Our Ambassadors

Do you have the same passion for the payments industry as we do? Are you an expert in a particular payments field?  Would you like to share and pass your knowledge on to others?

Why not become an Ambassador of The Payments Association?

As an Ambassador we entrust you with our brand.

  • Support us in creating awareness, attention and desire from new members to join
  • Help our current members who want to understand more about the emerging payments and how it works
  • Help improve our community’s effectiveness

If you would like to contact any of our ambassadors, Sophie Boissier will be happy to introduce you.

 

David Parker

CEO, EU Polymath Consulting

John Schratz

Managing Director, Eclipse Enterprise Consulting

Matteo Dessi

Director and Founder FN1X

Joanne Dewar

Project ESG Lead
The Payments Association

Mark McMurtrie

Director, Payments Consultancy Ltd

Michael Chambers

Director, Northey Point

Dr. Ruth Wandhöfer

Teresa Connors

Client Director, Payment Matters

Andrew Churchill

Security Consultant and Researcher
Technology Strategy

Jane Jee

Company Secretary, Numitor Limited

Nilixa Devlukia

Founder

Payments Solved

Charles Radclyffe

CEO, EthicsGrade

Hugh Kingdon

Advisor - Card payments and Strategy Revolut

Mark Goldspink

CEO
The ai Corporation

Andrew Doukanaris

CEO
Flotta Consulting Ltd and Fintech & Payments Consulting Ltd

Kirsten Trusko

Co-Founder
Payments as a Lifeline

Mark O'Keefe

Founding Director Optima Consultancy

David Parker

David Parker got into Prepaid Cards in 2002 and in 2005 set up Polymath Consulting which has concentrated on consultancy services in Prepaid and Payments Association since then. Polymath Consulting have delivered over 100 projects across 20+ markets globally – from Nigeria and Kenya to Sri Lanka and Eastern. In addition the breadth of our work ranging from standard RFP’s for issuers, processors, to market entry strategy and risk/fraud provides a truly end to end view of the emerging payments arena.

John Schratz

John is the Founder and Managing Director of Eclipse Enterprise Consulting, a specialist payments consultancy practice providing strategic, interim management, consultancy and advisory support to companies engaged in banking, consumer lending, cross-border remittance and card payments. As a leading professional in the card and payments sectors, John brings a unique blend of technical expertise, industry knowledge, product innovation, strong governance and international experience.

A financial services practitioner with over 25 years of experience, he has worked with some of the world’s leading financial institutions, as well as established Fintechs and start-ups, where he has gained an in-depth understanding of the complexities in delivering change initiatives across large-scale business, operational and regulated environments. His domain expertise across the payments value chain includes market entry, processor and partner evaluation, compliance and risk management, credit and debit issuing, Scheme membership and regulatory license applications.

In addition to having served in a number of executive positions during his career, John has also held non-executive positions with Visa and MasterCard in the UK, as well as advisory roles, including Jaja Finance, where he supported the successful bid for the Bank of Ireland and Post office credit card back-book.

 

 

Matteo Dessi

Matteo has been in Payments since 2005, working for Multinational organisations, small banks and startups, He holds an MBA in General Management and a BA in International Relations and Spanish. Currently he has co-founded FN1X, a boutique consultancy company which supports new entrants and existing p[layers in the payment space, in understanding completing the value chain and define their product.  

Matteo’s areas of expertise include: payments, languages, management.  

Strongly believes in learning something new everyday and sharing your knowledge. 

Joanne Dewar

Joanne Dewar has been firmly at the centre of the Fintech revolution, having led Global Processing Services, the technology infrastructure behind many of the greatest fintech disruptors, including as CEO for 4 years. In 2021, Joanne successfully orchestrated a $400m investment in GPS and led the physical expansion to 3 continents.   Recognition includes Businesswoman of the Year at the 2023 UK Tech Awards and Director of the Year at the 2022 UK Fintech Awards. Joanne is a passionate advocate for UK Fintech on the global stage and a change maker in Diversity and Inclusion.

Joanne is currently leading The Payment Association’s Project ESG.

Mark McMurtrie

Mark McMurtrie is an award winning Independent Consultant who focuses on Payments and FinTech. He advises financial services companies, payment providers, merchants, technology companies and investors. Through Payments Consultancy Ltd he provides market assessments, strategy development, regulatory compliance, supplier selection and commercial due diligence advisory services. His payments industry high profile comes from being a respected commentator, research analyst, conference chairman and speaker. Mark also acts as a judge for industry award programmes and is proud to be an Ambassador for the The Payments Association.

Michael Chambers

After over a decade as the Chief Executive Officer of the UK’s biggest retail payment system and bank account switching service, Mike is pursuing a portfolio career including an INED at a financial institution specialising in the custody and settlement of digital assets, a director at a leading Bacs bureau, undertaking payments advisory engagements through his consultancy firm and is a cashless advocate.

Dr. Ruth Wandhöfer ​

Dr. Ruth Wandhöfer has been instrumental in shaping the future of finance during her impressive career over the last 20 years. She operates at the nexus of finance, technology and regulation and is passionate about creating the digital financial ecosystem of the future. She is a very influential female leader in the technology space, promoting the understanding, deployment and business models of our digital future across financial markets and processes.

With a diverse career across regulatory policy development, banking, Fintech/Regtech mentoring, investing and consulting she finds herself at the centre of the evolving digital ecosystem of players with the ability to advise, accelerate, promote and enable technology players to become an integral part of the new financial ecosystem.

Ruth began her career in banking. After a distinguished career of over a decade with Citi, Ruth is now an independent Non-Executive Director on the boards of Permanent TSB, Gresham Technologies and Digital Identity Net as well as a Partner at Gauss Ventures – a VC firm focused on early stage FinTech investment.

She is also the Chair of the PSR Panel in the UK, Member of the Digital Standards Advisory Group of the UK BSI, Member of the Innovation and Growth Advisory Board of the City of London, Chief Innovation Officer at GC Partners, a Strategic Adviser of the European Third Party Provider Association (ETPPA) as well as Adviser of RTGS.global and Co-Founder of Sinonyx, a specialised consulting and advisory firm focused on digitisation of capital markets and payments. Until recently she served as independent Non-Executive Director on the Boards of the London Stock Exchange Group and Pendo Systems Inc. and as senior adviser to KPMG. 

Ruth was named as one of 2010s ‘Rising Stars’ by Financial News; named in Management Today’s 2011 ‘35 Women under 35’ list of women to watch and identified as one of the 100 Most Influential People in Finance 2012 by the Treasury Risk Magazine. She received the ‘Women in Banking and Finance Award for Achievement’ in 2015 and in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2020 she was named on the global ‘Women in Fintech Powerlist’ of Innovate
Finance (Senior Leader in 2020). She is a 2018, 2019 and 2020 Top 10 Global Fintech Influencer (Fintech Power 50).


She speaks five languages, has completed studies in Financial Economics (MA, UK), International Politics (MA, FR) and an LLM in International Economic Law (UK). She was awarded a doctorate by CASS Business School, London and Tilburg University in 2019 for her PhD thesis in Finance on the topic of “Technology Innovation in Financial Markets”.


She published two books: “EU Payments Integration” (2010) and “Transaction Banking and the Impact of Regulatory Change” (2014), is a Fellow of CASS Business School City University London, a Visiting Professor at the London Institute of Banking and Finance and occasional lecturer at Queen Mary London School of Law.


She balances this extraordinary career while raising her children and champions for a better work life balance for parents and more support for women entrepreneurs.

Teresa Connors

An inspiring payments expert with strong customer focus, commercial and delivery credentials. Global experience with deep understanding of market complexity, drivers and participants.

At Payment Matters, Teresa helps customers to deepen client insight to enhance propositions and build a compelling Thought Leadership programme.

During her career at NatWest / RBS Teresa led international market engagement programmes leveraging knowledge & expertise in payments, cash management, client insight and product.

Teresa is a highly regarded industry spokesperson, she is also a published author contributing to The PAYTECH Book 2020 and as a primary author of the market leading World Payments Report.

A strong advocate of diversity, Teresa is a member of the UK Women in Payments Board.

Andrew Churchill

Originally a Defence Analyst, Andrew first moved into the payments realm in 2001, leading HM Government’s Cybercrime Task Force, and subsequently co-ordinating work with industry on Banking and Payments security technology requirements, particularly in Identity, Authentication and broader Cyber Security. In over 20 years of experience as a consultant and researcher he has advised myriad Governments, Regulators, Standards bodies and every facet of industry. He is the lead author of the British Standard in Digital Identification and Strong Customer Authentication (PAS499:2019). addressing PSD2 RTS SCA, UK member of ISO TC321 in E-Commerce Transaction Assurance, and has led industry and regulatory wargaming exercises against future threats and vulnerabilities within the payments industry, including for Open Banking. Currently he has a particular focus on the developing international legal approach to combatting economic crime, especially from the viewpoint of domestic legislative programme and its impact on the global outlook.

Internationally he has been subject matter expert on an EU Cybercrime research programme, a member of the US Federal Reserve’s Secure Payments Task Force, and an advisor to Governments on international Regulatory Alignment and standards in Secure & Trusted  environments such as payments. In addition to his first degree he holds masters in Information Security (MSc, Royal Holloway), and Defence & Security Analysis (MA, Lancaster University).

 

3 Specialisms

  • Impact of emerging Legislative and Regulatory developments
  • Digital Identification & Strong Customer Authentication
  • Financial crime and cyber security requirements

Jane Jee

In 2014 Jane obtained a Post Graduate Diploma in Governance, Risk and Compliance from the International Compliance Association (ICA) and is a Fellow there. For 5 years Jane taught ICA post-graduate students about “The Future of Payments” covering regulatory changes and new developments in technology in the field of payments and compliance.

Jane worked at Kompli-Global Limited for over 5 years. Kompli-Global offers SaaS to defeat fraud and money laundering. Jane was CEO at Kompli-Global Limited from 2016 until April 2021 when she moved to become Chair. She left that role in September 2021.

Jane regularly speaks at conferences and publishes articles on anti-money laundering as it affects financial institutions and other regulated entities, as well as emphasising the enormous benefits that regulatory technology (RegTech) can bring in reducing costs and increasing the efficiency of the compliance function.

Since 1st October 2021 Jane has been a freelance consultant specialising in anti-money laundering and fraud prevention.

Nilixa Devlukia

Nilixa is the founder of Payments Solved, a regulatory consultancy advising on the regulatory framework for CBDC, crypto assets, open banking, and payment services both in the UK, EU and globally. Nilixa is a lawyer by training and an experienced regulatory expert with a Masters in European Competition Law and over 20 years of banking and payments experience gained from her time at Barclays, the Financial Conduct Authority, the European Banking Authority, and the Open Banking Implementation Entity. Nilixa is a member of the ECB Digital Euro Market Advisory Group, the European Payment Systems Market Expert Group, the European Data Expert Group.

 

Nilixa works with regulators, legislators and industry to drive changes in the financial services ecosystem for outcomes that support  secure, transparent, and inclusive financial services. 

Nilixa is also a well-known public speaker, Chair of the Open Finance Association and a contributing member of the Digital Euro Association and the Digital Pound Foundation.

Charles Radclyffe

Charles is a serial entrepreneur who has focused his career on solving tough technology challenges for some of the world’s largest organisations.

A self-confessed ‘geek’ at heart, Charles has also developed a keen radar for the ‘dark-side’ of tech, which he believes mostly manifests unintentionally from not considering the various needs of, and impact to, stakeholders.

Charles has built and sold three technology companies, and in his spare time passionately supports and mentors young entrepreneurs and start-up teams.

Past roles include Head of Technology at Deutsche Bank Labs in London and Head of AI at Fidelity International.

Charles is currently a Forbes contributing writer and is a Visiting Fellow of the University of Bristol. In early 2020 he co-founded an ESG Ratings agency, EthicsGrade, which evaluates the maturity of corporate digital responsibility at some of the world’s most well-known brands.

He is an experienced public speaker having presented at various events in the UK, US, and the Middle East on technology ethics and in particular is very focused on emerging technologies such as AI, automation and Robotics and it’s impact on society.

Charles holds an MA in Law from Cambridge, and his hobbies include golf, motorsport, science fiction and early modern history.

If you’d like to learn more about Charles’ career – please visit his Linkedin profile.

For a sample of his public speaking engagements – please watch this TEDx talk.

Charles’ Twitter handle for events is @dataphilosopher.

Read my published works here.

Hugh Kingdon

Hugh is a fintech expert and advisor to fintech clients including Revolut where he works part-time and leads their payment card commercial activities as they have scaled-up globally as an Issuer, Acquirer and Merchant.

In addition to working for Revolut, Hugh consults for other clients including Fintechs and VCs. 

He is well known in Fintech circles, especially from his time working for Visa and Mastercard where he partnered with leading fintechs and helped them grow, pioneered many major improvement initiatives, built substantial incremental revenues and won a CEO award. 

He is also familiar to Payments Association  members as former sponsor of the highly successful Women in PayTech project.  

 

Now working as an advisor in the area of payments strategy, card payments, remittances, e-commerce, lending and fintech, he is working with leading companies to help them grow and scale profitably. 

Andrew Doukanaris

Andrew’s global payments and fintech experience is pretty unique. He has been based in London, New York, San Francisco and Singapore. During this time, he has led global merchant businesses and held executive roles at global schemes, start ups and established fintechs.

He was head of Chevron/Texaco/Caltex card and loyalty programs across Europe, Asia Pacific and then global card operations across the three brands. 

In 2005, Andrew was asked to join Visa CEMEA to head up its retail payments team and subsequently the head of commercial cards for the region. In 2009 he was appointed VP and head of merchant acceptance and acquiring for Visa Europe. During this time Andrew and his team grew Visa’s acceptance footprint by more than 400,000 outlets, rolling out contactless across much of Europe and preparing London for the Olympic Games. 

He was Senior Vice President and head of sales and marketing for Europe at JCB, the only Japan based global card scheme. He was also the scheme EMV representative. 

As an advisor to Mastercard Middle East, Andrew worked with the Riyadh based team to develop the commercial card strategy for a global bank in KSA.

Spotting a gap in the market, Andrew established Flotta Consulting to focus on the underserved fintech community. During the last decade, he has advised numerous start ups and established players and been appointed board member, advisor, and CEO of a number of now global fintechs.

He has been an active mentor at Level39 for more than seven years, advising new start ups in the fintech space. He is also the CEO of Fintech & Payments Consulting Ltd, the international group focusing on non UK start ups.

A regular speaker and contributor at numerous global events and even a podcast on Spotify, he finds time to share his thoughts and ideas in person and through social media.

Andrew’s passion and goal is to simplify what is becoming an unnecessarily increasingly complex payments ecosystem. His association with The PA goes back almost a decade, during which time he has added two companies he has worked with as TPA members. 

Kirsten Trusko

Kirsten Trusko’s career is focused on FinTech and Payments. She is Co-founder of Payments as a Lifeline – “PaaLPay.org”. PaaL is a 501c3 coalition and “network for good” to deliver disaster & aid funds to people and communities in need.

Funders (governments, insurance, and non-profits) can choose to deliver funds via a card, e-card, QR code, or code for cash – safe, fast, and with dignity. These funders gain automatic accounting, data analytics and reporting. They may choose to exercise Accountable Giving – and control how funds are spent, and may choose to control for waste, fraud, and abuse.

She is also CEO of Valkyrie which holds 4 US government certifications for Woman Owned, Disadvantaged, and Underserved Businessed.

Kirsten works with industry, and government in anti-money laundering and cyber security, she’s testified on Capitol Hill, delivered over 300 speeches, and serves on several Boards. Her pro bono work is in anti-human trafficking.

Mark O'Keefe

Founding director of Optima Consultancy, Mark is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. Operating across commercial finance, strategic change, and business transformation he has more than 20+ years’ experience in the payments business.

Alongside the consulting business, he has a portfolio of other roles: a member of the PSR Panel; Non-Executive Chair of PIPO Service Limited (ByteDance); an advisor for the Consultative Group for Liz Coll, in Elizabeth Helen Coll v Alphabet Inc. and a trustee for the M20 Learning Trust (including chair of the Audit & Risk Committee).

His time client side was spent with Marks & Spencer Money as a key member of the team that successfully launched the largest ever retail card conversion in Europe and at Capital One Bank where he helped to shape and develop the financial planning function for the UK entry.

A seasoned speaker at conferences and events, he has also delivered many training workshops for the major payment networks. His consulting assignments cover multi-payment products with a broad spectrum of retailers, issuers, acquirers and payment schemes across the globe.

His recent focus has been helping clients with their strategies and approach to navigate the impact, opportunities and threats to their business from open-finance, together with the development of a six-year comprehensive benchmark study of UK and German mobile banking and finance apps.

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