Dr. Jonah Berger is a professor at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and a world-renowned expert on decision making, social influence, word of mouth, and how products, ideas, and behaviors become popular. A follow-up to his New York Times and Wall Street Journal best seller Contagious: Why Things Catch On, his latest book Invisible Influence looks at the hidden forces that motivate our everyday decisions including what to buy, what to wear, and how to act. Berger has a PhD in marketing and consults, teaches, and researches consumer behavior and trends, leading effective change, making better decisions, becoming more influential, and getting things to catch on. He is an exciting and fresh voice on marketing and strategy.
What makes things popular? Why do people talk about certain products and ideas more than others? Why are some stories and rumors more infectious? Jonah Berger spent the last decade answering these questions, explaining why certain products get more word of mouth than others and why certain online content goes viral. With Contagious, he reveals the science behind word of mouth and social transmission and shares how six key emotional and societal factors drive all sorts of things to become contagious–from products and policy initiatives to services and culture change within organizations. In his new book Invisible Influence, Berger looks at the psychology and social science behind trends and choices, highlighting how businesses may use his insight to influence employees, consumers, potential business partners, and investors.
Berger has spent more than 15 years studying judgment and decision-making and consulting for Fortune 500 companies. He looks at how organizations can sway behavior and describes how to prevent consumers from getting mired in “decision-making quicksand.” With research and insights grounded in rigorous research and the best contemporary psychology and behavioral science, organizations can put Berger’s insights to use whether they are selling a product or crafting a new corporate culture. He also shows leaders how to avoid the “curse of knowledge” and communicate change in way that encourages buy-in. Berger shares tools for shaping the choice context, being more persuasive, driving customer growth, and being more influential.
Shapiro directs a staff of more than 160 employees and thousands of industry volunteers, leading his organization’s promotion of innovation as a national policy to spur the economy, create jobs and cut the deficit. CTA advocates for a lower deficit, skilled immigration, free trade and policies that support innovative new business models. CTA does not seek government funding for industry.
Shapiro has testified before Congress on technology and business issues more than 20 times and led the industry through its successful transition to HDTV. As chairman of the Home Recording Rights Coalition (HRRC), Shapiro led the manufacturers’ battle to preserve the legality of recording technology and consumer fair-use rights, and opposed legislation like PIPA and SOPA that would be harmful to a robust internet. He co-founded and chaired the HDTV Model Station, served as a leader of the Advanced Television Test Center (ATTC) and is a charter inductee to the Academy of Digital Television Pioneers, receiving its highest award as the industry leader most influential in advancing HDTV.
Shapiro sits on the State Department’s Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information Policy, the USO of Metropolitan Washington-Baltimore Board of Directors, and the American Enterprise Institute Global Internet Strategy Advisory Board. He is also a member of the No Labels Executive Council. He served on the Commonwealth of Virginia’s bipartisan Commission on Information Technology, which created policy positions for using the internet as a medium for business. He has also served on the Board of Directors of the Northern Virginia Technology Council, the Economic Club of Washington and on the Board of Visitors of George Mason University. He has been recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a “mastermind” for his initiative in helping to create the Industry Cooperative for Ozone Layer Protection (ICOLP).
Prior to joining CTA in 1982, Shapiro was an associate at the law firm of Squire Sanders. He has also worked on Capitol Hill as an assistant to a member of Congress. He received his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate with a double major in economics and psychology from Binghamton University. He is married to Dr. Susan Malinowski, a retina surgeon.
Todd Aadland
Todd Aadland is payments security strategy leader for the Federal Reserve System (System). As payments security strategy leader, Aadland is leading the System’s activities to address fraud risk and advance the safety, security and resiliency of the payment system. In addition, Aadland chairs the Federal Reserve’s Secure Payments Task Force, comprised of more than 170 external stakeholders.
Aadland’s 20-year career at the Federal Reserve includes leading the business strategy, development and management of the Federal Reserve Banks’ FedLine® access solutions used by more than 10,000 U.S. financial institutions to transact $4 trillion of payment value daily. He has also led risk management, security and application development functions. Aadland holds a master of business administration degree from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and a master of science in electronic commerce from DePaul University. He is also a Certified Information Systems Security Professional and was commissioned by the Board of Governors as a bank examiner.
Cyrus Bhathawalla
Cyrus Bhathawalla is a Director in KPMG’s financial services and payments consulting practice, seconded to the USA with over 6 years of experience in the banking and payments industry. Cyrus has focused experience with multiple Australian Tier 1 banks on payments remediation, transformation, and processing analysis projects. Most recently, Cyrus served as the Design Lead for the KPMG AU team that centralized 17 Australian FI’s in support of developing the New Payments Platform (NPP) Real-Time Payments infrastructure.
Richard W. Burke, Jr.
Richard W. Burke, Jr., is Head of Corporate Products & Services with TD Bank, America’s Most Convenient Bank. Rick is responsible for the Treasury Management Services and Non-Retail (Small Business, Government and Commercial) Liquidity Management businesses. He is an active member of both TD’s U.S. and North American Executive Payments Councils.
Rick joined TD Bank in 1999, serving in roles including leading Operations, Digital Channels (Call Center, ATM and Retail Online Services) and Merchant Services, in addition to Treasury Management.
In addition to being a member of TD Bank’s senior leadership team, Rick serves as a member of the bank’s Diversity Leadership Team, and is a member of TD’s Minority Leadership subcommittee.
Rick has received permanent status as a Certified Cash Manager from the Association for Financial Professionals. He is active in a number of U.S. payment systems forums and initiatives including work with The Clearing House and serving as a Board Member of the National Automated Clearing House Association. During the past two years, Rick has represented TD Bank on the Federal Reserve Bank’s Faster Payments Task Force and served as a member of the group’s Steering Committee.
Rick received his bachelor’s degree in operations research from Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pennsylvania, and was awarded his Masters of Business Administration by Villanova University. He and his family reside in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
Magnus Carlsson
Magnus Carlsson is currently the Manager for Treasury & Payments at the Association for Financial Professionals. Previously Mr. Carlsson worked as the Project Manager for the SEPA project at AB Volvo and was the Arbitrage Manager for Arlington County Treasurer’s Office, managing all Arbitrage issues, debt service payments and investment management. He has also been with the Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLB) Office of Finance for seven years in positions of increasing responsibility and scope including Credit Analysis, Short-Term Debt Issuance and Investor Relations.
Before his career in the United States, Mr. Carlsson was a Bank Analyst performing risk- and credit-based analysis on banks and financial institutions at Swedbank Markets in Stockholm, Sweden. He holds a Masters’ Degree in Finance from the University of Karlstad, and a Master’s degree in Marketing from the University of Gothenburg, School of Business, Economics and Law.
Kevin Christensen
As senior vice president of market intelligence and data analytics, Kevin leads the company’s enterprise-wide governance and utilization of information and is responsible for providing insights that aids in the development and execution of the company’s strategic goals. Kevin joined SHAZAM in 2004 as the senior internal audit manager. He became vice president of audit in 2008 and was promoted to vice president of risk and financial services in 2015.
Prior to joining SHAZAM, Kevin worked for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) for 10 years. He started at the FDIC’s Des Moines, Iowa, office as a safety and soundness examiner in 1994. After becoming a commissioned examiner, Kevin shifted his attention to the information technology (IT) field, working full time in IT from 1998 to 2004.
His diverse experience ranges from the community bank level to some of the largest and most complex data centers in the Midwest. During his FDIC career, Kevin led more than 150 IT examinations and was the central point of contact for Jack Henry and Associates, Inc. in Monett, Missouri; MasterCard® International in St. Louis, Missouri; and Information Technology, Inc. in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Kevin currently serves on the board of directors for NACHA — The Electronic Payments Association®. He helps provide guidance and assists in addressing issues of strategic significance to the ACH network and the national association. Kevin was elected and sits on the Interim Collaboration Work Group (ICWG) created through the Federal Reserve Faster Payments Task Force. Kevin participated in the Federal Reserve Faster Payments Task Force from 2015 to 2017 and during this time chaired the Interoperability Challenges and Opportunities Workgroup and served on the Task Force’s Editorial Board.
Kevin graduated from Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, with a bachelor’s degree in economics and business management. He currently lives in Urbandale, Iowa, with his wife, Karah, and their two children, Emma and Halle.
Shonda Clay
Shonda Clay was named executive vice president and product manager for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s Customer Relations and Support Office (CRSO) effective October 16. Prior to her appointment, she served as the CRSO senior vice president, marketing, sales and industry relations, where she was responsible for leading these functions for the Federal Reserve Banks.
Clay joined the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas in 1991 and transitioned to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago in 2001. Her tenure with the Federal Reserve has encompassed multiple areas of management responsibility to include internal support functions, customer support, business development and national sales and marketing. Clay was promoted to assistant vice president and national account manager in 2002. She was promoted to vice president in 2008 with responsibilities for regional sales and marketing and sales operations and analytics. She was promoted to senior vice president in 2014.
Clay holds a master’s degree in business administration from Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of North Texas.
Charles Ellert
Charles Ellert leads payment strategy at Verizon Communications Inc. Mr. Ellert is responsible for driving strategic payment initiatives across the enterprise. In this role, he works across the company to identify new and innovative solutions to maximize customer satisfaction, streamline operational efficiencies and improve business agility.
Before joining Verizon, Mr. Ellert held various leadership positions at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland serving as the product manager for Pay.gov, the US Treasury’s core ecommerce payments gateway, and most recently as a leader for the eCommerce Strategic Initiatives team. In that role, he was responsible for delivering strategic plans for implementing alternative payment methods, enhancing electronic billing capabilities, and advancing mobile strategies for the Treasury.
Mr. Ellert holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from John Carroll University. He holds a Project Management Professional certification from the Project Management Institute. He has completed coursework in information technology and leadership at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received the distinguished Secretary of the Treasury’s Certificate of Appreciation in 2006.
Danielle Gotkis
Danielle Gotkis is Senior Vice President of Marketing and Growth at dLocal, the only 360 payments technology company that is focused on e-commerce payments in emerging markets across LATAM, APAC and EMEA. Danielle oversees the intersection of corporate and product marketing and is responsible for communications, new product and geography launches, partner and channel marketing initiatives, and customer marketing programs. She works closely with dLocal’s tier 1 merchant customers, payment ecosystem partners, global retailers and online marketplaces on evolving their understanding of the payments landscape in emerging markets, while guiding them to implement holistic cross-border payments strategies that reach all local customers and maximize conversions. As member of the executive team, Danielle is instrumental at shaping dLocal’s expansion and scaling strategies ushering the company on its next stage of growth.
Prior to dLocal, Danielle built and led corporate and product marketing functions at PayNearMe, an alternative payments network that enables billers to accept real-time payments from un- and underbanked consumers at over 28K agent locations including 7-Eleven, Family Dollar and CVS stores. Over the past 12 years, Danielle held various marketing, partnership and management roles at several Silicon Valley mobile technology, SaaS and semiconductor equipment companies. She holds an MBA in International Business and a B.S. in Information Technology and New Media.
Beth Horowitz Steel
Beth is a business leader who passionately pursues innovation and change. She has developed new products, created successful partnerships and driven technology and marketing innovation throughout her career. At Glenbrook, Beth focuses on the card ecosystem, working with issuers, acquirers, processors, service providers and emerging companies across the value chain.
Before joining Glenbrook, Beth led global marketing solutions for Discover Financial Services and served as a member of the company’s management committee. Her team designed innovative global marketing campaigns, pricing programs across four discreet lines of business, and created regional “go-to-market” strategies to introduce new payment technologies, such as mobile and chip payments.
Prior to Discover, Beth developed a range of successful products and programs at MasterCard International across a variety of areas and markets: corporate cards, cobranded partnerships and stored value smart cards (Australia). As Senior Vice President of Advanced Payments, Beth went on to help develop and implement MasterCard PayPass, and build the company’s early stage global innovation practice.
Beth’s focus on developing new platforms and business model improvements fueled bottom line revenue growth for companies she worked for and now enjoys bringing that expertise to all her consulting engagements.
Grace Hou
Grace Hou is a Partner based out of McKinsey’s San Francisco Office. She is a leader in the global Payments Practice and focuses on helping financial services players realize the value from digital opportunities in payments, supporting transformations from the front-end customer journey to the back-end payments infrastructure enablement. She was a member of the Qualified Independent Assessment Team that evaluated industry proposals for faster payment solutions on behalf of the Faster Payments Task Force, and also partnered with the Federal Reserve Banks on developing strategic options for achieving faster payments. Grace holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, an M.Sc in Policy from Oxford University and a Bachelor of Economics from Harvard College.
Lisa Hrabosky
Lisa Hrabosky has been with PayPal since 2007. Her current responsibilities include leading PayPal’s Global Payment Network Compliance and overseeing the Visa Global Strategic Partnership across all PayPal brands, including Braintree and Venmo. Over her career, she has contributed to successful product launches or negotiated contractual partnerships across a diverse landscape ranging from ACH, bill payment, card acquiring, card issuing, tokenization, contextual commerce, verification, rewards, EFT / ATM processing, Original Credits, interchange optimization, and strategic network and merchant partnerships across 6 continents.
In her early career, she was a bank auditor and held risk management roles that led her to become a Certified Fraud Examiner. She also learned payments starting early working on an issuing portfolio that led to later going to a network including managing a network billing system. These diverse roles led to a true understanding of the financial drivers, business acumen of end-to-end processing, contractual arrangements, including risk, and payment knowledge. These factors coupled with her strategic mindset enable Lisa to strategize with banks, merchants, networks and cross functional teams to create payment solutions that delight customers. She does this by either working within existing rule frameworks or thoughtfully challenge the status quo defining PayPal’s Payment Policies – speaking the language of risk and compliance experts while also those in finance and strategy to break legacy mindsets of what’s possible. It is through this unique background she has ensured PayPal could enable verticals such as Daily Fantasy Sports, Adult, and real money gaming or look at alterative boarding processes. Lisa also sits on PayPal’s Anti Money Laundering Risk Management Committee and represents PayPal in other internal and external forums pushing innovation while truly understanding when the line must be drawn to ensure the safety and soundness of the payment ecosystem.
Prior to PayPal, Lisa worked at the STAR Network where she managed STAR and Gateway network billing, risk management, and Star Member and ISO/third party relations. While at Verizon Wireless she was in the finance team managing risk management. She also spent time at Union Bank of California in their audit division specializing in internal investigations and time in their debit card operations. While seeking her degree in finance and international business, she also worked at Nordstrom and created a risk management program that span 20 stores used to identify internal and external fraud rings. Lisa is also a US Patent Inventor and an advisor to PayIt, a mobile startup focused on making consumer payments to governments easier.
David Kretz
David Kretz is managing director and head of Global Payments in the Global Transaction Services (GTS) business at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. He is based in New York.
As head of Global Payments, Kretz works closely with the GTS region heads to execute a global strategy for payments, inclusive of urgent/high value, non-urgent/low value payments, as well as banknotes. Serving both the Corporate and Commercial lines of business, his responsibilities include end-to-end product and P&L management, new product development and product launches, pricing, training and marketing.
Previously, Kretz was head of Global Cross Currency Products for two years, and prior to that, the Chief Operating Officer for GTS.
He joined the firm in January 2011 and has 25 years of financial services experience. Prior to joining Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Kretz spent nearly seven years with JP Morgan in various senior roles within Treasury Services, including Global Head of Strategy and Western Hemisphere Liquidity Product Executive. Previously, he spent seven years as a banking consultant, and nine years in middle market banking.
Kretz is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Bradley University with a BS in finance and holds an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management.
Steve Ledford
As the Senior Vice President, Product and Strategy, Steve Ledford works with payments leaders on strategic issues facing financial institutions and leads initiatives to address them, including RTP, The Clearing House real-time payments program.
Prior to joining The Clearing House, Mr. Ledford was a partner with Novantas, a financial services consulting firm. Before that he was a leader in McKinsey’s global payments practice, and was President of Global Concepts, a consulting and research firm specializing in payments and cash management.
Mr. Ledford is a graduate of Wofford College with a BA in Economics.
Reed Luhtanen
As Senior Director of Payments Strategy, Reed Luhtanen has responsibility for Walmart’s payments-related public policy and public relations initiatives and, along with an internal leadership team, for establishing Walmart’s payments acceptance strategies. Reed has been with Walmart since 2005, when he joined the Licensing Compliance team as a law clerk while attending law school. Since joining Walmart’s Corporate Treasury team in 2008, Reed has had responsibility for government benefits acceptance, the company’s global gift card program and debit card acceptance. In 2015, Reed was recognized by PayBefore as a “Top Ten Payments Lawyers” and is a member of the 2015 “40 Under 40” classes of both the Arkansas Business Journal and the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal. Reed previously served as the Chair of the Food Marketing Institute’s Electronic Payments Systems Committee, and currently serves as the Vice Chair of the Special Interest Group for IIAS Standards (SIGIS), a member of the Federal Reserve System’s Secure Payments Task Force Steering Committee and Chair of the Task Force’s Data Protection Work Group. Reed has a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Arkansas’ Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences and a J.D. from the University of Arkansas School of Law. Reed and Sarah, his wife, live in Bentonville, Arkansas with their two children, Norah (2011) and Harvey (2014).
Javier Pérez-Tasso
Javier Pérez-Tasso is Chief Executive, Americas and UK Region at SWIFT. Appointed in August 2015, he is responsible for key client relationships and leading growth and business development across North America, the UK, Ireland and Nordics, as well as management of SWIFT’s rapidly growing business in Latin America.
Previously, Javier served as Chief Marketing Officer, following his appointment to SWIFT’s Executive Committee by CEO Gottfried Leibbrandt in July 2012. He led product management, market management, and strategy, including the successful development of the SWIFT2020 company strategy which was launched in June 2015. Product and market management responsibilities extended across core payments and securities businesses, market infrastructures, and shared services including financial crime compliance.
Earlier in his career, Javier held several senior leadership positions in SWIFT’s sales divisions, including serving as Head of Western Europe, Middle East and Africa. Prior to that, he led business development in SWIFT’s Paris and Madrid offices. He also served as Head of Products and Services within the Marketing division.
Javier holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble, an MBA from Solvay Business School, a Master in Finance from Instituto de Empresa and the Executive TGM from Insead.
Javier is Spanish and is based in New York.
Sean Rodriguez
Sean Rodriguez is faster payments strategy leader for the Federal Reserve System. As faster payments strategy leader, Rodriguez is leading activities to facilitate implementation of safe, ubiquitous, faster payments capabilities in the United States. He chaired the Federal Reserve’s Faster Payments Task Force and is now leading several work streams established by the task force that are focused on improving the speed, clearing, settlement and notification of payments in this country.
Rodriguez brings more than 34 years of experience with Federal Reserve Financial Services in operations, product development, sales and marketing. He helped establish the Federal Reserve’s Customer Relations and Support Office in 2001 including its national account program and served on the Federal Reserve’s leadership team for implementing the Check 21 initiative. More recently, Rodriguez was instrumental in the design and launch of the Federal Reserve’s Payments Industry Relations Program. Rodriguez holds a B.A. from the University of Colorado, a Graduate School of Banking Certificate from the University of Wisconsin and is an Association for Financial Professionals – Certified Cash Manager.
David Sapenaro
David A. Sapenaro is the First Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis as well as the Federal Reserve System’s Payments Strategies Director. In his Bank role, he is responsible for directing operations and administrative support functions, leading strategic, tactical and financial planning and coordinating risk management activities. In his System role, he leads the Federal Reserve’s payments system improvement efforts related to faster payments, payments security, and stakeholder engagement.
Prior to being named to his current position in January 2006, Mr. Sapenaro led the Bank’s operations and initiatives in support of the U.S. Treasury’s financial operations. He also spent 10 years at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, holding a variety of positions in the Financial Services Division of the Bank, including lengthy stints as the officer-in-charge of the Bank’s Automated Clearing House and Funds Transfer operations.
Mr. Sapenaro received a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Missouri, Kansas City in 1985. He currently serves on the board of directors of the Greater St. Louis chapter of Junior Achievement.
Bob Steen
Bob Steen is Chairman and CEO of Bridge Community Bank, an employee-owned community bank located in Iowa. His background includes serving as a Federal Reserve Bank examiner with the balance of his career working with and for community banks. He is currently serving as a member of the Iowa Bankers Association Payments Council and also serves on the ICBA Technology and Payments Committee, and a related Fed work group. Bob has served on the Iowa Bankers Association Board, served a 3 year term on the NACHA Board of Directors and is currently a board member of Shazam. He was a member of the Fed’s Faster Payment Task Force and as a representative for the small financial institution segment on the Faster Payment Steering Committee.
Bridge Community Bank has been an early adopter of check imaging technology, same day ACH and other efforts to advance payments for the community banking industry.
Peter Tapling
Peter Tapling is Chief Revenue Officer for Early Warning, with responsibility over Early Warning’s sales organization. He brings significant industry, sales and leadership expertise to the role having held numerous executive leadership positions, including CEO of Authentify® and, most recently, leader of Early Warning’s Authentication Product Line.
Tapling joined Early Warning in April 2015 through an acquisition of Authentify, a company he founded in 1999. As president and CEO of Authentify, he led the company’s efforts for intuitive multi-factor authentication services introduced the global security community to phone-based user authentication services in 2001.
Prior to founding Authentify, Tapling provided executive leadership to several start-ups. He was the director of sales for Aurigin Systems, which was eventually acquired by MicroPatent. Prior to that, he served as vice president of strategic development for NetDox, and he served as president of IDMetrix, a NetDox subsidiary.
He is a frequent speaker at industry forums. Tapling is a member of the steering committee for the Federal Reserve Secure Payments Task Force. He is an advisory member of NACHA’s Payments Innovation Alliance and served on the Conference Planning Committee for NACHAs PAYMENTS conference in 2016 and 2017.
Tapling earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Computer Science from Illinois State University.
Nishu Thukral
Nishu Thukral is the CEO and President at Pangea Money Transfer, a Chicago-based international money transfer platform, where he leverages his extensive payments background to accelerate Pangea’s growth and innovation in the remittance industry. Before that, as COO at Pangea, Nishu played a critical role in the launch and rapid early growth of the company.
With more than 15 years of experience as an operator, investor, advisor and entrepreneur, Nishu has had a successful career that includes heading payment strategy at Redbox and serving as an investor at Susquehanna Growth Equity.
Hank Uberoi
Hank Uberoi has been Earthport’s CEO and Executive Director since 2010. He is responsible for harnessing the company’s growth potential as a positive disruptive force in the payments industry. He divides his time between Earthport’s New York office and the company’s London headquarters.
Before joining Earthport, Hank was focused on investments in technology, financial services and payments with an emphasis on cross-border business models.
Until 2004 he was Chief Operating Officer at Citadel Investment Group. Hank previously spent 14 years at Goldman Sachs, where he was a partner and co-Chief Operating Officer of the technology division.
Hank graduated from Williams College, Massachusetts with a BA, Magna Cum Laude.
Glen Ulrich
Glen Ulrich is the Senior Vice President and Operations Executive at U.S. Bank.Glen joined U.S. Bank in 2000, having been at Wells Fargo Bank for the prior 7 years. Since joining U.S. Bank, Glen has been responsible for leading the Midwest Item Processing team, followed by leading the Deposit Services Group for the past 12 years.
The Deposit Services Group consists of:
Payment Resolution Services – research & adjustments, photo & image retrieval, researching and preventing check & deposit anomalies, posting exception resolution, incoming/outgoing return processing.
Fraud & Risk Prevention Services – monitoring & preventing online banking channel anomalies, Reg E & Reg CC claims processing.
Business Resiliency Services – industry representation, workforce re-engineering, reporting standards and evaluating performance of fraud solutions and defining future processes and technology strategies.
Cheryl Venable
Cheryl Venable is executive vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and serves as the retail payments product manager for the national Retail Payments Office (RPO), which is headquartered at the Atlanta Bank. In this role, she oversees all aspects of the check and ACH business lines.
Venable has spent her entire career with the Fed since joining the St. Louis Bank in 1991 as a management trainee in the accounting and payment system risk department. She joined the Minneapolis Fed in 1996 and was responsible for FedACH business support. In her last position, she served as the senior vice president responsible for FedACH operations and automation, led the information technology division, and served on the Management Committee. During this time Venable managed the technology transition to the web-based FedLine solution for FedACH.
In 2010 she joined the Atlanta Fed as RPO chief information officer, where she oversaw the technology and application development for both Check and FedACH, including the successful modernization of the electronic check processing platform.
Venable serves with other business leaders on several System-level groups, including the Business Technology Council and the Financial Services Council.
She serves on the board of directors of Visiting Nurse Health System, a nonprofit organization serving Atlanta with home healthcare, care management, and end-of-life services. A Missouri native, Venable earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in business administration from St. Louis University.
Gordon Werkema
Gordon Werkema is the outgoing payments strategy director for the Federal Reserve System. As payments strategy director, Werkema has responsibility for leading major payment system improvement initiatives described in the Federal Reserve’s “Strategies for improving the U.S. payment system” paper. Werkema leads the Federal Reserve’s strategies related to faster payments, payments security and stakeholder engagement, collaborating with the Federal Reserve’s current financial services product leaders to execute the full complement of strategies outlined in the paper.
Werkema’s 35 year career at the Federal Reserve began in the San Francisco District, where he ultimately served as executive vice president before moving to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, where he was first vice president and chief operating officer until September 1, 2015. He has also served as product director of the System’s National Customer Relations and Support Office. Werkema holds a master’s degree with honors from The Johns Hopkins University.
Bradley Wilkes
Bradley Wilkes is the Founder and President/CEO of WingCash. Prior to founding WingCash, he founded ProPay, Inc., a subsidiary of publicly traded Total Systems Services, Inc (NYSE:TSS) operating in Lehi, Utah. ProPay is a registered ISO/MSP and third party payment processor for payment card networks (Visa, MasterCard, Amex, Discover) and member Financial Institutions. He was also a co-founder of Authorize.net now owned by Visa. Bradley was a member of the Federal Reserve’s Faster Payments Task Force and a member of the 18 person Steering Committee that advised the Fed on matters related to the work of the Faster Payments Task Force. He was one of six people elected by the non-bank providers segment of the Faster Payments Task Force to work on the implementation of the Faster Payments Governance Framework for the United States. He’s been awarded eight payment related patents by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. He received an MBA/TM degree from the University of Phoenix and a Bachelor of Science from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Bradley is a co-founder and the President/CCO for ParityPay, Inc.
Ryan Zagone
Ryan Zagone is the Director of Regulatory Relations at Ripple, a payment technology company named one of the 50 Smartest Companies by MIT and the recipient of the World Economic Forum’s Technology Pioneer Award. Ryan serves on the Steering Committee of the Federal Reserve’s Faster Payments Initiative. He also sits on the advisory board of the United Nations’ Better Than Cash Alliance – an effort to accelerate financial inclusion through electronic payments. Previously, Ryan focused on product strategy at Deloitte and regulatory policy at the American Bankers Association. Ryan holds a degree in economics and lives in New York.
Gary Shapiro is president and CEO of the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)™, the U.S. trade association representing more than 2,200 consumer technology companies and which owns and produces CES® – The Global Stage for Innovation.