Past Winners - 2017

Elizabeth (Buffy) Duke is a business development executive with over 25 years of experience. During this time she has worked with large corporate and start-up payments industry players, including global networks, domestic schemes, and FinTechs. She is an expert in mobile payments and mobile wallets with direct experience in distinguished projects in Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, US and Latin America. Currently Elizabeth heads global business development for Carta Worldwide.

WHY THE AWARDS COMMITTEE SELECTED HER NOMINATION

Winning our very first Thought Leadership Award, Elizabeth has over 25 years of industry experience and has held senior level positions at a number of esteemed payments institutions. A thought leader in every sense of the word, she takes pride in sharing her knowledge extensively and inspiring those around her with her passion for the work, her positive attitude and strength of leadership. Well respected for her deep knowledge of mobile she has led multiple global initiatives and brings a unique combination of global and local expertise to her work. For her contributions in sharing her voice on an international stage, the committee congratulates Elizabeth for this Award.

Jillian Friedman is Digital Banking & Fintech Legal Counsel at National Bank of Canada. In this capacity, she advises bank partners on intellectual property, privacy and technology law related to fintech and innovation; she leads and advises National Bank’s blockchain innovation projects; she educates legal affairs and partners regarding new technologies and associated legal framework, including payments. Jillian leads a digital working group mandated to increase expertise of fintech in legal affairs.

Previously, Jillian acted as counsel to Montreal’s Bitcoin Embassy, the first such “embassy” in the world. She has also made representations before the Senate Committee on Banking, Trade and Commerce's digital currency investigation. She holds a B.A., honours in Political Science from McGill University, an LL.B. and J.D. from Université de Montréal. She was admitted to the Quebec bar in 2013.

WHY THE AWARDS COMMITTEE SELECTED HER NOMINATION

Despite being relatively young in her career, Jillian has firmly established herself as a reputable thought leader in a functional area that is so critical to the healthy development and evolution of payments innovation. The Award Committee particularly noted Jillian’s impressive levels of entrepreneurialism, intellectual curiosity and ambition. Her opinions have been sought out and included in many prominent publications and she is a published author and editor on the topic of bitcoin. Instrumental in advising banking partners on virtual currency, intellectual property, privacy and technology law related to fintech and innovation, she is known and respected in both institutional and start-up communities alike, and the committee was unanimous in their decision to select Jillian as one of our rising stars.

Jonathon is the CEO and founder of Berkeley Payment Solutions. In this role, he ensures that execution flows from strategic planning and manages all new opportunity development from conceptualization to final product release.

Jonathon’s extensive experience in the field of prepaid payment solutions includes leading and overseeing the development and launch of Canada’s first prepaid MasterCard card and the world’s first contactless prepaid MasterCard card. Prior to his prepaid experience, Jonathon was head of product development and interactive services for Star Choice Communications, a Canadian Satellite Operator and subsequently at Pixstream and Cisco Systems.

Jonathon holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Toronto.

WHY THE AWARDS COMMITTEE SELECTED HIS NOMINATION

As CEO of Berkeley Payments, Jonathon has taken proactive and very deliberate steps to hire and promote females across his organization and has created an incredibly supportive workplace for women. Ensuring equal gender representation across the organization and appointing an executive team that is 50% female, Jonathon has gone to great lengths to provide stretch opportunities and to actively sponsor the advancement of women into leadership roles. His nominators spoke of the care and attention he shows all of his employees, describing him as a leader not driven by ego but by his desire to showcase the work of his team, and allowing their talents to flourish. A champion for equality, whose advocacy for woman is reflected in the team he has built, the committee selected Jonathon as our first male recipient of a Women in Payments award.

Bianca is an owner and Senior Vice President of Business Development and Strategic Marketing at BioConnect, as well as a public & Keynote speaker.

Relentlessly motivated from a young age, Bianca immigrated to Canada from Brazil at the age of 17. Before joining BioConnect, she began her journey as an entrepreneur, starting and selling two businesses - one in trades and one in software, all before the age of 27.

Bianca leads BioConnect’s Cloud Business and the BioConnect ID product line. She is responsible for the business development team and marketing team and works to develop strategic global partnerships in multiple verticals, currently fast-growing on Banking, FinTech, Payments and Technology.

She is refreshingly vocal (and REAL) with just about every topic of conversation. From talking about some of the tougher aspects of being an entrepreneur to why mentorship and self-awareness are two things she attributes to her success - and won’t give up as her career progresses.

WHY THE AWARDS COMMITTEE SELECTED HER NOMINATION

Working in a field that is still evolving, the committee felt that Bianca’s accomplishments, poise and entrepreneurialism were impossible to ignore. Her confidence and tenacity have driven her to succeed in multiple industry sectors, and the committee was impressed by what she has achieved in such a short amount of time. Having launched and sold a tech loyalty business, worked in banking, and built a social enterprise in fashion, her ongoing fascination with technology and data have been a common thread throughout her young career. Having pitched at Money 2020 she has been instrumental in putting BioConnect on the world stage, and we can only sit back and watch as she continues her ascent. Congratulations Bianca for being selected as one of our rising stars.

Kashmera is the Director, Mobile Product Platform at Interac responsible for the Token Service Provider (TSP), the platform for secure digital debit payments in Canada. Kashmera’s efforts were integral in driving the delivery of Interac with Apple Pay, currently used by Canada's major banks. With over 15 years of experience delivering online products to market, her focus now is on growing the tokenization platform for the future of payments including In-App, IoT and VR.

Previously, she held several product management roles within the online transactional space with organizations such as Dexit, Metavante/FIS, and Expedia.

Kashmera is a mother of two young children and enjoys exploring Canada with her family. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from York University and strives for self-improvement as demonstrated through her ongoing continuing education.

WHY THE AWARDS COMMITTEE SELECTED HER NOMINATION

Kashmera is a champion of co-opetition, her ability to forge strong partnerships and collaborate with other stakeholders and constituents in the payments ecosystem was highlighted as a particular strength. She has been instrumental in driving new innovation for her organization, particularly in the areas of digital payments and authentication. But professional accomplishments aside, it was equally important to the committee to note how many of her nominators spoke of Kashmera’ s team spirit, her integrity, her focus on mentorship and the way she leads with grace and humour, not to mention the sheer passion she has for her work and for the payments industry. The committee was impressed by her many positive attributes and her potential for further growth.

As TTS Payments Regulatory Head, Stephanie Zee leads a team that is responsible for creating and driving Citi’s strategy to meet regulator expectations and is responsible for the management of emerging risks across Global Payments.

Stephanie Zee joined Citibank in May 2011 as the Director and Head of Cash Products for Canada. In this role she was responsible for the full suite of core cash management products including liquidity and investments, account services, channel services, receivables and payments. She also had accountability for the wholesale cards portfolio including commercial cards and prepaid cards.

Stephanie has 25 years of financial services experience. Stephanie is a member of the Board of Directors for Citi Cards Canada Inc. and Citi Transaction Services Inc. Stephanie is on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Payments Association and was a member of the Senior Payments Committee, Canadian Bankers Association.

WHY THE AWARDS COMMITTEE SELECTED HER NOMINATION

The Award Committee commended Stephanie’s diversity of career development and growth across different functional disciplines and her work with multiple organizations across the payments ecosystem. Admiring her ability to live by her personal philosophy of “learn things, do more and get involved”, she is active in both the work place and her community, and fosters an open exchange of ideas. As a Board Member for Payments Canada she played a key role in supporting the modernization of Canada’s banking infrastructure and payments ecosystem. As a leader, she is a role model to many and projects an extremely positive image of senior women in this industry. A champion for diversity she has built campaigns aimed at creating unbiased hiring practices and has engaged in many initiatives geared towards empowering the next generation of female leaders. Congratulations Stephanie for being our 2017 Distinguished Payments Professional.

Nat is a co-founder of Finn.ai, a white-label virtual banking assistance, powered by artificial intelligence. Nat holds a Master of Public Health from Lund University and a Masters of Business Administration from IE Business School.

Before founding Finn.ai in 2014, Nat worked at the Global Fund, the largest global financing institution for HIV, tuberculosis and malaria programs, where she managed $250 million USD in investment to countries like Djibouti, South Sudan and Tajikistan.

Whether working in international development or in financial technology, Nat likes to act on the potential she sees for improvement and innovation.

WHY THE AWARDS COMMITTEE SELECTED HER NOMINATION

Having left her former career working overseas in international development, Natalie developed an interest in financial inclusion and how payments were occurring in markets like Kenya. Inspired, she returned to Canada and co-founded her first start-up Payso before going on to co-found Finn.Ai – a white label virtual financial assistance company that is fueled by AI. At the cutting edge of technology the committee was impressed by Natalie’s’ entrepreneurialism in pioneering advanced AI technology. She is a respected thought leader, an innovator and above all an active role model for women in the tech community. Having been nominated and won many awards for her work and contributions to the fintech sector, the Committee are delighted to present Natalie Cartwright with our 2017 Innovation Award.