Awards Committee - EMEA

Becky has close involvement with the UK Payment System Regulator (PSR) and has sat on the Advisory Panel and the Payment Strategy Forum and chaired the Working Group for Implementation Planning for the New Payment Architecture which is part of the PSF consultation paper issued in July 2017. She was also chosen to be part of the Delivery group commissioned by the Bank of England and the PSR for the consolidation of the three Retail Payment schemes representing small and middle sized financial organisations. Becky was a member of the BoE Advisory Board for the replacement of RTGS and has held non-executive Directorship positions for the New Payment System Operator (NPSO), Faster Payments Scheme , Payments UK and the Interim Trade Association.

This close involvement with Industry change gives her a unique perspective on the progress and work being taken to improve customers’ payment experience.

At Metro Bank she was Head of Industry Engagement, responsible for payments and card change activity, as well as leading industry and third party engagement. Becky has extensive experience of working with the payments industry and delivering long-term, sustainable value to both customers and business.

Becky is currently Director of Payments for UK Finance leading a strong team with deep domain knowledge delivering thought leadership on policy working closely with the regulators in the UK and Europe for the good of the membership.

Veerle is the Head of Network Management & International Payments Product leading the relationship with SWIFT and Securities & Nostro Agents for NatWest Bank, NatWest Markets and Ulster Bank.

Prior to joining RBS in 2013, Veerle worked in Network Management in HSBC, Lehman Brothers and JPMorgan. Additionally she has experience in Project Management, Private Banking, and Synthetics.

Before moving to London, she worked at JPMorgan/BNY Brussels in Global Custody. Veerle graduated with a BA in Business & Financial Sciences and a MA in Business & Consular Sciences.

Charlotte is Managing Director UK for American Express. In her role, Charlotte has responsibility for the company’s activities in the UK. This includes leading American Express’ consumer services and international currency card businesses as well as managing the company’s insurance business.

Charlotte joined American Express in 2000 and has worked for the financial services company in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Over this time she has held senior roles including Head of Product, Pricing & Portfolio Management for Europe and Head of Brand and Marketing.

Charlotte is passionate about people development within American Express and is a strong advocate for diversity and inclusion. In addition to hosting American Express’ annual Leadership Academy for not-for- profits, she takes an active role in the company’s Women’s Interest Network.

Outside of American Express, Charlotte is a non-executive director for UK Finance, the trade association representing nearly 300 UK companies providing finance, banking, markets and payments-related services. She is also a trustee of the Friends of St Marcellin’s Children, a charity supporting orphans and vulnerable children in Africa.

Hannah Fitzsimons is a global leader in the payments and eCommerce industry. She is Executive Vice President and General Manager, Europe at Elavon, a world-class payments company and subsidiary of U.S. Bank with more than 4,300 employees and operations in ten countries.

Hannah has a pan-European remit leading over 1,800 employees to drive growth, product development, as well as operational and customer management. Her pioneering vision champions a customer-centric approach focused on efficiency, technology innovation and delivery, an effective distribution strategy, and importantly, maximising employee engagement and development.

Hannah has over 20-years’ experience in the industry and joined Elavon 14-years ago as Head of International Sales. Subsequently, she was appointed European Business Development Director and then Country Manager for the UK and International Corporate business, with responsibility for strategy, revenue and business execution across Elavon’s largest market and revenue centre in Europe.

Prior to Elavon, Hannah worked in implementation roles at a number of UK and Global Financial Services organisations.

Julia is the Executive Director, Competition, for Visa in Europe since December 2017, responsible for all antitrust matters, e.g. the current interregional interchange case with the European Commission, and competition litigation.

Previously, she led the EMEA competition team at Google for 10 years, counselling on all competition law aspects including acquisitions of DoubleClick and Motorola, and the Brussels antitrust cases.

Before going inhouse, she practiced competition law at Clifford Chance in Brussels. Gave workshops at the College of Europe, is a member of the Concurrences jury for the best competition law article, and was GCR counsel of the year 2012, on The Lawyer’s “Hot 100” list 2015, and included in 40 in their 40s of Women@ 2019.

Genevieve Marjoribanks is Head of Policy at the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR). Prior to this, she worked at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) where her roles included Senior Manager of Financial Stability and Prudential Policy, and Head of Policy in the Strategy & Competition division. As a Head of Policy for the FCA, she has led the development of the FCA’s annual Sector Views, and responsible for cross-cutting policy issues such as climate change risk in the financial sector, the senior managers and certification regime, and prudential policy. In 2019 Genevieve was seconded to the Competition and Markets Authority to help develop their policy approach in line with Lord Tyrie’s Reforms and to lead their Digital Markets Strategy work. Genevieve is experienced in financial policy and regulation: having started her career as a lawyer with an LL.M. from SOAS, she then worked for Australia’s Commonwealth Treasury, including time spent in Parliament House advising the Federal Government, as a Director at the Australian Taxation Office, and as strategic policy lead at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

Kirsty has a 22 year career in Payments in Barclays. Working up through the organisation over this period has afforded her opportunity to understand the workings of the business in great detail. In addition, over this period Kirsty has been able to explore multiple different roles and opportunities to use her skills. Now as a Managing Director, Kirsty has a huge interest in supporting colleagues and driving the agenda for Diversity. Kirsty is a mother of three children, aged 12, 6 and 4, and spends most of her time outside of work with her husband and children.

Helen is a director within the global CIO and COO practice leading the retail financial services division. She concentrates on appointing global, regional and functional heads of operations and technology spanning AI/machine learning, blockchain, cloud, data, engineering, information security and procurement.

Preceding this role, she led the interim division for Leathwaite, which had a significant focus on operations and technology. ​Helen joined Leathwaite in 2005.

Prior to this she worked for JM where she led the investment banking division and was responsible for growing the practice, which was centred around technology appointments. Before that, she spent five years at McGregor Boyall, focusing on recruiting technologists into banks.​​

Helen graduated from the University of Northumbria in 1996 with a BSc (Hons) in International Business with French.​

A finalist for the Women in Finance ‘Advocate of the Year’ 2019, as well as being listed in the 2018 & 2019 Women in Fintech Powerlist, Fintech Futures Top 10 Women in Fintech and Banking, 100 Women in Fintech and a mentor for Women in Payments, Kate has 20 years of Financial Services experience with a primary focus on digital innovation. She is passionate about driving democratisation, diversity and inclusion and even has an Instagram account dedicated to this space (kate_bohn). Having had a 10-year career in the Arts prior to her current path, she brings additional curiosity, colour and perspective to everything she does.