MWAA 2022 Speakers Spotlight
Keynote Speaker: Ricky Kalmon, Mindset Expert Motivational Speaker
Wednesday -- 3:45pm - 4:45pm -- 7th Floor – Salon 1 Grand Ballroom
Ricky Kalmon is a mindset expert, motivational speaker, and author of the book Leverage Your Mindset – Overcome Limiting Beliefs and Amplify Your Life. He is also the creator and developer of the Growth Mindset and meditation app titled RICKY KALMON. As an international speaker and consultant, Kalmon is a Visionary Architect in personal growth and igniting potential.
Panel 1: eCommerce is Here to Stay Panel
Thursday -- 12:30pm - 1:30pm -- 7th Floor – Salon 1 Grand Ballroom
Fred Flinstone meet George Jetson: Explore how retail has changed and the need to have an omnichannel sales strategy.
Moderator: Peggy Olson
Peggy Olson is the payments industry’s go-to marketing expert. Her firm Strategic marketing provides fractional CMO and marketing department services to companies across the payment’s ecosystem, from card brands, processors, gateways and ISOs to equipment manufacturers and deployers, value-added services providers, security/risk/compliance vendors and more. Prior to founding Strategic Marketing 13 years ago, Peggy was vice president of marketing for TSYS and Vital Processing Services.
Chad Anselmo
With over 15 years of Fintech experience, Chad knows no other company can match Corvia’s values with the ability to execute. A graduate of the University of Utah Masters and Stanford CFO Programs, Chad started his career in Venture Capital, and later to Experian being one of their Global Controllers. From there he became the CFO of Meritus and then the CFO of Paysafe’s Processing division. Leaving Paysafe in 2018 he co-founded Corvia (formally F1 Payments), which recently named by Inc as the 30th fastest growing company in the Southwest. Chad has had the opportunity to participate in a dozen M&A transactions and three payment company exits. Chad is a husband and father to a perfect wife and five active boys.
Joe Losurdo
Joe brings more than seven years of payments and technology experience to NMI. He played an integral role in building out NMI’s partner success team and supports the company’s top tier clients. Joe is passionate about powersports and traveling.
Bob Wesley
Bob Wesley has over 30 years of experience in leading global digital payment transformation businesses. He was one of pioneers of mobile payments, mobile cloud-based POS, and retail digital marketing. He has successfully guided major enterprise retailers and solution providers in accelerating the adoption of new payment methods. He has also managed global relationships with merchant acquirers and processors.
During his career, he has been a CEO, Chief Acquisition Officer, Head of Worldwide Sales, Head of Business Development and CFO for a broad array of financial services and fintech companies such as American Express, MasterCard, Leaf Holdings, Modiv Media, and Aurus. Leaf holdings was one of the first cloud-based Android tablet POS platforms, which was acquired by Global Payments (Heartland Payments).
Bob has lived as an expatriate in Japan, Hong Kong and New Zealand. Today, he lives in in Wellesley MA just outside of Boston. Bob passions outside of work are spending time with his wife, dog (Fenway), and children, most of whom have now have careers of their own. He also loves golf, skiing, hiking, water skiing, movies and swimming.
Panel 2: Disruption and the Fintech Frenzy
Thursday -- 1:30pm - 2:30pm -- 7th Floor – Salon 1 Grand Ballroom
Futureproofing your Business - How banks and ISOs alike are embracing Fintech solutions to avoid disintermediation.
Moderator: Chris Sweetland
Chris Sweetland is CIBC’s SVP of Payments, Strategy & Transformation and resides in the Personal & Business Bank (PBB) arm of the Canadian retail bank. Chris is responsible for our Payment Strategy, our exploration of new products, services, platforms and partnerships related to PBB commerce and payments, and advises the broader organization on investments, priorities and roadmaps in support of all retail lines of business.
Before CIBC, Chris led Square’s Industry Relations and Payments Operations & Partnerships teams. Chris represented the interests of the small business and microseller community against an increasingly complex backdrop of payments and commerce The Operations & Partnerships function under Square’s Payments organization where Chris looked after Square’s Seller communities in North America, Europe, Australia and Japan. Before joining Square in 2017, Chris led a Business Development and Commerce Partnerships team at Google focused on mobile, online and in-app payments that solicited card network, financial institution, card issuer, and digital payments participation in Google Pay (previously, Android Pay).
Prior to Google, Chris was Vice President of Corporate Initiatives at Visa Inc., and led the business development and product partnerships engagement of the major US financial institutions and their participation in the launch of the Visa Token Service in support of the introduction of Apple Pay.
In nine years between Visa U.S.A. and Visa Inc., Chris led a team based in Singapore focused on Emerging Payments Partnerships and Industry Programs across Asia Pacific, Easter Europe, Middle East, and Africa. He participated in Visa’s 2008 IPO, while managing a team of corporate strategy professionals who oversaw the financial restructuring and network pricing overhaul in the transition of the network association to a for profit,public company. Prior to his work tied to the IPO, Chris managed numerous pilot programs for Visa U.S.A. as a Product Innovation manager focused on mobile and contactless initiatives between 2006 and 2008. Before 2006, Chris consulted various companies including Visa in the payments, financial services and technology industries at Accenture. He spent four years between Accenture and Economists, Inc. advising businesses and law firms in areas including marketing,technology, antitrust, competition, and litigation.
Chris holds a B.A. in Economics from Colgate University. He’s a former chapter President of the Omecron Delta Epsilon academic honor society. In 2001, Chris was named to the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All America team for his participation in the Colgate University cross country and track and field teams
Ashvin Dhawan
Ashvin Dhawan is a seasoned sales professional with nearly 20 years of experience in retail banking and the payments industry. Prior to joining IRIS CRM, Ashvin was with Fiserv for over 6 years as a Senior Sales Director and over a decade with JPMorgan Chase in retail banking.
In his current role, as SVP of Sales for IRIS CRM by NMI he is leading the growth of client acquisition. Helping ISOs, sponsor banks and their merchants by delivering better services to grow their businesses and compete in the current payment-related market trends. IRIS CRM allows clients to manage their entire end-to-end sales, customer support, and residuals management solution all within one platform.
Kevin Lewis
The Chief Growth Officer of Amount, Kevin has been integral in leading the vision and transformation for the company, which was initially incubated within the Avant business development team under Kevin’s leadership. Kevin is responsible for driving growth and deepen engagement with Amount’s partners, helping them enhance and modernize their digital infrastructure so that they can better meet today’s evolving consumer needs. Kevin has 15 years of business development and operating experience in the financial services industry, including leadership roles at fintechs and large financial institutions in the consumer, student and small business markets.
Juan Ortiz
In 1998, Juan Ortiz started in the bankcard industry as an Account Executive with Data Transfer Associates (DTA), an MSP based out of Des Plaines, IL. Within a few months, Juan was signing over 20 accounts each month because of his strong communication skills. Brick & Mortar was what he was trained in, but he quickly developed an ability to sell Internet merchant accounts, when DTA expanded their product line.
Later that year, DTA was sold and Online Data Corp. (ODC) was formed by John Rante and key members of DTA. Juan’s talents in selling and marketing were recognized, and he was offered an opportunity to join the ODC team. He helped create and grow the e-commerce division of ODC, while training and recruiting sales representatives. He managed over 400 independent sales agents nationwide.
At the same time, Juan launched a highly successful parallel career as a motivational speaker. He has spoken at hundreds of conferences, business meetings, government organizations and schools in the US and in several foreign countries. His story of overcoming adversity and traveling the road to success has inspired hundreds of thousands of people. He is the author of two books about his journey, “Never Forsaken, the Juan Ortiz Story” and “Always Learning, the Juan Ortiz Journey.”
When Online Data Corp was sold, Juan became Vice President of Business Development and a Partner for Bluepay, Inc. He recruited, trained and motivated Independent Sales Agents on a full-time basis. His ability to connect with people, organize special events, and contribute new ideas for growth is what set him apart from other leaders in our market. Juan played a key role in Bluepay’s acquisition of 33 portfolios and the sale of Bluepay to First Data for $760M in October, 2017.
In 2020 Juan joined Mark Dunn as partner in Field Guide Enterprises, LLC, a consultancy focusing on ISO growth and acquisition strategies. With a combined 55 years in electronic payments, Juan and Mark bring a wealth of experience and powerful motivation to ISO’s, payfacs and other payments companies. Juan says: “Want to grow your business? Make it Juan and Dunn.”
Donald Chapman
Donald Chapman is a FinTech executive, advisor and investor. He’s led global business development for a number of startups and established industry players, navigating complex sales processes and establishing game changing strategic partnerships.
Donald has served as a commercial leader for a series of US-based startups, raising capital and driving growth for their platforms across the financial services and corporate sectors. Prior to that he led business development, strategy and product to develop and launch the world’s first domestic US and global cross-border real-time payments platform at Fidelity National Information Services (NYSE: FIS).
After spending the first half of his career in consulting services, deploying enterprise technologies at large firms like Prudential Financial, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Discovery Communications and Ocean Spray Cranberries, Donald pursued his MBA at Babson College, ranked #1 in Entrepreneurship by US News & World Report. Since then he’s been wholly engrossed in the FinTech and Payments industry with a focus on early stage companies, and loving every minute of it!
Panel 3: ISO of the Future–Tech First/Payments
Thursday -- 2:45pm - 3:45pm -- 7th Floor – Salon 1 Grand Ballroom
Explore how ISOs can leverage technology and lead with software/recurring solutions.
Moderator: Yitz Mendlowitz
Yitz Mendlowitz is the CEO and Co-founder of PAAY, a leading consumer authentication service that is simple, secure and easy to implement. Having spent nearly two decades in the financial industry and having co-founded business and fintech companies Yodel Pro and Rockaway Debt Group, Yitz gained valuable insights into the risks business owners face processing online payments. He founded PAAY to give merchants choice and control of their destiny.
Kim Fitzsimmons
Kim Fitzsimmons is building the future of Talus Pay. She is an accomplished payments executive with the vision, drive and passion to help companies grow and achieve sustainable results.
At financial services giant J.P. Morgan, Fitzsimmons served as president of global merchant services. She was chief executive officer of Cynergy Data prior to its merger with Priority Payment Systems and held a number of leadership positions, including North American president of merchant services and community banks, during a long tenure with First Data. A principal and co-founder of EFS Card Services, Fitzsimmons began her 30-year payments career with Concord EFS.
Voted one of the top 100 Global Sales Leaders of 2020 by The Modern Sale, Fitzsimmons has twice been named as one of the Industry’s Most Influential Women in Payments by American Banker and has received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Midwest Acquirers Association (MWAA). She has also served as president of both the Electronics Transactions Association (ETA) and Women’s Network in Electronic Transactions (Wnet).
Fitzsimmons earned a degree in business administration from the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss). She serves on the non-profit board of directors for the Healthy Kids Foundation.
Jeff Kump
Jeff Kump is President of Payments at CSG, where he oversees go-to-market strategy and new opportunities in the global payments market. Kump previously served as Head of Payment Operations for CSG Forte, focusing on continuous business process improvement, risk and fraud management and providing an unparalleled customer experience.
Since 2006, Kump has been tasked with leading and growing CSG Forte’s operational and cross-functional teams. Additionally, he has proved instrumental in advancing CSG Forte’s corporate development and growth strategy, serving as Forte’s COO and CFO before the company’s acquisition by CSG in 2018. During his tenure at Forte, the company was recognized by the Inc. 5000 as one of America’s Fastest Growing Companies for eight consecutive years.
With his years of experience and deep familiarity with all aspects of the business, Kump is poised to continue CSG Payment’s growth in the global payments market.
Heather Mlachnik
Heather has almost 30 years in the payments industry. As SVP of Acquiring and ISO Sales at PAX, she oversees a team of Sales, Account Managers and Sales Engineers who work with our Acquiring and ISO customers. Prior to PAX, Heather worked for both Verifone and Hypercom as VP of Major Accounts. She also spent time at Apriva and US Wireless Data (TNS). Heather started in the financial services industry in 1990 with Norwest Card Services (Wells Fargo) before joining Deluxe Electronic Payments (Deluxe Data, eFunds, FISERV) handling major financial institutions promoting ATM switching. She was promoted to Manager of Client Services after a year and managed a group of Sales Representatives, Account Managers and Client Services Specialists. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin- Madison with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications.
Bill Treciak
Bill Treciak is the founder and President of EDPS, a 3-time Inc 5000 Award and Outstanding Incubator graduate of National Business Incubation Association recipient. Through his three decades-long career in the payment processing industry he has worked with household names such as GE Capital, Home Depot, Lowes, Honda, NAPA and Disney. Bill’s work has always been at the forefront of challenging the status quo of the payments industry, while seeking to empower business owners across multiple industries.
A native of Ohio, Bill and his wife Amy are proud parents and grandparents.
Panel 4: I Want My Money Yesterday
Thursday -- 3:45pm - 4:45pm -- 7th Floor – Salon 1 Grand Ballroom
A check-up on the adoption of faster payments and impact across the industry.
Moderator: Ken Musante
Ken Musante founded Humboldt Merchant Services (HMS) in 1993 after working for Wells Fargo Bank’s issuing and acquiring operations. Ken effectively cultivated both large ISO sponsorship relationships and a bank owned and branded merchant portfolio.
When Moneris Solutions acquired HMS in 2008, Ken was retained as an Executive; leading integration efforts and driving sales through the ISO, Partner, Financial Institution and Direct channels.
In 2010, Ken became Co-Founder and President of Eureka Payments, a successful sales and service ISO. While at Eureka Payments, Ken provided consulting via expert witness testimony on complex and criminal industry related cases for the US Department of Justice and private attorneys.
In 2018, Ken became Sr. Product Manager for Gateway services for WePay, a Division of Chase Bank. Ken was responsible for certifying and integrating card present terminals into the WePay ecosystem.
In 2021, Ken founded Napa Payments and Consulting to leverage his experience and provide consulting and expert witness services and to assist merchants, FinTechs and platforms in understanding and integrating their payments and lessening their processing costs.
Christine Fuchs
Christine Fuchs is a Global Product Leader with responsibility for the ACI Secure eCommerce solution. Christine has an extensive background in delivering global POS and eCommerce payment solutions. Having held leadership roles first as a Director of Store Systems for National Retailers and later as a Product Management Professional for global POS and eCommerce Solution providers. Christine has a keen understanding of the retail landscape and evolving world of payments and thrives on bringing innovative payment strategies to market.
Keith Sampson
Keith Sampson is an authentic disruptor in the workplace in the most positive way. With unapologetic passion, Keith believes that each of us can live more fulfilling lives when we wake up with a purpose of contributing to something larger than
ourselves. Keith’s purpose, his “why,” is to help change the world through business by helping others have that sense of fulfillment when their feet hit the ground in the morning.
Applying a Growth Mindset as a foundational building block to create lasting change in business and individual lives, Keith has a passion for people and
unlocking their maximum potential. What started as a single question asked of him at the age of 19, permanently changed his life and the way that he approaches business.
Using Keith’s more than 20 years in business development, sales training, customer service and a passion for creating incredible experiences, he brings unique insights, ideas and perspectives that will help any organization build incredible customer experiences, increase sales results and change a business culture.
Today, Keith works with thousands of sales reps and businesses to help them achieve their goals and maximize their potential. “I have the best job in the world. I wake up every day coming up with ways to make others more successful. When they are successful, we all are.”
Keith believes that company culture and customer experience is more important than ever and strives to help businesses of all kinds create an incredible customer experience and culture that will help
them grow.
Keith Sampson is also passionate about servant leadership, bringing value to others, even just one. “When you give without expectations and live to impact a world bigger than your own, amazing things can happen.”
Peter Tapling
Peter Tapling is a serial entrepreneur, advisor, and investor. Peter’s advisory efforts are focused on innovation and modernization of payments – including risk, authentication/identity, cannabis banking, cryptocurrencies and CBDC. He advises Nacha on their Phixius effort. Peter acted as CCO for Spring Labs, CRO for Early Warning Services during the market launch of Zelle and founder and CEO of Authentify. Peter served on the steering committee for the Federal Reserve Secure Payments Task Force. Peter is currently a member of the Board Advisory Group for the U.S. Faster Payments Council, serves on the Board of Regents for The Payments Institute, a member of the Association for Financial Professionals and is an Accredited Payments Risk Professional.
Michelle Ziolkowski
Michelle Ziolkowski is a Senior Vice President in the Enterprise Payments Strategy team. As such, she is the Product Group Lead, responsible for setting the payables strategic direction and product roadmap for Wells Fargo. Previously, she was the Head of Global Payables in Treasury Management, which includes domestic and international wires and ACH, check disbursements, Payment Manager and Invoice Automation. She is also managing the Faster Payments initiatives at the bank. She also led the ACH Product Group and Electronic Commerce Services Emerging Products team focused on AP and AR automation.
Michelle joined the Wells Fargo team from American Express, where she was a Senior Client Partner focused on Payables Automation. Michelle was responsible for managing existing client accounts as well as on-going support activities for sales and reseller organizations.
Prior to American Express, Michelle was a Manager in the Enterprise Resource Planning Division of Deloitte Consulting for 5 years. She was responsible for financial system implementations and software integration. She also focused on the use of technology to improve service, product delivery, and business reporting capabilities.
Michelle holds a degree in Economics from John Carroll University and an MBA in Finance from the Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh. Michelle is a Certified Treasury Professional. She is a member of the Board of Directors for Nacha as well as WesPay Payment Association. Additionally, Michelle is Chairperson of the Nacha Nominating Committee, and is a co-chair on the Early Warning Services Wholesale Payments Advisory Committee. Michelle was recognized by PaymentSource as one of the Most Influential Women in Payments in 2021.