Advisory Board - EMEA

Sara is a Managing Director at J.P. Morgan and Head Payments Product & Solutions for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) within the Wholesale Payments business. She has end-to-end Product Management responsibilities for EMEA payments, digital channels, prepaid cards and is accountable for the provision of Transaction Banking products in 13 countries and over 40 currencies across EMEA. She also leads a regional team of experts that help design and scale integrated solutions that meet complex client needs, incorporating all aspects of the firm's Wholesale Payments offering.

Sara has worked in a variety of Product roles, supporting various product sets across wealth management, retail banking and transaction banking. Sara is an active industry participant, representing J.P. Morgan across the global payments industry. She is recognized thought-leader in Transaction Banking, featuring in various industry publications, including The Women Driving J.P. Morgan’s EMEA Push-Transaction Banking- The Banker Magazine. Sara has a Bachelor of Arts Degree with a major in Management and concentration in Marketing and Communications from Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York.

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 steer strategy, enhance propositions and build compelling Thought Leadership programmes. 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, she is also an Ambassador for the Emerging Payments Association.

Kate has worked in financial services for over 20 years. Through a number of diverse roles in Marketing, product development and marketing, technology and payments, the common thread for Kate is the delivery of great customer journeys and solutions. Kate has a very strong focus on innovation, driven by consumer demand and global market movements. Kate actively works with Fintech companies and this has given her further insight into the types of problems that customers experience in a purchase journey and how to go about providing relevant solutions. Kate now leads the Strategy and Standards team in Pay.UK with the purpose of driving innovation in the payments ecosystem, enabling a vibrant UK economy

Vivi is the VP – General Manager for Global Network Partnerships EMEA. Joined AXP in 2005. Worked in sales enablement and business development at 4 management levels and 2 Business Units

She is a graduate of the Leadership Program of United Technologies – Pratt & Whitney, where she worked in the USA/France, selling jet engines and services.

Vivi’s Ambition is having options, exceling in what she decides to do and having fun while doing it. While her professional ambition has evolved, core to Vivi has always remained making an impact on family, friends, team, and community.

Vivi earned: MSc in Finance from London Business School, MBA from Purdue University, USA, MSc in Information Systems from London School of Economics and is an Electronics Engineer.

She is a Member of 2 AXP Boards, sits on the Executive Women EMEA Committee, speaks Greek, English, French, and basic German and Spanish. Lives with husband and 17-yr old son. Vivi loves deciphering language structures, tennis and dining.

Linda Hand joined Elavon in 2014 and is responsible for all operational services that support the Elavon portfolio across Europe as well as global services with teams in North America. Leading an operations department of 700 people, Linda is responsible for all front office customer relations and services, bank office services and financial support across all countries. Linda has spearheaded several successful expansion projects for Elavon including operations in Warsaw, Poland and a new centre in Madrid, Spain. Prior to joining Elavon, Linda help roles within Technical Support Management at Dell, Financial Services Management at Xerox, Operations Microsoft Account Management and managing the Italian and French markets at Lotus Notes. Linda is member of Elavon Financial Services board and currently based in Spain after long assignments in Ireland, Poland and Mexico.

Gema has a wealth of experience across the financial services industry globally, particularly in the payments and securities space. She has worked at leading companies in the financial services sector such as Banco Santander, where she worked for more than 15 years and was appointed as Head of Custody for Domestic Customers at Santander Investment. More recently, she worked at SWIFT, where she was Head of SWIFT Iberia, and led a team to achieve the successful launch of SWFT gpi. Gema also worked on several major compliance initiatives, fraud systems implementations and the Customer Security Programme at SWIFT.

Gema Montoya has recently been appointed asHead of Continental Europe at Icon Solutions, leading FinTech provider of payment and technology solutions.

Gema specialises in business transformation and has deep business and operational knowledge gained from implementing innovative projects within the financial sector.

She has a degree in business management and marketing and a PDD for Instituto de Empresa and Master of Banking at the Universidad de Alcala de Henares.

Nicole is a commercially astute and highly customer-focused professional with 20 years’ experience in the payments ecosystem. She has a reputation for driving results and strategy, galvanizing teams, embracing change, and delivering strong business performance. She is passionate about developing female talent and actively contributes to Diversity and Inclusion initiatives both in and out of the firm. Nicole is the Managing Director of Payment Partnerships for Barclaycard Payments where she is focused on delivering integrated payments solutions by connecting payment capabilities to the software used by clients and prospects, ensuring clients can grow their business with payments powered by Barclays. Further to this she is a Board Member of Entercard, a joint venture between Barclays and Swedbank in Scandinavia. In her previous role as Managing Director of the Barclaycard Payment Integration team, Nicole led teams delivering payment strategy, innovation and product development across payment gateways, hardware and software. She has previously worked for organizations including VeriFone, Discover Financial Services, and NET1 (Prism). She has worked across SMB and Corporate segments spanning retail, banking, petroleum, mobile network operators and financial institutions both locally and internationally.

Karen has spent over 25 years in blue chip customer facing service businesses, working in the UK and internationally. She is currently the Vice President of Payment Products for Western Union Business Solutions in the UK, where she leads a team focused on international payments, supporting companies across various industries including NGO, Education, Pensions and Payroll. Since taking up this position in the middle of 2018 Karen has established herself as a respected leader with a commercial and customer centric approach and a desire to develop her people. Karen was General Manager for the American Express UK Corporate business from 2012 to 2018 and was responsible for driving significant growth from a mature business through a focus on small businesses, international payments and working capital optimisation. Leading a team of 300 her key responsibilities covered all customer facing activity including direct sales, engaging existing customers and developing new value propositions & revenue streams, alongside managing the P&L. She also sat on the European Risk committee and was a director of the American Express insurance subsidiary. Karen previously held a number of increasingly senior roles within American Express including successfully growing and retaining the relationships with the top 150 clients globally; creating new integrated teams to drive an improved customer experience while ensuring full regulatory compliance; transforming mid market account management from a servicing and retention culture to a successful sales culture; launching an offshore management information team to drive increased customer engagement and loyalty in a cost effective way; and converting customers to a digital servicing experience. Prior to joining American Express, Karen spent five years with AIR MILES, a subsidiary of British Airways in a variety of commercial roles, following a five-year stint with Citibank Diners Club in sales and account management positions in the UK. Karen began her career on the NatWest graduate training programme and honed her analytical skills at Bankers Trust. Karen is very interested in the subject of mental health and well being at work and is a keen advocate for women in the workplace.

Maria-Clara joined Mastercard in 2015 as part of the Digital Payments team for UK & Ireland and participated in the design of the digital strategy and roll out of Mastercard’s tokenization platform in the market. She was then appointed Chief of Staff to the President International, who at Mastercard is responsible for all sales activities in over 200 countries and territories, and this for 2,5 consecutive years. She supported the President and the executive team in a broad range of strategic and operational activities. Currently part of the Product & Innovation group, Maria-Clara is Vice President, Market Development, New Payment Platforms and supports Mastercard’s go to market strategy of real time and account to account, domestic and cross-border payment programs worldwide. Prior to joining Mastercard, Maria-Clara was Area Manager for Southern Europe at Nosto, a Finnish ecommerce and personalization start-up. Maria-Clara held various positions at Skrill, now part of Paysafe, a FCA regulated e-money issuer operating out of London. Maria-Clara opened the French market for Skrill and headed up their Channel Management team. She then went on to be Head of Payments Network. Born in Bogota, Colombia, Maria-Clara started her professional career structuring the Export business unit of a local company and as lecturer in Colombian Diplomacy and International Relations at a leading Colombian university. Maria-Clara spent her first years between France and Colombia until completing her French baccalaureat, Sciences and Physics elective. Maria-Clara holds a B.A. in Finance and International Relations from Universidad Externado de Colombia and a diploma in Social and Political Sciences from Sciences Po Paris. Maria-Clara then completed a double degree Masters in Management and Masters in European Business from ESCP Europe, in France and the UK.