Our Partners

At MasterCard, he was responsible for global franchise operations and special projects and then global Chief Product Officer. He became COO for two highly successful start up businesses – NetSpend and Metabank. More recently, he has been involved in a very wide range of start-ups, including digital banking, data management, cyber-security and people development.

Some of the highlights of his career include:

• Rolling out the first client-server customer information system in a UK bank
• Designing, planning and the initial development of First Direct
• A member of the Card Payment Group – the most senior UK interbank payment forum
• Leading the development and implementation of MasterCard’s chip program
• Leading the end to end acquisition and integration of Europay
• Implementing MasterCard’s data/information strategy and associated products
• Co-founding MasterCard Advisors
• At NetSpend part of the team that launched the first non-bank “bank” targeted at the unbanked – “The End to No”

He has degrees from Trinity College, Cambridge University, a post-graduate degree from MIT. He now lives in the UK after 25 years in the US – and becoming a US citizen. He is life-long supporter of Bath RFU, and has many interests from hill-walking, and studying philosophy, art, economics and cognitive sciences. He is also involved in mentoring and philanthropy.

At NCR he led the UK banking business and held a European Services role. He joined First Data in 2007 at the time of KKR’s takeover. He rose from UK Country manager to lead the European region with over 5000 staff, $1.2bn revenue and $350m EBITDA. In 2016 he joined a small, NZ based software, payments and service business as Europe CEO and helped sell the business to Advent in 2019 for US$850m.

He chaired the Board of AIBMS (an independently regulated merchant acquiring JV between AIB and FD) for 5 years until 2015 and was an Approved Person by the Central Bank of Ireland. In the UK he has been an Approved Person by both the FSA and the FCA.

He is currently providing advisory services to both Fintechs and Investors and is a Special Advisor at Vitruvian Partners, an investment firm.

He holds an undergraduate degree from Nottingham University and MBA from London Business School, the Sloan Fellowship.

He lives in North London with his family and has been a season ticket holder at Arsenal from the glory days of Ian Wright and Thierry Henry to the present day. He is happiest skiing, or in warm water.

Steve began his career in IT development before moving into a commercial role with Rank Xerox, and then into the payments industry with ACI. Following an initial 7 year period in an individual contributor capacity, he joined ICL/Fujitsu to head up its Lifestyle Banking team in Northern Europe. He returned to ACI in 2000 as part of the turnaround team during a difficult period for the company. He was VP, Sales and Marketing from 2003 to 2005 and then President EMEA until 2009. During that six years period he led the team that drove growth from $30 million pa to $205 million.

Steve left ACI to form Lusis Payments, a start-up with a French technology company. He established the company and set up its US entity during a period when Lusis Payments secured its first clients on three continents. His next role was integrating the Alaric acquisition into NCR, which he completed at the end of 2015, at which point he took the option to operate as an independent consultant. In that role Steve has worked across a number of areas of the industry and was instrumental in helping a UK based testing company refine its business to drive a focus on Immediate Payments, deliver 200% growth over 4 years and implement a subscription model. He also spent some time working with a number of leading sports teams evaluating the introduction of modern technology into their stadium set up.

Beyond work Steve enjoys cricket and football (as a spectator these days) and the odd glass of red wine or two. He also spends quite a lot of time in the gym trying to stave off the effects of the red wine!

John is a very experienced sales leader and market maker with a proven track record of taking complex solutions to market to create significant revenue growth across industries, products and markets. His sales experience, coupled with his technical knowledge enables him to develop compelling sales propositions that has helped win significant new business across the world. He is an established thought leader on a number of transformative concepts within the financial services industry and has a strong understanding of the market across many countries.

Key roles include:

• Zwipe AS – Chief Commercial Officer
• Crosscard SA – Head of Sales
• TSYS – SVP Sales and New Market Development
• KPMG Consulting – Principal Consultant
• DMR Consulting – Principal Consultant
• Retail Business Solutions – Technical Director

John is a keen runner and follows his local rugby and football teams.

Prior to joining The Strawhecker Group, he served as ACI’s Managing Director of Global Customer Success where he and his team created value through the development of strategic relationships at the executive level of the industry’s leading banks and processors around the world.

Prior to the Customer Success role, Roger led ACI’s Global Retail Banking Solution Consulting Team (presales) supporting over $150M in annual sales and renewals. He joined the company in 2013 to manage the Retail Digital Banking group, a $100M business which served Tier 2 and 3 FIs in the US prior to its being acquired by Fiserv. Earlier in his career, he ran First Data’s Issuing and Acquiring businesses outside the Americas as well as TSYS’s expansion into Europe. Roger also served as VP of the Cards Payments Practice for Capgemini.

Roger holds a bachelor’s degree from The University of Texas at Austin. He is married and lives in the Austin, Texas area with his wife Julie. He has served as a Board Member of Help Worldwide, Baseball Softball UK, ABUA-GB and actively volunteers in support of local charities.

Adam began his payments career in marketing, before progressing into professional services where he helped launch the fintech’s new look professional services organisation.

Adam then had a brief hiatus within the sports sector, before co-founding one of the industry’s leading and highly agile specialist Executive Search firms where he is now Managing Partner.  In this capacity he works with some of the payments landscape’s most established organisations and fastest growing Fintechs to locate the industry’s best executive talent. His extensive understanding of the global ecosystem sees him operate as a close confidant of a number of EXCO’s and he has assisted in the development of strategy from a people and competitor perspective in several new market entry projects.

Adam’s belief that the sector is calling out for an advisory organisation with true subject matter experts who have walked a day in the respective leaders shoes led to the formation of TFPA.  His vision was to evolve an organisation consisting of people with strong general management and domain experience to provide strategic advice, married with the true ability to both execute and pin-point where and why those strategies have been successfully implemented. Adam was core to bringing the founding team and wider network together; in the process, helping a number of his existing clients address challenges across commercial optimisation/new market entry, operational change and product strategy.

Adam is also the founder of a new and upcoming podcast which is due to be launched later in 2022, bringing some of the industry’s most entrepreneurial and successful minds to the table sharing open views on the sector, areas of opportunity and the ever changing landscape of the industry; be it legacy vs the innovators, regulatory change and the implications or discussing the battle scars of success.

Outside of business, Adam enjoys Football (although his beloved Manchester United are not quite the team they used to be) watersports, outdoor activities, travelling and culinary experiences.

Throughout her career, Linda has been at the forefront of major core banking initiatives for some of the industry’s leading names. Her experience has enabled organisations to maximise their use of technology to drive both market growth and revenue, as well as delivering genuine innovation to their clients.

In 1990, Linda founded a major leading payments consultancy focussed on servicing preeminent global card issuers and acquirers. The organisation grew to include 1,500 banks and processors across 34 countries within its client base before it was sold to Retail Decisions (now part of ACI Worldwide).

Linda has been key to the complex conversion decisions of major processors and payment platform providers. She has delivered help, insight and expertise that has ensured their investments delivered environments that positioned them for decades hence.

Linda also has in depth knowledge of customer success and the benefit it can bring to major technology vendors. In this guise, she helped a Customer Success practice for a market leading payments platform vendor.

Outside of work Linda is heavily involved in fund raising for a number of juvenile diabetes organisations including JDRF, Joslin, Boston and Dell, Austin

In the spare time she does get, Linda is a patron of the arts, and has deep personal involvement in Fine Arts, though her son, a talented and accomplished artist.

Listed on the Innovate Finance Stand out 35 Women in Fintech Powerlist 2020, Angela is a Chartered Institute of Marketing MCIM.

Angela sits on various Advisory Boards including the Emerging Payments Association, Fintech Connect and the European Women Payments Network. She is the Chair of The Inclusion Foundation Executive Committee and a Governor of Wilmslow High School. Her latest project is being part of DIGISEQ’s Non executive board.

Angela is an international speaker and presenter with previous engagements at world class events including Money2020, Finnovate, Fintech Connect, Internet Retailing and Pay360.

She believes passionately in citizenship, the power of communities and striving to make the world that little bit better.

With more than 20 years in payments, Gregor began his career at NCR, before joining De La Rue in 2005. In 2014 Gregor joined Vocalink’s Card Transaction Services business before being appointed Managing Director of Sales in 2015 as part of the Vocalink executive team. Gregor has led Vocalink as CEO since 2019, working to ensure the business delivers on its commitments to customers and overseeing growth beyond its core product and services.

Gregor holds an advisory position on the Payments Advisory Group for Pennies, the “digital charity box” and he is the Chairman of Loyalzoo, a loyalty solution for the digital age.

Alongside his business career, Gregor has a keen interest in sports, particularly golf. He is married with a seven year old son.

Most recently he was Chief Information and Technology Officer at Bread Financial Holdings (Formerly Alliance Data) responsible for defining and executing major technology modernizations programs.

Previously, Nick was Chief Information Officer for the Credit Union Division of Fiserv Inc responsible for driving strategy and cost-efficiency while ensuring security and performance for the more than two thousand Financial Institutions that rely on Fiserv for day-to-day operations.

His background includes other senior roles with ACI Worldwide Inc, First Data Corporation, GE Capital, Experian UK (Formerly CCN) where he has participated in many major platform innovations and migrations driving significant growth.

In 2007, Nick was recognized with the designation of IT Fellow at First Data Corporation.

A dual citizen of the USA and United Kingdom, Nick now resides in Florida and in his spare time enjoys fishing, golfing, and exploring the world with his partner Donna.

Currently, in addition to TFPA, Ricardo is country manager and partner for Payments Inc, secure and transparent authentication for mobile apps using Veridex Inc tech.

Prior, Ricardo was country manager of southern LATAM for an Israeli startup in behavioral biometric fraud prevention.

For 9 years Ricardo operated for ACI Worldwide, in the beginning he operated in a sales capacity in Brazil, where he brought in Brazil´s largest acquirer as a customer among other deals. He migrated into a customer success role for all LATAM taking care of the top banks, acquirers, processors and merchants in the region, eventually acting also in the Canadian and US markets.

Prior to ACI, Ricardo was responsible for sales with an asset and business valuation company, which across his 12 year tenure grew from a small local Brazilian company to the market leader in LATAM.

Ricardo lives in São Paulo with his wife and two sons and has as special interests history and old cars.

This comprised 15 million customers across 4 major brands – HSBC, firstdirect, M&S Bank and John Lewis Financial Services – with 22000 employees. He then led the development and implementation of HSBC’s global retail banking strategy across its 35 retail markets internationally, including acquisitions and disposals.

Following this role he helped establish HSBC UK Bank, a new ring fenced bank, and led the development of HSBC’s Open Banking programme, allowing customers access to their banking information to share with third parties including fintechs.

Throughout his career Brendan has been involved with payments, launching new payment cards at HSBC and running the bank’s acquiring operation. He has served on the Boards of MasterCard Europe and MasterCard Debit, as well as the BBA (now UK Finance) Retail Committee.

Now based in California, Brendan is working as an advisor with a few fintechs to assist their growth and development – focusing on payments and data management – as well as continuing to act as a business mentor.

A leader of people across varying geographical and cultural locations, he established growth strategies to deliver on both Corporate and local Client objectives spanning card issuing, consumer lending propositions, card acquiring and non-card payments.

With a multi-disciplined career for prominent providers of payment services and technology including Fiserv, First Data and Creation FS, Nick has a deep rooted understanding of how to build and nurture strong client relationships that deliver sustainable value and growth.

In previous roles Fred has served in executive positions at ACI Worldwide providing leadership to all areas that support the Electronic Bill Payment and Presentment P&L, and as Senior Vice President & Division Manager at First Data directly responsible for managing the full product life cycle of eCommerce products globally. He also served as Senior Vice President & Group Head, North America Acceptance, at MasterCard International. While with MasterCard, he directed the strategy for MasterCard’s involvement with every aspect of acceptance and engagement with large issuing organizations to extend the acceptance value proposition and provided consultative services to all of MasterCard’s Global Regions in support of the development of their local acceptance strategies. Additionally, he was responsible for the co-branding practice for the company worldwide which included new sales and partnership management.

Outside of the Payments world Steve is a keen golfer and he also spent over 10 years as Chairman of the Board of Governors of a small independent School in Cheshire.

He has extensive experience of card issuing, merchant management, EMV, fraud monitoring and management, acquiring, POS hardware and contactless payments. Over recent years Steve has specialised in mobile payments, SmartPOS, contactless payments, SPoC and the unattended payments space. Throughout his career Steve has worked across EMEA and has particular experience and networks in the UK, Russia, France, Spain, Italy, Turkey and the Middle East.

Specialising in driving profitable growth through relationship driven sales, effective sales management and clear proposition development, David combines strong commercial acumen with delivering long-term client value.  His experience covers all stages of the business development cycle from lead generation and qualification, through to commercial negotiation and contracting.

He is currently providing market insight and business development advice to fintechs in open banking and payments.

During his time at Visa, Dave held numerous senior management roles across a wide range of functions, including managing the P&L for the processing business, as well as leading business operations across Europe.

At Ixaris (a pioneer and industry leader in the delivery of virtual cards and accounts to the travel industry) as COO, Dave drove the rationalisation of both business lines and the organisation, resulting in a doubling of revenue and achieving breakeven, as well as establishing strategic partnerships with global distribution partners and scaling the business across Europe and APAC territories.

Dave has also worked with emerging payments platform Weavr, a market leader in embedded finance. As COO Dave led the executive team and built the operating model and execution framework for the business, key to securing $40m Series A VC investment in 2021.

Dave’s consultancy experience includes projects in Dubai, Jersey, and the UK, all of which centred on fintech/financial services.

He brings a wealth of real-world experience building venture-backed businesses in payments, fintech, and software. His specialism is supporting founder CEOs and leadership teams in start-up and scaling businesses, helping to turn strategy into execution, and putting in place strategies to help the business make the most of the talent and resources at its fingertips. Currently advising a number of fintech businesses across the UK, Dave is also a coach & mentor for a Manchester-based accelerator.

He lives in the North West of England with his family where he enjoys outdoor life in the Forest of Bowland, the Dales, and on the coast. A long-suffering Oxford United fan, he gets misty eyed about the halcyon days of the Milk Cup!

James founded Hitmatic, an internet analytics business, in 1999. He spent 8 years at Oliver Wyman, working with large financial services firms as they evolved to become digital first, including building new business units on behalf of clients.

After a brief stint at digital lending firm Wonga, James joined Mastercard Advisors as the global thought leader for Digital Payments. He was then head-hunted to be the CEO and co-founder of Growth Street, an innovative working capital provider to UK firms.

James was then asked to join the management team at Vocalink, following the acquisition by Mastercard, where he served as General Manager responsible for the expansion of real time payments to several major markets outside the UK.

James lives in West Sussex with his wife, enjoys playing and watching cricket, and holds a PPL (aeroplanes).

He has been responsible for delivering a national e-enablement programme for insurance contact centres, the build and set up of contact centres for both new and existing clients and the successful delivery of ongoing and new start up operational services for a number of clients.

Rob’s team won the prestigious Best Achievement in Customer Service at the UK and Ireland Card Awards for their work Nationwide Building Society. He is Non-Executive Director for FreshVue, a leading European contact centre process automation specialist.

At Barclaycard, Phil’s focus has been on automation and digitisation of the complex payments landscape and back-office environment to provide enhanced customer capability and experience while simultaneously managing and improving the controls to align with regulatory environment. At Fiserv, Phil was responsible for the delivery of the technology and programs enabling the ten-fold growth of both the Issuing and Acquiring processing portfolios across Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Phil also led the product teams driving product modernisation and capability.

Phil was a member of the Board of both AIBMS, an independently regulated merchant acquiring JV between AIB and Fiserv, and Cardnet Merchant Services, a joint venture between Lloyds and Fiserv. In the UK, Phil is an approved person by the FCA.

Phil’s early career started at Shell as an engineer in the UK, Australia, Germany, and Saudi Arabia, followed by leadership of large scale technology transformation at Accenture and Computer Associates.

He holds an undergraduate degree from Loughborough University and is undertaking a second degree at Kings College London.

He lives in West Sussex and has been a life-long Rugby fan. Sadly, his playing days are long gone but is ever hopeful that one day he will get the call up while watching from the touchline at Harlequins.

He is passionate about innovation, especially in payments (both card and account-to-account), and he has been at the forefront of the global Open Banking movement for the past five years.