Goodwill Ambassador – Social Media Committee

Laura Murphy is a Senior Legal & Regulatory Counsel at Paysafe Group, based in London. Laura is qualified to practice law in Ireland, England and Wales. She joined Paysafe in July 2016 and works at group level, advising the business on a wide range of regulatory issues and assisting with innovative new product launches. Prior to this, she has worked for a number of top-tier law firms and financial services organisations in Ireland and the UK.

Laura is a passionate ambassador for diversity and inclusion, both at Paysafe and within the wider payments and legal industries. In 2018, she was awarded the inaugural “Young Innovator” award at the annual European Women in Payments Network conference.

Goodwill Ambassador – Social Media Committee

“Diversity is being invited to the party. Inclusion is being asked to dance” – Verna Myers.

‘For me personally, it’s the women with care duties at home that get most left behind, be it for their children, their parents or other close family members. Their careers very often have to be put on hold so unless employers start creating more inclusive work environments (including for senior positions), a lot of talent gets left behind. More needs to be done to encourage flexible working options in the traditional employer/employee setup to allow these women to continue and progress their careers (should they want to of course).’

Nadja Bennett started her career in payments in 2008, spending the last ten years working for large global corporates as well as a Fintech upstart with a focus on acquiring, gateway & fraud solutions. Her latest gig is at NYSE listed Global Payments Inc in their newly created Multinational Commerce Team working with clients globally to help them find the holy grail of payments: one provider, all regions, all channels.

She’s always been keen to fly the flag for more diversity & inclusion in the payments industry, encouraging & promoting the adoption of work environments that are more in line with the needs and expectations of modern society and can support women in all stages of their lives.

Dagmar is a payments specialist with particular expertise in underwriting and compliance. She advises clients on operational matters and works closely with in-house teams to build capability and knowledge through training and day-to-day support.

Drawing on a detailed knowledge of Visa and MasterCard operating regulations and expertise in operational management, Dagmar helps clients to implement changes that have a lasting impact on their businesses.

Dagmar is a goodwill ambassador and a mentor for the European Women in Payments Network. Having risen through the ranks in the payments industry she passionately believes in supporting the next generation of women to realise their full potential.

Andrea Dunlop is Managing Director, The Access Group, leading their payment division. She is also a co-founder of https://investfem.com/home, an angel investor and non-executive Director.  Andrea is highly-regarded in the payments industry; she has been recognised with numerous industry awards including being named one of the ‘Most Influential Women in Payments in 2018’, and appearing in Payments Power 10, a list of the top ten influential contributors to the payments industry in 2016/17/18/19. Andrea is the Chairwoman of the Emerging Payments Association’s Advisory Board and Board member of the European Women in Payments Network. Andrea previous roles include establishing a successful UK/EU merchant acquiring business, as well as running her own consultancy in financial services and payments sectors. Previously she served 13 years in the Royal Air Force. She is a passionate speaker and supporter of diversity and inclusion, as well as financial inclusion, championing and challenging the industry to deliver better financial products for the benefit of all. 

Dr. Christine Bailey is Senior Director and Head of KYC Marketing in Europe and Africa, for Moody’s Analytics.  She was previously CMO ofPassfort, a SaaS RegTech provider acquired by Moody’s Analytics in Nov 2021. Prior to that she was Managing Director, SMB UK, and CMO atValitor, a European payment solutions company.

Christine has spent her career in B2B Tech/FinTech marketing roles, leading European marketing functions for Hewlett-Packard and Cisco Systems as well as for pre-IPO companies.

 

A respected thought-leader and public speaker with two TEDx Talks, Christine appeared in Onalytica’s ‘Who’s Who in FinTech’ guide.  She is a published author of “Customer Insight Strategies: How to understand your audience and create remarkable marketing” and contributing author of The PAYTECH book.  She has a doctorate (DBA) in customer insight.

Mélisande Mual is publisher and owner of The Paypers, the leading source of news and analysis for professionals in the global payments and ecommerce industry. The portfolio of The Paypers includes news, market guides, reports, databases, expert opinions, and interviews.

Mélisande has extensive experience in driving growth for international software and media companies in an increasingly social and mobile world. Prior to The Paypers, Mélisande held several leadership positions in global media (Wolters Kluwer) and telecommunication (KPN) companies.

Viola is the Co-founder & President, Ovamba,an Emerging markets focused marketplace funding and investment platform. Ovamba matches investors who want to invest in qualified African SMEs who need short term funding. Previous to this Viola was the co-founder and Managing Partner of Praxis Management Advisors LLC, and the Executive Director of Investor Communications and Marketing at Praxis Asset Management Advisors, LLC.

Beatrice Bouju believes that payments are at the cusp of major evolutionary changes, affecting for the banking sector, merchants and payment providers. Led by new technologies (including Distributed Ledger Technology), and legal changes (PSD2’s introduction of AISPs and PISPs), international payments will quickly become faster, cheaper and more secure. Payments are a very exciting space to be part of!

Beatrice joins EWPN with 20 years of experience in the payments industry and brings a wealth of expertise in global remittances, capital markets, payments, international cash management and banking. Her first exposure to international payments came with Western Union. Beatrice led the team launching the European versions of QuickPay and QuickCash, making Western Union’s instant money transfer services available to corporates and banks – the beginnings of Western Union Business Solutions in Europe.

For the past 12 years, Beatrice has worked in transactional FX where she was responsible for Natwest Markets’s automated foreign exchange management services for corporates and financial institutions in Europe. She focused on addressing the payments and cash management needs of global merchants, marketplaces, PSPs, merchant acquirers, and card issuers. Beatrice started her career in New York City with Diageo Plc which provided first-hand experience in sales, international trade and distribution agreements. She is now looking to broaden her remit.

Beatrice holds an MBA in International Business and is fluent in English, French and German. She is a keen skier and divides her time between London and Switzerland.

She is a keen advocate of diversity, including women representation in the corporate world.

Regina Lau is a global payments strategy leader driven by a passion for helping brands scale and grow faster. With over twenty years of experience in the payments and financial services industries, she has worked at both publicly-held and private-equity backed companies to leverage the enormous growth opportunities that international expansion, ecommerce and digitization of financial services can offer.

Currently the Chief Financial Officer at an embedded finance fintech, she has been the Chief Strategy Officer for both fast-growing fintechs and well-established brands in Europe and UK, defining growth strategies focused on innovation and technology to pivot a company’s trajectory. She’s also led pricing, value proposition creation and M&A for the organizations. Prior to relocating to Europe, Regina worked for American Express and Wellington Management Company in various leadership roles in partnership development, finance & revenue management and investment management. She was also on the advisory board of a Nordics-based mobile ordering startup.

Regina has been executive sponsor of many diversity & inclusion initiatives, such as creating “Women in Management” programs to increase leadership training and mentoring. She has also actively led recruitment, employee engagement and development programs to ensure that work environments are balanced for gender, culture, lifestyle and professional backgrounds. She is currently an advisor and CCO/CFO for Dali Spaces & InvestFem, a digital global community that empowers, enables and provides female founders and entrepreneurs access to investors and resources for success.