Arthur Bedel is both the Global Director of Revenue of VGS, and the Co-Founder of Connecting the dots in Payments.... Over the course of his payments' journey, he had the opportunity to lead GTM and strategic initiatives, aiming to improve the overall payment strategy and infrastructure of global companies. Based in San Francisco, his vision and goal is to help shape the future of the payments' industry by bringing payments fanatics together and educating the masses. At Connecting the dots in Payments... Arthur is committed to establish the platform as the trusted source for payments news, insights and educational content. Arthur is also an ex-pro tennis player and a wine enthusiast.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Matt Gulosh heads up GTM Strategy for Visa’s Risk and Identity Solutions (RaIS) Portfolio, responsible for expanding and delivering new solutions and features to the market. In his current role, Matt leads a team focused on regional and global initiatives that brings together merchants and issuers so that they can effectively and securely share data to fight fraud and bring a better payment experience for ecommerce customers.

Matt has held a number of roles supporting Visa RaIS, including our network agnostic products Cardinal Consumer Authentication (CCA) and Visa’s Consumer Authentication Service (VCAS). Matt previously managed Cardinal’s merchant authentication products, EMV 3DS authentication programs, and he has led several major change management and process improvement initiatives across the business.

Prior to joining Visa, Matt served as a US Naval Aviator and always had a passion for technology. During his time in the Navy, he gained foundational skills for managing processes and complex programs, as well as effectively communicating risk and value among cross-functional teams.

Matt holds a B.S. in computer science from the United States Naval Academy and a Master’s Degree in Human Relations from the University of Oklahoma.

Ray is the Senior Vice President of Channel Partnerships at FlexPay, a leading payment recovery solution for companies with recurring and subscription revenue. With over 20 years of experience in the global payments industry, Ray has held strategic roles at JPMorgan Chase, Ingenico ePayments (acquired by Worldline), and Litle & Co (now part of Vantiv/FIS).

Beyond payments, Ray has held senior leadership positions at Sempris, The Reunion Group, and AEGON/TransAmerica Life, focusing on continuity, loyalty, and direct marketing programs. He holds an MBA from Texas Christian University (TCU) and resides in Dallas, TX.

Kristy Cook is the Vice President, Payments Consulting for U.S. & LAC at American Express.  In this role, she oversees a multi-national team responsible for providing payment processing expertise and technical consulting to American Express merchants, processors and service providers.  Before joining American Express, Kristy spent 14 years in payments acceptance at Target where she served in several payments industry forums, and she also worked 10 years in various financial roles.

Layne LaBadie is Vice President of Business Development and National Account Management for JCB International Credit Card Co., Ltd.  She has over 20 years of experience in the payments industry.  Her current responsibilities include Relationship Management, Marketing and growing JCB card acceptance for major accounts in Electronic Commerce, Retail, and Travel and Entertainment.

Erich leads the sales team in charge of Visa’s overall relationship with merchant and co-brand partners across the bill pay segment in the US. In his role he assumes the strategic and operational responsibility for this industry vertical and also manages Visa’s relationship with a number of industry associations. In previous roles at Visa Erich managed the Fuel & C-store as well as the retail and grocery merchant segments. Prior to joining Visa in 2014 he worked for American Express on both the issuing and the merchant side of the business. During that time he held increasingly senior positions including general manager of the merchant business for a number of markets in Europe and Global roles in large B2B relationship management while based in Frankfurt a. M., London and New York. Erich started his professional career in retail banking in his native Germany and lives with his wife in Rye, NY enjoying life as ‘empty nesters’.

Cindy Hembrock is a Vice President of Product Management in Ethoca.  In her current role, she is responsible for fraud data products and data services that cross both Ethoca and Mastercard and provide insights that support all stakeholders in securing the payments ecosystem.   Previously, she held various technology roles within Mastercard, including leading engineering teams that built a variety of fraud prevention products.

Jamie Colbert has over 20 years of payments experience. She is currently a Senior Relationship Manager at Worldpay by FIS in the North American E-commerce space supporting Digital Content clients. She started as a Relationship Manager in 2008 with First Data (now Fiserv) and has also spend time at Bank of America Merchant Services and Chase. Prior to becoming a Relationship Manager, she worked in Product Management and Project Management. She enjoys building relationships with her customers and being their advocate with the card brands while educating them on the various aspects of electronic commerce.

Juan Cambon is the Vice President of Customer Success at dLocal, responsible for delivering exceptional customer experiences that drive business growth across emerging markets. Before transitioning into the payments industry, Juan was a professional basketball player, a career that sharpened his skills in leadership, strategic thinking, and team collaboration.
At dLocal, Juan leads the Payments Optimization team, leveraging his expertise to enhance authorization rates and optimize payment processes. His role requires staying ahead of industry trends and continuously seeking innovative solutions to improve the payments landscape for global e-commerce merchants.

Juan’s commitment to excellence and ability to bring impactful solutions to the table have made him an integral part of dLocal’s success in creating a more efficient payments environment.

Tyler Heun has extensive experience working with merchants and partners to set the future direction for their business and solve some of their most challenging problems through payments innovation. Spanning 15 years in the payments and banking space, he collaborates with some of the world's most sophisticated partners and merchants to leverage technology to optimize their payments ecosystem. He is an advisor for PaymentsEd, PayCLT, and RevTech Labs. He is also an active member of Merchant Risk Council, Merchant Advisory Group, Electronic Transaction Association, and Merchant Payments Coalition.  He resides in North Carolina with his wife and 3 kids.

Raymond has extensive experience working with merchants on transforming their payments strategy. He joined Stripe in early 2018 and is a founding member of the Payments Performance Team. The team is responsible for optimizing conversion for Stripe’s largest merchants across auth rates, authentication, fraud, and costs. Prior to Stripe, Raymond was a Senior Director at Visa on the Commerce Solutions team, driving innovative loyalty solutions like card-linked offers programs for merchants like Uber and Rakuten.

Ginny Huber brings extensive expertise in the payments industry, with a career spanning 20+ years. She has been pivotal in guiding merchants toward future-proofing their businesses, navigating risks, and innovating solutions to address their most complex payment challenges. Currently at Checkout.com, Ginny collaborates closely with global enterprises to streamline and expand their payment operations, leveraging her wealth of experience and strategic insights to drive transformative outcomes in the industry.

Previously, Ginny held key positions in prominent organizations within the payments industry, including roles at Klarna and American Express, where she made significant contributions to enhancing strategic partnerships and driving growth initiatives. Her tenure at these companies underscored her expertise in optimizing payment solutions and leveraging her extensive network to advance the fintech landscape.

Matt Leman is the Head of Partnership Initiatives for J.P. Morgan’s payments business. In addition to being responsible for strategic partnerships, he is also a strategic advisor for the firm’s government, higher education, healthcare, non-profit and insurance segment. J.P. Morgan Payments is the global payment acceptance and merchant acquiring business of JPMorgan Chase and a leading provider of payment, fraud management and data security solutions. 

Mina Deegan leads Solutions Engineering at Pagos, a payments data intelligence company that helps merchants improve performance and manage risk through actionable insights. She is responsible for delivering strategic products that drive efficiency and optimize revenue for global enterprise merchants.

With a proven track record in effectively scaling teams in companies of all sizes, from fintech startups to established banks, Mina is deeply passionate about—and driven by—merchant success through implementing technical solutions that solve real-world payments challenges.

___________________________________________________

Kristen Umana works with cared-not-present, recurring revenue, and card-on-file merchants to achieve continuous payments process improvements, reduce costs, rescue churn, and increase the lifetime value of their customers.

Kristen has worked in the payments space for over a decade and has experience as a merchant and a consultant.  She has helped numerous businesses and has specialized expertise in payment orchestration, fraud management, and revenue optimization.

Lam Van Lund supports merchants within the Mastercard North America Market Development team.  In this role, she is responsible for defining and driving technology enhancements to improve processing efficiencies.  In addition, she advocates and provides merchant’s voice back to internal team related products, rules, etc., to help improve acceptance, cardholder benefits and security of the ecosystem.