Middle Market
Since 2008, the CPI advisory boards have played a key role in setting the direction and agenda for CPI’s activities. Industry thought leaders from leading commercial cards and payments organizations meet several times a year to provide input and discuss key issues facing the industry, and more specifically, how it relates to the Middle Market. The CPI advisory boards have been instrumental in setting the direction of the organization and providing guidance to the industry. Members include thought leaders from all parts of the commercial payments value chain.
David Alpha
Mastercard
David joined Mastercard in June 2015 and is a Product Specialist on the North American Commercial Product Team, focused on helping Issuers with commercial strategy, connecting customer needs with commercial products and solutions and increasing market awareness.
Previously, David spent 5 years at WEX managing their Relationship Management Team and Partner Acquisition strategy and 15 years with US Bank standing up their Fleet strategy and program. David lives in Texas with his wife, son and daughter.
Nicki Bull Bisgaard
Group Head, PayTech Group
Nicki has enjoyed more than 35 years in the cards and payments industry internationally. Most recently as Group Head for PayTech – a specialist advisory services company supporting payment schemes, banks, processors and corporate clients on leveraging the opportunities provided in this highly specialized space worldwide. PayTech has under his leadership delivered more than 700 projects in 32 countries in the past 10 years alone and provided consulting services to 65% of the world’s 20 largest banks and a long list of smaller ones. Today, PayTech is recognized as a leader in their field of specialist payments expertise. Prior to founding PayTech, Nicki had a distinguished career from leadership positions as CEO at EnterCard, Head of Corporate Products at Visa Europe, Senior Vice President and head of products at DNB and Marketing Director at Sparebankort in Norway.
He was instrumental setting up the new and very successful FinTech company EedenBull in 2018 in response to customer demand from banks looking for practical support for new and innovative payment solutions in a time where new technologies, new regulations and new players are changing the way consumers and businesses think about payments. He was consequently appointed Chief Executive Officer at EedenBull in May 2018.
Ray Champ
SVP, Head of Commercial Card Product, Citizens Commercial Banking
Ray joined Citizens Financial group in December 2017 and leads the Commercial Card product strategy encompassing core product management, development, and payables. Ray leads a number of initiatives to drive competitive differentiation for Citizens and more importantly, value for its Commercial Banking customers. Ray’s team is also responsible for strategic product roadmaps across traditional card, virtual card, spend reporting tools, and supplier enablement.
Previously, Ray served as the lead of Commercial Products at Mastercard in North America managing Product development and management initiatives for the small business, mid-market, large market and public-sector segments. Ray was charged with developing a differentiated product strategy across a host of Commercial Card assets. In addition to Product, Ray also led Mastercard’s relationships with a number of issuers including JPMorgan, WEX, HSBC, and Citizens spanning credit, debit, prepaid, cobrand, and commercial card portfolios. Ray lives in Connecticut with his wife and 2 daughters.
Kareem Chouli
Chief Revenue Officer, Spendlabs
A commercial payments practitioner for over two decades, Kareem leads SpendLabs’ sales, account management and marketing organizations globally. As such, he is responsible for expanding their footprint within the banking and commercial payments segments servicing both business card and commercial card issuers. A thought leader in many respects, Kareem has worked with dozens of banks ranging from regional to multinational issuers, helping clients launch their initial card offerings and optimizing and growing their portfolios through adopting new technologies.
Kareem’s previous experience includes senior management positions with brands and FinTechs such Visa, MasterCard and Fraedom in product, relationship management and sales roles. He has also spent a significant portion of his career working as a management consultant and entrepreneur. He has worked extensively with both providers and end-users to develop commercial card program strategies and on the implementation of enterprise commercial card and electronic payments technology solutions. Kareem is a graduate of the University of Toronto’s Specialist Program in Management.
Stephen Cohen
SVP, Boost Payment Solutions
Stephen Cohen has worked for 10 years in the electronic payment industry. Prior to Boost, he held senior positions at Brillian Technologies, Fastcorp, and was a consultant at Bain & Co.
Andrew Jamison
CEO and Co-Founder, Extend
Andrew is the CEO and Co-Founder of Extend, a platform that enables banks, FinTechs and their customers with digital card distribution capabilities. Prior to starting Extend, Andrew was the head of B2B Corporate Payments Products at American Express with a mandate to drive digital payment innovation and adoption. Over the course of six years, he doubled the size of B2B payment volumes by launching and scaling new capabilities and platforms. Prior to American Express, Andrew spent eight years managing global SAP deployments for large multinational corporations.
Frank Martien
Managing Partner, Windward Strategy
Frank Martien formed Windward Strategy, Inc. in October 2020 to provide strategy consulting with a focus on B2B payments settled on card rails. Frank began his post-MBA career in 1996 with First Annapolis Consulting, Inc. (“FA”). While at FA, Frank focused on card strategy, launch, and optimization for networks; national and regional financial institutions; technology companies; and private equity firms in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Latin America. Frank was named an FA equity Partner in 2006. Following the acquisition of FA by Accenture in March 2017, Frank continued to serve clients as a Managing Director and payments expert at Accenture through October 2020 with a focus on commercial, business, and consumer payments settled on card network rails. Frank is well known and trusted in the B2B payments industry.
Jared Nicholson
SVP, Bankcard Commercial Card Manager, Zions Bank
Jared is the Division Manager over Commercial Card Products and Services for Zions Bancorporation. His team includes sales, account management, implementations, sales support, operations, product development and reporting functions, in addition to shared risk/credit oversight. He has 18 years of experience in the Commercial and Business Card industries. Prior to joining the Zions in 2010 to build their Commercial Card program, he served GE Capital Financials Commercial and Business Card divisions for 10 years in a variety of roles, including Account Management, In-house Card Program Administration, and Servicing. He is a father of two, movie buff who has seen every Best Picture Oscar winner, and a self-described “Lego maniac”.
Leigh Radtke
Senior Director, Commercial Product, Middle Market Lead, Visa
Arthur Weiner
Client Development, Verisk Financial
Arthur Weiner is an accomplished payments industry leader with more than 30 years of successfully bringing products to market for leading global companies, including Citibank, Mastercard, US Bank and Fifth Third Bank. Currently, Arthur is in a client development role at Verisk Financial, a market leader in data and predictive analytics, modeling and advisory services in Payments. Our clients are Banks, Issuers, Acquirers, Processors, Networks and Fintechs.
Tony Yazzolino
SVP, Commercial Card Director, Umpqua Bank
Tony came to Umpqua Bank through the Sterling Bank merger in 2014 and has been with the combined companies for 12 years leading and growing the bank’s card based payments business. He currently oversees the bank’s credit card programs and includes a combination of in house and agent programs to support the bank’s commercial and consumer banking units. Tony began his career in 1992 with West One Bank and has held various roles at US Bank, Wells Fargo, and local community banks and has over 20 years of experience in payments, cards, and acquiring business lines. Tony graduated from University of Oregon, Northwest Intermediate Banking School, and the ABA School of Bankcard Management. Tony lives in Portland Oregon with his wife and 3 daughters.