Leadership

Kimberly (Kim) Ford is Executive Director of the U.S. Faster Payments Council (FPC). The FPC is an industry-led membership organization whose mission is to facilitate a world-class payment system where Americans can safely and securely pay anyone, anywhere, at any time and with near-immediate funds availability. Kim is the first to serve in this role, and she is responsible for managing the daily operations of the organization and working with the FPC board and membership to execute on the FPC’s strategic plan while ensuring inclusive and transparent dialogue with all FPC stakeholders. FPC members include business end-users, consumer organizations, financial institutions, payment network operators, technology providers and others.

Prior to her Executive Director role, she was Senior Vice President and Global Head of Government Affairs for First Data, a Fortune 300 financial services company that provides payment technology and services to more than six million merchants and financial institutions around the world. She was responsible for development and implementation of the company’s policy strategy and political advocacy engagement across the globe and was First Data’s registered lobbyist in the United States and European Union. Before First Data, Kim served as Regional Director for U.S. Senator Bill Nelson of Florida, and she served in lobbying and communications roles for several Florida-based business trade associations prior to that.

Kim is a well-recognized and popular speaker on a variety of payments issues at industry and client conferences, and she has served as a subject matter expert witness to testify in front of the U.S. Congress as well as at various state legislative bodies across the country.

She is based in Washington, DC.

John is CEO of the Merchant Advisory Group. As CEO, John leads the strategy for ensuring the ~150 top merchant’s voice is heard to drive positive change and innovation in the payments industry that serves the merchants’ interests through collaboration, education and advocacy. Since joining the Merchant Advisory Group in August of 2019, John has expanded the Merchant Advisory Groups effort through the creation of the MAG Tech Forum and the development of a formal educational strategy.

Prior to joining the Merchant Advisory Group, John enjoyed a 20 year career at Walmart holding various leadership positions in Payment Acceptance, Marketing and Financial Services. As part of the a leadership of the Walmart Payment team, John helped shape and implement a comprehensive strategy which increased the ease of payments in an Omni-channel environment while ensuring Walmart could deliver on its brand promise of helping its customers save more so they can live better.

John has participated is several key payment stakeholder groups including Chairing both the Merchant Advisory Group and the U.S. Payment Forum Steering Committee. He also participated in the Federal Reserve’s Faster Payment effort, holding a steering committee seat as well as a seat on the Governance Framework Formation Team.

He has been recognized within the industry for his ability to find common ground and drive positive outcomes from opposing views.

John attended Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, IL, where he received his Bachelor’s Degree and currently lives in Bentonville, Arkansas.

Reed Luhtanen is Executive Director of the U.S. Faster Payments Council (FPC). The FPC is an industry-led membership organization whose mission is to facilitate a world-class payment system where Americans can safely and securely pay anyone, anywhere, at any time and with near-immediate funds availability. Reed is responsible for managing the daily operations of the organization and working with the FPC board and membership to execute on the FPC’s strategic plan while ensuring inclusive and transparent dialogue with all FPC stakeholders. FPC members include business end-users, consumer organizations, financial institutions, payment network operators, technology providers, and others.

Reed has extensive experience in the payments industry and has served on myriad industry bodies, most recently an officer on the FPC Board of Directors; the Federal Reserve-sponsored Governance Framework Formation Team, which created the U.S. Faster Payments Council; and the Corporate Advisory Group for The Clearing House’s Real-Time Payments System. Prior to joining the FPC, he spent 15 years at Walmart, departing as senior director of global treasury, where he was responsible for the company’s payments-related public policy and public relations initiatives, network and processor relationships, and establishing Walmart’s payments acceptance strategies.

In 2015, Reed was recognized as one of PayBefore’s “Top Ten Payments Lawyers” and The Electronic Transactions Association honored him as a member of its “Forty Under 40” class in 2019. He has a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Arkansas’ Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences and a J.D. from the University of Arkansas School of Law.

He is based in Bentonville, AR.

Perry has worked at Target since the year 2000, most of that time in payments-related roles.  In his current role as Director of Payment Acceptance he leads the team responsible for Card Network and Acquirer/Processor relationships, including the accounting and chargeback functions.  Prior to that he supported Target’s REDcard program when Target issued payment cards out of its two owned banks.  During his tenure at Target he has worked on a wide range of topical payments issues, including credit card portfolio economics and sales, Target’s 5% rewards program, debit card reform and routing optimization, and other efforts to manage acceptance costs.  As a result, he brings some understanding the various perspectives of the different stakeholders in the retail payments space.  Before Target, Perry worked for five years at Exxon in various finance and marketing roles.  Perry has a law degree from the University of Minnesota, maintains an active bar certification in Minnesota, has an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and a Chemical Engineering Degree from Ohio University.

Tom Feltner is Center for Responsible Lending’s director of research, based in the Durham, North Carolina office. Feltner leads the organization’s applied research program and connects research findings with CRL’s state and federal policy agenda. He is currently conducting research on payday lending, student lending, and debt buyer practices.

Before joining CRL in January 2017, Feltner was director of financial services at Consumer Federation of America, a Washington, DC based research and policy organization. At CFA, Feltner conducted research on payday lending, military financial protections and auto insurance pricing practices in low-wealth communities and communities of color. Previously, Feltner was Vice President of Woodstock Institute, a Chicago-based financial services reform organization where he led consumer credit research, advocacy and program evaluation. Feltner currently serves as vice chair of the board of directors for the Durham-based financial justice organization Reinvestment Partners. He is a previous member of the consumer advisory councils for JP Morgan Chase, Capital One and American Express and a former member of the Illinois Residential Mortgage Advisory Board.

Feltner lives in Durham and enjoys road cycling and cooking and is active in Durham politics.

Adam Rust has been Director of Research at Reinvestment Partners since 2005 and is a Board Member of the U.S. Faster Payments Council.

At Reinvestment Partners, he advocates an inclusive financial system. His research covers overdraft fees, payday lending, refund anticipation loans, prepaid debit cards, HMDA and mortgage lending, and all things fintech. He has testified in Congress on manufactured housing policy.He directs Reinvestment Partner’s WiseWage project. WiseWage (http://wisewage.org) helps workers find overdraft-free debit cards so that their employers can pay their wages by direct deposit, enabling employers to save money on payroll and workers to avoid paying check-cashing fees.

He has master’s degrees in Journalism from the University of Missouri (1997), in City and Regional Planning from UNC-Chapel Hill (2003), and in Finance from Indiana University (2016).

Mike Bilski, North American Banking Company’s Chief Executive Officer, is a third generation banker with 40 years of solid banking under his belt.  As a founder of North American Banking Company, he embraces the idea of banking with no boundaries and utilizes his expertise in information technology to keep the product line ever-evolving.

Never one to accept the status quo, Mike continually explores ways to create value for the client and holds the staff at North American to the same high standard.  “We’ve worked to build a team of people who are great at what they do, know how to have fun, and have an interest in giving back to the community.”

Mike loves all things outdoors. Wanting to share that experience with others has inspired him to co-chair Friends of Camp Knutson, a camp for people with special circumstances. Mike is a former board member and secretary/treasurer of NACHA, the Automated Clearing House Association and a current board member of UMACHA, the Upper Midwest Automated Clearing House Association.

Roy DeCicco is a Managing Director for J.P. Morgan’s Corporate and Investment Bank – Treasury Services Group. Based in New York, Mr. DeCicco manages the firm’s relationship with payments and clearing market infrastructures and strategic payments- related initiatives with industry associations, public policy authorities, international market infrastructures and other financial institutions.

These responsibilities provide for active engagement with key industry organizations. Mr. DeCicco is the Chairman the Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) X9 Board, the convenor of the ISO Real-time Payments Group and the co-chair of the SWIFT Payments Market Practice Group. He is also a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of NY Payments Risk Committee Working Group, the ABA Payment Systems Administrative Committee and the U.S. Faster Payments Council Board.

Bob currently serves as Director, President and Chief Executive Officer of Community Bankers Association of Ohio, CBAO Service Corporation and CBAO Insurance Agency, Inc. He is also manager of Community Bank Insurance, LLC and co-manager of Community Banking Initiatives, LLC. He is a Professional Insurance Agent holding active major and limited lines insurance licenses in Accident & Health, Casualty, Life, Property, Variable, Credit and Crop in Ohio.

He graduated Valedictorian of his 1972 high school class. He received his Associate of Science Degree in Banking & Finance from International University and his Board of Regents Bachelor of Arts Degree in Banking & Finance from Fairmont University.

Bob is a graduate of the Stonier Graduate School of Banking, the National Consumer Credit School, the BNY Mellon Commercial Lending School, National Mortgage Lending School, and the West Virginia School of Banking. He was awarded the Basic, Standard, General and Advanced Banking Certificates from the American Bankers Association (ABA) in Washington, DC and has served as an Adjunct Professor for Bank Administration Institute (BAI), American Institute of Banking (AIB), colleges and universities.
He also served as fellow and instructor for the Bank Sim and Bank Exec computer simulation games. During his career he has been involved in seven mergers and acquisitions, successfully leading the integration team to maximize profitability while limiting cultural disruption.

He has been employed in the community banking industry for more than 43 years, having held positions as Director, President, Chief Executive Officer, Regional Executive Vice President, Executive Vice President, Regional Vice President, Senior Vice President, Senior Lending Officer, Vice President, Cashier and Assistant Cashier. He has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of two community banks, one of which he was the founder, on four community bank and three community bank advisory board of directors during his career. He has been a guest speaker at numerous civic organizations, shareholder, and director meetings.

Bob has facilitated strategic planning, Board of Director Self-Assessment, and CEO Evaluation for community banks of different charter types, publicly listed, and closely owned institutions.

Ms. Doyle is President of EPCOR, a not-for-profit payments association which provides education and support to member organizations to help them maintain compliance, improve operational processes and mitigate risk and fraud of the U.S. payments systems.  She currently serves as Interim Board Member on the Faster Payments Council, various NACHA committees and the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank Payments Advisory Group. Prior to EPCOR, Ms. Doyle was Senior Vice President, Electronic Payments Channel Manager for Commerce Bank where she was responsible for Electronic Payments product management, product development, product strategy, and ACH risk compliance and reporting. She began her banking career at First National Bank of Omaha as a business financial analyst, bank operations manager and operations officer over ACH and wires. She has been actively engaged in various payments organizations for many years including the NACHA Board of Directors, Federal Reserve Banks Faster Payments Task Force, American Bankers Association Payments Administrative Committee, Faster Payments Task Force (FPTF), Governance Framework Formation Team (GFFT) and the Kansas City Federal Reserve Product Advisory Group. Ms. Doyle graduated from the University of Maryland-Asian Division with a BS in Business Administration and earned an International Business Certificate while working in Japan. She earned her Master’s Banking Certificate from the University of Omaha in 2000 and her Accredited ACH Professional (AAP) certification in 2006.

Jim Kaitz is President and CEO of AFP, an association that represents over 16,000 treasury and financial professionals globally. The organization established and administers the Certified Treasury Professional® and Certified Corporate Financial Planning & Analysis Professional® credentials, setting standards of excellence in finance. The AFP Annual Conference is the largest networking event for corporate finance professionals. He was formerly EVP and COO of Financial Executives Institute, a professional association of over 14,000 senior financial executives representing 8,000 companies in the United States.

Prior to joining FEI in 1988 as the VP of Government Relations, he was Manager, Trade and Business Affairs at Baxter Healthcare Corporation. He was Director, Government Relations for the Scientific Apparatus Makers Association and joined FEI’s Washington Office in 1983. He was legislative assistant to the Honorable James Shannon (D-MA), a member of the House Ways and Means Committee.

He is a 1978 graduate of Georgetown University.

Steve Kenneally works in the Center for Payments and Cybersecurity at ABA on issues related to emerging payment technologies such as faster payments, virtual currencies, and P2P payments as well as legacy systems such as checks, ACH, and wires. He served on the Interim Board of the U.S. Faster Payments Council and currently serves on The Clearing House Real Time Payments Advisory Committee, NACHA’s Consumer Payments Advisory Group, and the Mid-Atlantic ACH Association’s Operations Committee. He also chairs the International Banking Federation’s Payments Work Group. Prior to joining the ABA in 2005, he served at the United States Department of the Treasury. Steve earned an MBA from The George Washington University and a BS in Finance from Boston College. He is an Accredited ACH Professional (AAP).

Matt Friend is a Vice President with Visa. He has global responsibility for Visa’s Strategy and go-to-market for real-time payments. Matt is also interim Vice Chair of the U.S. Faster Payments Council.

Previously at Visa, he was Global Strategy and Business Operations lead for Visa Direct and prior to that he led North America Product Strategy, Initiatives and new Product Development. Prior to joining Visa, he was a Managing Director at Accenture where he was Global Strategy lead for Payments as well as head of Accenture Payment Services in North America. Prior to Accenture, Matt served in a similar role as a Principal at Booz Allen.

Matt has over 23 years of experience in retail, commercial and cross-border payments covering strategy, customer-centric product development, operations, enterprise risk, digital (mobile, analytics, etc…), large-scale transformation, business process reengineering, operating model development, and supervisory and regulatory structures and compliance. Matt has worked closely with financial institutions, payment providers, retailers and technology companies in applying his experience as well as at the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve. Matt previously served as Director at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Financial Management Service.

Andrea Gilman is senior vice president of new payments and commercial products in the North American region; she is responsible for creating product and commercialization strategies that will drive significant growth from real time payments and b2b payments. Previously, she was senior vice president of business transformation for Franchise Development where she led a global change effort across the payments industry to expand the account number (BIN) supply and ensure that customers are prepared for growth and innovation in digital payments. With a passion for tackling ambitious challenges, building powerful cross-functional partnerships and leading from strategy through to execution, Andrea has held several positions at Mastercard across product development, operations and go-to-market. She led the Global Marketing and Product Integration team for Prepaid Management Services, creating unique offerings and winning new business by leveraging the best capabilities of Mastercard and Access Prepaid. In her previous role, Andrea delivered on a global product roadmap to enable simpler, more efficient ways to shop and redeem offers in the Digital Payments group. Before joining Mastercard, Andrea held marketing roles at Time Warner, IBM and iWon.com. She holds a Master of Business Administration from New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business with a concentration in Technology and Marketing, and a Bachelor of Arts from Bowdoin College, magna cum laude. A founding member of World 50’s Women Executive group, she enjoys spending time with family, learning to play golf and meditating.

Steve Ledford works with payments leaders on strategic issues facing financial institutions and leads initiatives to address them, including RTP, The Clearing House real-time payments program. Prior to joining The Clearing House, Mr. Ledford was a partner with Novantas, a financial services consulting firm. Before that he was a leader in McKinsey’s global payments practice, and was President of Global Concepts, a consulting and research firm specializing in payments and cash management. Mr. Ledford is a graduate of Wofford College with a BA in Economics.

Kevin Christensen is senior vice president of market intelligence and data analytics at SHAZAM. Kevin leads the company’s enterprise-wide governance and utilization of information and is responsible for providing insights that aids in the development and execution of the company’s strategic goals. Additionally, Kevin currently serves as the Acting Executive Director of the newly formed US Faster Payments Council and serves on the board of directors for Nacha. Prior to joining SHAZAM in 2004, Kevin worked for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) for 10 years as both a safety and soundness and information technology examiner.

Gene Neyer advises FIs, Fintechs and central infrastructures on various aspects of Payment Modernization. He is an Executive Advisor to Icon Solutions, board member of US Faster Payments Council and has recently completed Real Time Payments engagements for Central Infrastructures in Africa and Asia. Previously, Gene was a Head of Industry and Regulation for Finastra, and an SVP, Head of Product Management for D+H and Fundtech. Gene has almost 30 years of experience in product management and IT Leadership at some of leading financial services vendor and banking organizations.  He is a current & past representative to EBA, Fed, IPFA, TCH and other industry organizations. He has written and lectured on various aspects of global payments, real-time payments and blockchain and is a regular speaker and commentator at business seminars and conferences.

Mr. Neyer holds Executive Master in Technology Management from Wharton/University of Pennsylvania and a M.S. & B.S. Degrees in Mathematics from City College of NY.

Deborah Phillips is senior vice president of payments and technology policy for the Independent Community Bankers of America® (ICBA). She also serves as senior vice president, industry relations for ICBA Bancard, ICBA’s payments card subsidiary. In her dual roles she advocates payments and bank technology policy issues before financial regulatory agencies, private-sector organizations and Congress on behalf of the nation’s community banks.

Phillips has nearly 20 years of payments-related experience. She most recently served as managing director of payment strategy at Jack Henry & Associates, where she leveraged her expertise in market intelligence, product development, and payment strategy. Prior to her 12-year career at Jack Henry, Phillips served as vice president of marketing for a large payment processor, where she managed corporate communications. She also worked as director of marketing and member services at one of the largest regional payments’ associations.

Phillips is a well-known and respected payments veteran. She is vice chairman of the board for the U.S. Faster Payments Council (FPC), and chairman of the FPC Operations Committee. She was a member of the Federal Reserve’s Faster Payments Task Force and was elected to serve on the Task Force’s Governance Framework Formation Team. Phillips has also been active on various industry councils, including serving as chair of the Nacha Internet Council, and as a member of the Nacha Innovation Alliance Advisory Committee since its inception.

Phillips holds a Bachelor of Science in communications from Northwestern University and is an accredited ACH professional.

Pat Thelen is a seasoned financial services executive with 25 years’ experience transforming the transaction services business and a champion of faster payments.

Pat is currently a Vice President at Ripple, where he manages global accounts, focuses on building out its global network, advocates for capabilities that meet client demands, and provides industry leadership for the evolution of real-time payments.

In positions as Managing Director in JPMorgan Chase’s treasury and security services division and President of UMB’s bank product and services, his teams implemented innovative solutions that revolutionized the way corporate and retail clients transact.  Modernization efforts resulted in award-winning digital capabilities for customer satisfaction and risk management.

His career began with Ernst & Young LLP and Carreker Corporation (now Fiserv), where his teams engaged with the top U.S. financial institutions and developed new global markets.

Pat serves as an industry expert and thought leader with previous roles as the board of director chairperson for NACHA, chairperson for The Clearing House real-time payment advisory committee, member of EPCOR and WesPay board of directors.  He participated in the Federal Reserve’s ACH and Cash product advisory councils, ABA payment systems administrative committee, Visa’s senior client council, and CEB treasury management executive circle.

Pat is a proud Jayhawk, earning a degree of Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, with distinction, from the University of Kansas, and he is a Certified Treasury Professional®.  He is pursuing a degree at the ABA Stonier Graduate School of Banking and Wharton Leadership Certificate from the University of Pennsylvania.

Pat is active in the Kansas City community serving on several not-for-profit boards with missions dedicated to youths including The Family Conservancy and The Boys Scouts of America.

Elizabeth Grice is Director of Marketing & Communications for the U.S. Faster Payments Council (FPC). The FPC is an industry-led membership organization whose mission is to facilitate a world-class payment system where Americans can safely and securely pay anyone, anywhere, at any time, and with near-immediate funds availability. She joined the FPC in 2019 and is responsible for the organization’s marketing and communications efforts across all channels.

With broad marketing and communications knowledge, Elizabeth has over 20 years of experience in all areas of public relations and marketing including media relations, corporate communications, product PR, content marketing, branding, social media, and crisis mitigation. 

Prior to joining the FPC, Elizabeth served as AVP/Head of Communications for National Planning Holdings, one of the largest independent broker-dealer networks in the U.S., where she oversaw media relations, and employee, and financial advisor communications. She has also held senior corporate and marketing communications roles at global financial services and technology companies that include First Data, TTEC, and Transamerica. 

Elizabeth graduated from Colorado State University with a Master of Science in Technical Communication and holds a bachelor’s degree in Media Study from SUNY Buffalo. She is based in Denver, CO. 
 

Angela Hendershott is the Director of Operations of the U.S. Faster Payments Council (FPC). The FPC is an industry-led membership organization whose mission is to facilitate a world-class payment system where Americans can safely and securely pay anyone, anywhere, at any time and with near-immediate funds availability. Angela is responsible for strategic oversight of the FPC work groups and daily operations of the FPC.  She serves as the interface with members and industry stakeholders to execute on the FPC’s mission to advance the faster payments through inclusive and transparent dialogue with all FPC stakeholders. FPC members include business end-users, consumer organizations, financial institutions, payment network operators, technology providers and others.
Prior to the FPC, Angela was a Senior Executive in Financial Services and holds 20+ years of knowledge instituting operational excellence across the value chain. She was the Executive Director at Deluxe Corporation, a fortune 1000 company and provider of customer life cycle management and payment solutions.  She was the senior executive responsible for engineering and technology solutions that served thousands of financial institutions and millions of small businesses.  Angela held payment industry leadership roles such as the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors and Chair of the Finance Committee for the Accredited Standards Committee X9, in the Financial Services Industry.  She has an exceptional record of success as a trusted source to move and inspire innovation through people, process, and technology.  

Nacha President and CEO Jane Larimer sets the vision and strategy for the organization to continually advance the ubiquitous ACH Network so that it remains one of the largest, safest and most reliable payment systems in the world. Ms. Larimer also works to advance Nacha’s role in creating and furthering broadly adopted payment and financial messaging rules and standards to enable interoperability and reduce friction for providers and users.

Ms. Larimer brings three decades of experience in financial services and payments, with more than two decades of service in various roles at Nacha, including Chief Operating Officer, and Executive Vice President, ACH Network Administration and General Counsel. Prior to joining Nacha, Ms. Larimer practiced law with the Lending, Banking and Public Finance Group of Bryan Cave LLP, formerly Powell, Goldstein, Frazer & Murphy, and worked at NationsBank, now known as Bank of America.

Cathy Lesser Mansfield recently joined the Case Western Reserve Law School faculty as Executive Director of the Master of Arts in Financial Integrity Program and Senior Instructor in Law. Prior to joining the CWRU faculty, she was a Professor of Law at Drake University Law School, served as a Policy Analyst with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and was a Visiting Professor of Law at Georgetown Law School. Professor Mansfield teaches a variety of consumer, payments and commercial law courses, is a co-author of the National Consumer Law Center’s Consumer Banking and Payments Law manual, and speaks nationally about consumer protection issues. Professor Mansfield also teaches a course called “Holocaust and the Law.” She is the composer and librettist of an opera, entitled The Sparks Fly Upward, that follows three German families in Berlin, two Jewish and one Christian, through the Holocaust, and she is founder and Executive Director of The Sparks Fly Upward Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating people about the Holocaust, genocide and tolerance through presentations of Sparks, and ancillary activities.