Fintech Partnerships Panel Discussion

Panel Discussion Date & Time:
May 3rd & 4th, 2022
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Panel Discussion Description:
Can partnering in the fintech industry be a revenue multiplier?  Is there a strategic benefit for financial institutions to partner with fintech solutions providers?  How can fintech partnerships be structured?  This panel will discuss the dynamic state of partnering in the fintech and financial services industry!

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Karen Bailey
Microsoft

Karen Bailey leads Microsoft’s Global Financial Services Partner Ecosystem Strategy with responsibilities for ensuring that Microsoft has a robust ecosystem of partners that provide solutions to all sectors of FSI including Banking, Capital Markets, and Insurance.

Karen brings over 30 years of experience in technology including 20 years as a technology executive for large financial institutions. Prior to her time at Microsoft, she services as the Retail CIO for Brown & Brown and was responsible for the digital transformation of all elements of the retail insurance business. Before joining Brown & Brown, Karen served in several leadership roles of business and technical transformations for organizations such as Bank of America and Wachovia/Wells Fargo.

Karen started her career leading large infrastructure implementations, training hundreds of infrastructure engineers as a former CCIE/CCSI and writing technical certification courses. She brings a unique blend of deep industry understanding, business acumen, and technical competence to her engagements with customers and partners alike.

Karen has a Master of Business Administration from Auburn University.

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Joshua Greenfield
Akamai Technologies

Joshua Greenfield, Akamai FinTech Partnerships, Joshua has worked in Technology for over 20 years working with some of the largest Payment Providers, Banks, and Brokerage houses in the development and deployment of payment systems and cybersecurity.

Before joining Akamai, Joshua worked at AT&T where he led various teams that oversaw strategic partnerships in Finance, Technology, and Compute including the transformation of AT&T towards a Software Defined Network.  In his current capacity, Joshua focuses on collaborating with FinTech customers to help ensure they are successful in scaling and defending themselves and their platforms.

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Scot Lenoir
Evolve Bank & Trust

With over 30 years in banking and financial services, Scot Lenoir is a passionate and seasoned financial services expert forging the way of fintech. His expertise ranges from payments, Banking as a Service (“BaaS”), financial technology and many more facets of the ever-changing financial landscape. Scot has overseen banking shift from a traditional, retail-first model to a model that provides the foundation for challenger banks to offer revolutionary access to financial services. He’s had a first-hand influence on the industry’s direction and is always driving for innovation.

Lenoir founded Evolve Bank & Trust in 2004 and currently serves as the Chairman of Evolve Bank & Trust and Chief Executive Officer of Evolve Bancorp, Inc. Evolve is recognized as a global leader in the payments and BaaS industry delivering unique solutions and innovative technology strategies for our partners. In particular, the Open Banking division operates as a tech powerhouse, enabling hundreds of fintech platforms to launch unique financial products to many different end users.

Under his leadership, Evolve has been recognized on the list of Inc. 5000 fastest growing companies while also being voted Top Workplace eight times in a row.  He graduated from the University of Memphis.

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Atif Siddiqi
Branch

Atif Siddiqi is the founder and CEO of Branch, which helps businesses accelerate payments and empower working Americans. Businesses turn to Branch for a more cost-effective, faster way to pay workers. Workers and independent contractors that sign up with Branch can receive a zero-fee bank account, free instant access to earned wages, rewards, and personal finance tools to help them manage their cash flow between paychecks.  

Atif started the company in 2015 as an Entrepreneur in Residence at Idealab, an incubator based in Pasadena, California, after seeing technology for hourly workers had not changed since his first hourly job. As the application gained traction among employees across the country, Branch was selected to participate in the inaugural class of the Techstars Target Retail Accelerator program. Continuing its growth in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Branch has been honored with a Webby Award — Best Financial Services, Fintech Breakthrough Award, Gartner Eye on Innovation: Financial Services, and Star Tribune’s Top Workplaces in Minnesota. Atif has been recognized as one of Employee Benefit News’ Top 20 Digital Innovators in Benefits and EY Entrepreneur of the Year: Heartland.

Atif holds a B.A. in Economics and an M.B.A. from the University of Southern California. 

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