Speaker Information

 

Katherine Adkins

Katherine Adkins

As a C-suite executive, board and audit committee member, Katherine Adkins brings 25+ years of experience across the automotive, financial services and fintech industries. 

Katherine is a proactive and results-driven leader, known for building high-performing teams. Katherine is currently Chief Legal Officer for Affirm, where she previously served as VP and Deputy General Counsel. 

Prior to joining Affirm, Katherine was Global Chief Legal Officer & Chief Compliance Officer with Toyota Financial Services (“TFS”). She also served as a member of the Executive, Enterprise Risk and Audit Committees, chaired its Global Compliance Committee, and was a founding board member of Toyota’s Political Action Committee. 

Katherine has served on the boards of the Dallas Theater Company and Levitt & Quinn, a nonprofit family law center. She is a frequent public speaker and has been recognized by organizations as diverse as Auto Finance News to the Girl Scouts of America. She earned her BA degree in economics and international studies from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln and her JD from Loyola University of Los Angeles. 

Debbie Arai

Debbie Arai

Accomplished professional with a career marked by rapid progression and consistent achievement. Specialized in payments consulting, ACH Audit, and Risk Management for businesses. Passionate about the “Voice of the Customer”, flawless execution and the ability to work with cross-functional teams to deliver solutions and services that support and exceed customer expectations.

Jordan Bennett

Jordan Bennett

Jordan Bennett has been with Nacha since 2016 and is Senior Director, ACH Network Risk Management. His focus is with understanding Third-Party Senders and the benefits they bring to the system as well as mitigating any risk associated with this business model. Jordan runs the Nacha Certified program, which encourages Third-Party Senders to know and understand their risk management responsibilities in the ACH Network and promotes Third-Party Senders with strong risk management practices. Jordan is also the staff liaison for Nacha’s Risk Management Advisory Group. The Group works with Nacha staff and key industry stakeholders to produce sound business practices, business cases for rules proposals, Board Policy Statements, tools, white papers and other communications vehicles, and to collaborate and coordinate with payments professionals across payments channels. Prior to Nacha, Jordan worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta in FedACH and in Credit and Risk Management.

Guy Berg

Guy Berg

Guy manages the Payments, Standards, and Outreach Group at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis where he is co-chair, responsible for coordinating Federal Reserve System engagement in national and international payment standards to foster the integrity, efficiency and accessibility of the U.S. payment system.  He also leads the SIPS (Strategies for Improving the U.S. Payment System) Efficiency business-to-business (B2B) payment initiatives which include advancing efficiency from setup through end-to-end processing of supporting information like invoices and remittance data, and the adoption of ISO® 20022. Additionally, he oversees the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis research on emerging payment technology trends like blockchain and cryptocurrency. 

Guy has over 20 years of global experience in the payments industry working on new technology adoption including chip cards (EMV), mobile and contactless payments, account opening identity verification technologies, and B2B payments. 

Nell Campbell-Drake

Nell Campbell-Drake

Nell Campbell-Drake is Vice President of Industry Relations for Federal Reserve Financial Services (FRFS). She has responsibility for FRFS relationship management including Nacha, Payments Associations, industry trade groups, and other business partnerships. Additional responsibilities include outreach and engagement activities associated with the FRFS payments improvement program and partnership with internal colleagues on FRFS hosted industry advisory groups. Nell represents the Federal Reserve Banks on numerous payments industry groups. Before joining the Bank, she worked at Merrill Lynch Brokerage Firm in a variety of capacities.

Nell is an avid bowler and welcomes the opportunity for a challenge!

Lisa Coffey

Lisa Coffey

Lisa has over 30 years of experience working in corporate credit unions and CUSOs in different capacities to include Chief Operations Officer, VP of Item Processing and Senior Consultant. Today she serves as the Chief Innovations Officer at Corporate America, sits on Nacha's Risk Management Advisory Group (RMAG) and was recently selected as a member of the Alliance Emerging Payments Advisory Committee. Lisa is an art and music enthusiast and has been known to skew the demographic at rock concerts.

Chris Colson

Chris Colson

Chris Colson, Director of Innovation at Retail Payments Office, is a 25-plus year veteran of the payments and financial services industry. Previously, Chris served as Head of Innovation at Aflac, located in Columbus, Georgia. There he implemented a successful innovation program, defined product and market strategies, developed and worked with start-ups and partners to create joint products and helped to manage a venture capital investment fund. He gained additional experience leading innovation programs at companies such as TSYS, Equifax, Bank One, and Bank of America. 

Chris holds an MBA in International Finance and has been granted two patents, with seven more currently pending. They range in subject matter from payments, virtual credit cards and identity verification. A forward-thinker and education enthusiast, Chris is a graduate of Georgia Tech's Flashpoint program, an incubator for start-ups. He has been a featured speaker for research firms such as Gartner, a presenter for pymnts.com at Harvard University, and a presenter at Finovate in San Jose, London and Singapore. He is currently teaching a graduate level class at the University of North Georgia - Entrepreneurship in Large Corporates. He has been a guest lecturer at York University in York, England and has authored several white papers on topics such as identity and mobile wallets.

In his spare time, Chris can be found on the lacrosse field coaching men's lacrosse at West Forsyth High School. 

Keith Gray

Keith Gray

Keith Gray is a Vice President with The Clearing House with responsibility for Strategic Partnerships. These partnerships are critical to the success of RTP in that many banks and credit unions will leverage RTP through a trusted technology partner. Mr. Gray works with these partners to facilitate launching and supporting their payment related initiatives, as well as supporting banks and credit unions directly as they plan and execute their strategies to leverage RTP and other networks. During his 20–year career, Mr. Gray has worked extensively with financial institutions of all sizes, as well as financial technology companies on emerging payments initiatives, mobile solutions, and online banking applications. He worked with multiple early stage organizations bringing new products to market. He is a frequent speaker at conferences and payments related functions. Mr. Gray is an alumnus of Trevecca University in Nashville.  Mr. Gray is an avid golfer and fly fisherman.

Amy Lynn Johnson

Amy Lynn Johnson

As an EVP and Treasury leader, I have spent my entire career building high-performing teams, services, and systems which achieve next-level success.

Career Highlights Include:

  • Cast vision and architected nimble strategies for customer, team, and organizational growth.
  • Transformed merchant solutions division into a customer-centric organization, delivering countless efficiency gains.
  • Personally mentored 150+ women leaders to achieve new career heights.
  • Launched and led the first remote nationwide “Working Women’s Forum”.
  • Inspired culture change and led teams in driving nimble, innovative solutions to create a best-in-class customer experience.

To me, great leadership is all about relationships. Empowering teams, unifying diverse groups, and welcoming new ideas… leads to both short- and long-term success.

Elevating the customer experience is what drives me – and I’ve spent my entire career leading divisions who transform the way we do business through sales, service, and technology. I’ve been honored to share leadership and sales best-practices to 1000+ leaders.

I love conquering new challenges and I am passionate about personal and professional growth – for myself and my team. Connecting helps us all grow – so please reach out and connect if we share a common drive for leadership excellence.

Scott Jones

Scott Jones

Scott is a partner on the Financial Services Team at Adams and Reese LLP and is licensed in DC, TN and MS. He works with financial institutions throughout the United States on payment systems, payments fraud, and bank operations, including treasury management services, wire transfers, ACH transactions, online banking, mobile banking, and emerging payment systems. He began his practice as a litigator and has over 15 years of experience advising clients on risk-minimization and best practices for avoiding litigation. Scott regularly speaks on payments-related issues across the United States.

Kyle Kelly

Diana Kern

Diana Kern

A veteran financial services trainer, Diana's well respected for her vast knowledge of the payments industry. With that knowledge comes the experience to understand a financial institution's inner workings and then train staff on products and services related to the card payments system, the ACH network, and EFT compliance.

Clients appreciate the way Diana can help them connect detailed operations concepts like fraud mitigation, exceptions handling, interchange, and ROI to their day-to-day responsibilities. She can explain seemingly comlicated things in a simple, relatable way, helping them understand what it means to them.

Always on target as a guest speaker, audiences welcome her insights on payments trends and emerging payments. A delf-described payments nerd, Diana's enthusiasm and passion for all things payments results in a high-energy presentation.

SHAZAM service: 26 years

Kelly Kiker

Kelly Kiker

Mary Ann Miller

Mary Ann Miller

Stephanie Miracle

Stephanie Miracle

Product Management professional with extensive track record of elevating teams, anticipating change, and applying Pragmatic discipline and collaborate with internal and external partners to create outstanding solutions. The best solutions are the result of blending a deep understanding of the market, a clear vision, and the ability to bring stakeholders and partners along the journey.

Colleagues describe me as fully engaged and having a great sense of humor. A manager remarked I would never run out of ideas. Clients and prospects seek my expertise to solve problems. Sales teams trust me as a “closer.”

I relentlessly focus on the customer experience and the problem to solve, align product with business strategies, and execute with precision and thought leadership.

Additionally, my deep experience delivering digital solutions essential to how people live and work with an emphasis on reducing friction and leveraging data to create seamless contextual experiences.

Kevin Miyamoto

Kevin Miyamoto

Kevin Miyamoto is Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Identifee, responsible for all operational and administrative procedures. Prior to working at Identifee, Kevin worked at Corporate Executive Board (now part of Gartner), and spent a number of years working in multiple roles in Wells Fargo’s Payments, Virtual Solutions, and Innovations Team. Most recently, Kevin was the Business Manager in Wells Fargo’s Sponsorship Team, managing over $850B of payment volume.

Kevin received his bachelors in communication from Denison University.

Kevin Moland

Kevin Moland

Kevin Moland is a Senior Advisory Product Strategist for the Payments Strategy team at Jack Henry, where he brings to bear four decades of experience working with financial institutions and financial services providers. Kevin has been a key player in the digital services revolution, providing product direction and design oversight for some of the nation’s premier banking and payments companies. He is a featured presenter at conferences and industry events and has served as an adjunct faculty member for several prominent banking schools. His informal style and keen story-telling skills make him a sought-after speaker, teacher, and host.

Kevin Olsen

Kevin Olsen

Kevin Olsen is the Senior Vice President, Innovation & Strategy at Pidgin. Kevin, also known as the Payments Professor, has been working in the payments industry since the late 1990s. Kevin received a BS in Technical Studies from Valdosta State University.

A. Javier Pastor

David Peterson

David Peterson

David Peterson has inspired countless audiences to rethink how innovation happens in their organization. His insight and actionable content helps leaders foster a culture of innovation that encourages workforce diversity and instills accountability for driving growth. As the Chief Innovation Officer of First National Bankers Bank (FNBB) of Baton Rouge LA, David is a tireless advocate for rethinking the role of innovation in a corporate setting.  David understands the critical need to combat status quo thinking to achieve sustainable profits and competitiveness in any industry. He shares real world strategies and tools to foster a creative mindset, convert creativity into innovation and empowers attendees to be innovative where they are regardless of job function or title. 

Peterson’s Innovation Driven Growth (IDG) content focuses on assisting enterprises in igniting enterprise-wide innovation.  Content includes innovation keynotes, workshops and challenges. David’s focus at FNBB is creating an environment where every individual is encouraged to look for innovations that spur growth, regardless of their size. David is a sought-after speaker at financial services regional and national industry events. David is also the author of the best-selling book Grounded: Anchored Management for Strategic Leadership and Effective Decision-Making (Little River Publishing, 2016). His approach to strategic innovation and fun engaging workshops and thinking challenges has been praised by C-Suite executives, entrepreneurs and millennials.

David is the former founder and CEO of Goldleaf Technologies, a leading provider of electronic payments software and a pioneer in the fintech industry. David was also Chief Strategic Officer of i7strategies. He currently serves on the boards of PaymentsFirst, ArgosRisk and softgiving. David is also a serial entrepreneur, having created start-ups in retail and professional services.

Michael Ryan

Michael Ryan

Mike Ryan has been a leader in the unclaimed property industry for over 30 years. During his career he has worked at Computershare, Keane, Venio, Georgeson, Morgan Guaranty, and currently serves as the Unclaimed Property Liaison for MACHA. He is also the Director of Business Development at Linking Assets Inc. Mike has assisted numerous companies with unclaimed property compliance, returning over $1 billion dollars to the owner or their heirs.

Mike was instrumental in the development of the Unclaimed Property Professionals Organization (UPPO), the premier association dedicated to holders of unclaimed property and the service providers who help make holder’s job easier. He has served UPPO in many capacities, including president (for a record two terms of a total of four ½ years), and recently recognized with their Super Nova Award for Outstanding Service to the organization (2021).

Mike has been a founding member of multiple industry unclaimed property committees, such as: The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), Shareholder Services Association (SSA), and the Stock Transfer Association (STA). He has been involved with various bank industry groups, including: Macha, Nacha,  NY ABA, UMACHA, ePay Advisors, NEACH and SFE where he shares key information and has been a speaker at numerous Annual Conferences and Webinars.

Caryn Smith

Caryn Smith

As the Credit Card Product Manager at Regions, Caryn manages the Consumer & Small Business Credit Card portfolios with responsibility for building and directing product strategies to drive prudent growth while focusing on customer experience. She has successfully launched several enhancements for the portfolio including a graduation program for secured credit cards; a post-purchase installment feature; and various account management strategies to mitigate risk. Prior to this role, Caryn served as the Finance Manager for Cards & Payments at Regions. Caryn obtained her MBA from University of Alabama at Birmingham, and her Bachelor of Science in Finance from Auburn University. When not at work, she is spending time with her husband and two daughters at home or the lake.

Jason Smith

Jason Smith

Jason Smith, Senior Special Agent with the United States Secret Service, has 23 years of law enforcement experience at the local and federal level and is a military veteran with 12 years of service in the United States Marine Corps which has included travel to all 50 U.S. States, three U.S. Territories and over 70 countries. Jason has served in multiple primary roles within the Secret Service including Financial Crimes Criminal Investigator, Financial Crimes Task Force Supervisor, Electronic (Cyber) Working Group Supervisor, FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force detailee, Electronic Crimes Special Agent (Digital Forensics) and Digital Forensics Lab Supervisor. He has also served on the Presidential Protective Division and Special Operations Division (HAMMER) during the George W. Bush and Obama administrations conducting executive protection and advance site surveys in Washington, DC, across the United States and overseas. In addition, Jason has also served as a Critical Systems Protection (CSP - Critical Infrastructure Assessments and Surveys) Lead Agent and a Network Intrusion Incident Investigator. Jason has conducted numerous federal Financial Crimes and Cyber Crimes investigations as the Lead Case Agent during his career with a special emphasis on Counterfeit Currency and Crimes Utilizing Emerging Technology investigations.

SSA Jason Smith holds a Bachelors Degree in Criminal Justice and a Masters Degree in National Security (International Terrorism) and is a certified Digital Forensics Examiner. He also has multiple certifications in the fields of Tactical Emergency Medicine, Firearms Instruction, HAZMAT/CBRNE Operations and Cyber Security.

Peter Tapling

Peter Tapling

Peter Tapling is a serial entrepreneur, advisor, and investor. Peter’s advisory efforts are focused on innovation and modernization of payments. He also advises on risk, authentication/identity, cryptocurrencies and CBDC. He is engaged as a Technology Advisor to Nacha’s Phixius effort. Peter acted as CCO for Spring Labs, CRO for Early Warning Services during the market launch of Zelle and founding CEO of Authentify. Peter is a member of the Board Advisory Group for the U.S. Faster Payments Council, a member of the Association for Financial Professionals and is an Accredited Payments Risk Professional.

Mike Timoney

Mike Timoney

Mike Timoney is Vice President of Secure Payments for Payments Improvement within Federal Reserve Financial Services. Mike has responsibility to understand the payments and fraud landscape and identify areas where security must be improved. Mike is responsible to design, develop, and implement key elements of the Fed’s Payment Improvement strategy for payment security including improving fraud data, researching security and fraud trends, and evaluating emerging security and fraud technologies. He identifies and contributes to opportunities for collaboration with the payments industry to improve overall payments security. Mike has had multiple roles during his career including treasury fraud, global card and comprehensive payables fraud, commercial and corporate treasury fraud, electronic payments, and program and portfolio management. Mike is a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) and Certified Treasury Professional (CTP).

Laura Udis

Laura Udis is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Senior Program Manager, Small Dollar, Marketplace, and Installment Lending. Her work includes pawn, payday, auto title, installment, earned wage access, and buy now, pay later lending. Prior to joining the CFPB, Ms. Udis served in the Colorado Attorney General’s Office as First Assistant Attorney General and Administrator of the Consumer Credit Code. She was responsible for the state’s non-depository consumer credit regulation program. She also served as Senior Financial Services Advocate at the Consumer Federation of America. Ms. Udis has a Juris Doctor degree from Boston University School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Colorado.

Abhishek Veeraghanta

Abhishek Veeraghanta

Stephen Walsh

Stephen Walsh

Stephen Walsh is a partner with the national law firm of Weinberg, Wheeler, Hudgins, Gunn & Dial and has advised financial institutions on their vendor management programs for more than two decades. Stephen has negotiated hundreds of agreements between financial institutions and their service providers during his career, and he draws upon this experience to advise clients on the key risks and issues presented by each transaction and works to promptly move negotiations forward towards a successful outcome. In addition to representing financial institutions, Stephen also represents businesses in the manufacturing, construction, and real estate industries and serves as outside general counsel to clients, providing day-to-day legal advice on business and operations matters, employment contracts, and other commercial agreements. Stephen earned his J.D., magna cum laude, from The University of Alabama School of Law, where he was a Hugo L. Black scholar, and he has been repeatedly recognized in Best Lawyers in America in the areas of Litigation-Banking & Finance; Employment Law-Management; and Litigation-Labor & Employment.

Hank Word