

Convinced that clients want as much human interaction as ever, the Wall Street firm is using machine learning to help its financial advisers stay informed and work efficiently.

Venture capital often moves like a tide. Janet Bannister seeks opportunity that's just a bit farther out.

Curiosity may not be the best approach for a cat, but Christine Larsen finds it to be a lifesaver in her role as executive vice president and chief operations officer for First Data.

As senior vice president of global commerce for Discover, it is no surprise that Amy Parsons says "my desk is in whatever country I happen to be in."