23. Reetika Grewal, Head of Payments Strategy, Silicon Valley Bank

Reetika Grewal runs payments at Silicon Valley Bank. She rose to the post through a variety of roles at other banks (JP Morgan Chase), tech vendors (Clairmail, acquired by Monitise, which was acquired by Fiserv), and startups (Pay By Touch). Grewal is an advocate of working for startups, saying the practice freed her up to think creatively early in her career. This may be why she retains an active role in the bank’s startup accelerator, which announced its latest class in February. In her role at SVB, she works on blockchain and AI solutions but notes that tech is not always the answer. Technologies such as RDC she said, have actually given new life to an outdated payment instrument, checks. Grewal is an advocate of more financial management from banks for both consumers and businesses — this new kind of advice may form the core of the business in the future.

24. Archie Ravishankar, CEO, Cogni

Archie Ravishankar founded Cogni, which is short for cognizant. The company was established only last year,  but the 33-year-old entrepreneur said he plans on making waves. The Barclays Techstars winner has built an online financial services platform that would like to elevate its user’s lifestyles. Ravishankar says the platform is built for people who earn their living in the gig economy and has a risk model for fluctuating income. “When you have Cogni — our mission is to reduce 30% of your apps, to reintegrate a product as a lifestyle service,” he told Bank Innovation. The company plans to do away with the need for PFM, travel, and student debt apps through partnerships based on user-generated data.

25. Jason Gardner, CEO, Marqeta

This technology and payments entrepreneur has a long history in fintech. Ever an early adopter, Jason Gardner started the open API platform for prepaid debit and credit cards in 2010. The company recently raised $45 million in funding. A serial entrepreneur, before founding Marqeta, he founded PropertyBridge back in 2004. PropertyBridge offers electronic payment services for the residential real estate management industry. The company went on to be acquired by MoneyGram, where Gardner served as Vice President for a few years before he went on to start Marqeta. Oddly, Gardner’s educational background is in political science (he studied at Arizona State University), and even interned for Senator Johan McCain before he got involved in the financial technology sector.

26. Yolande Piazza, CEO, Citi Fintech

Yolande Piazza has more than 30 years of experience in fintech. She served as the senior vice president at Diners Club, one of the first retail charge card companies and has since worked her way through the ranks at Citi. She leads a New York-based team in an agile operating approach to integrating new technology and “accelerating how Citi designs, builds, creates, works and ultimately, delivers new features.” She has occupied many roles in the company including CIO of student loan services, CAO of global consumer operations and technology. Prior to becoming CEO of Citi Fintech, Piazza served as COO. The industry veteran brings experience and excellence.

27. Poulomi Damany, Vice President Data Products, Credit Karma

Poulomi Damany started at Credit Karma in January 2017. The company’s aim is to provide personal finance solution to consumers and make them more confident about their finances, is what resonated with her when she decided to work at Credit Karma.  At the company, Damany is responsible for overseeing all the data gathered on every Credit Karma product, ranging from its tax feature to credit card recommendations to its core business of credit scoring. She also serves as an Advisory board member for Caring Bridge, a nonprofit social network that supports its community during health events. Prior to this, Damany worked as a Digital Services Expert for the United State government program healthcare.gov.

28. Megan Caywood, Chief Platform Officer, Starling Bank

Megan Caywood is Chief Platform Officer,  at British challenger bank Starling. In her role here, she leads all the design development and also oversees the neobank’s API strategy. Caywood has always been involved in the financial technology sector. Prior to joining Starling, Caywood was in San Francisco, heading up product development at cash flow management and tax filer Intuit and Xero. Initially,  before entering the challenger banking space, she was working towards a Ph.D. in cognitive science when she co-founded a technology business with a friend. Among other things, Caywood helped build a full stack for a digital-first current account at Starling.  U.K.-based Starling is one of the largest neobanks in the space. Established in 2014, Starling Bank has raised about $70 million in funding for its platform. The bank does not disclose its customer numbers, though they are in the “tens of thousands,”

29. Brian Hamilton, CEO, and co-founder, Azlo

In conjunction with BBVA Compass, Azlo was founded in 2017 by Brian Hamilton. The financial services platform was designed with the underbanked in mind and caters to millennials and entrepreneurs. There are no fees or minimum requirements. Since launching this February, Hamilton told Bank Innovation that the response has been very positive, onboarding thousands of accounts.  Prior to founding Azlo Hamilton headed product at Stack Lighting, a lighting software company and co-founded a mobile marketing company for local businesses, Pushpoint. The startup was acquired by Capital One in 2015, but Capital One had recruited Hamilton two years earlier to serve as President of Capital One’s merchant services. Hamilton has always had a knack for tapping into the needs of small businesses as seen in an even earlier role as Vice President of Verifone’s SMB Commerce Group.

30. Noah Kerner, CEO, Acorns

Noah Kerner, appointed CEO of Acorns a few years ago, told Bank Innovation that addressing this “fundamental challenge,” of missing financial literacy for working Americans is at the top of his list for Acorns’ strategy this year. Based in Irvine, Calif., Acorns was founded in 2012 as a mobile-first investment platform. Its user base surpassed 270K users in January 2018. Last October, it had 100,000 accounts, he said, meaning it experienced a 170% increase in three months. Aside from further expanding this userbase, adding new products such as Acorns Later and developing new features such as a new pricing level, as the company’s appointed CEO Kerner wants to utilize Acorns media arm: Grow, to educate and guide people on all financial matters. “I would say we have this great opportunity,” he told Bank Innovation. “I am obsessed with the merging of education and product.”

31. Kim Norland, CEO, Money Amigo

Founded in 2016 by CEO Kim Norland, Money Amigo went live earlier this month at Finovate in Santa Clara, Calif. It is an interesting blend of B2C payments, PFM capabilities, and a credit card. The company is based in Henderson, Nev., and has raised $1.7 million and has a partnership with Visa to issue its credit cards. Some of its other partners include Metropolitan Commercial Bank and FirstView. What makes Money Amigo most interesting is that it combines fintech with insuretech. A serial entrepreneur, before founding Money Amigo, Norland was CEO & co-founder of innovative research firm on innovation called Find Out Firm. Norland has a background in design. He studied at Rhode Island School Design and Parsons School of Design. He was even a concept developer for toy manufacturer Lego.

32. Meriah Garrett, Chief Design Officer, USAA

USAA recently topped two polls for its mobile app UX, and all of the credit — ok, maybe just most of the credit — goes to CDO Meriah Garrett. You might think of arriving in banking after a career spent in design would mean culture shock, but Garrett took right to USAA’s member-oriented culture. Her designs are conceived to solve problems the lines of business are facing, and to please customers. That means lots of customer-querying. Bankers, she said, can get too used to the nomenclature, and forget what it’s like to be outside the bank walls. “Research is critical to freshen that perspective.” Her team also works efficiently: “Low fidelity concept, tested with multiple concepts. Agile development — fail cheap. Every dollar we spend is our member’s money.” Banks tend to be risk-averse with very good reason, so occasionally great design ideas get killed in committee. Garrett was philosophical about that.”It’s going to happen,” she told Bank Innovation. “You fight the good fight, over and over again.”

33. Zor Gorelov, CEO, Kasisto

In 2013, Zor Gorelov found conversational AI chat platform Kasisto to power virtual assistants and chatbots. The software incorporates ML and can improve its own performance, applications for banks is a boon. Before Kasisto, Gorelov worked as an investor at cloud management platform OpDemand and served as senior vice president of a TMT-focused technology company called Synchronoss Technologies. And before that, for nearly ten years he served as CEO of customer self-service solutions founded SpeechCycle.

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