Part 1 By: Jim Roddy, President & CEO at the RSPA
Part 2 By: Ayana Scriven, Sr. Marketing Communications Manager at the RSPA
A recurring theme I heard at the 2026 PayTech Women Leadership Summit, held Nov. 3-4 in Atlanta, was the importance of men in our industry advocating for women.
Before advocating comes listening – to better understand the needs of the person you’re advocating for – so let me turn over the rest of this post to the voices of the nearly 600 PTW 2026 attendees. (I’ll attribute where I can.)
- “Half of your customers are women, so you get better business outcomes with women in the mix of your decision-making process.”
- “Advocacy is not organic. It needs intention to bring someone up. Make introductions, expose them to new knowledge, skills, speakers, leaders, and connections. Connect them with people outside your organization so there’s no chance of career competition.”
- “Give women permission to invest in themselves. Invest in leadership development for women in your organization. Teach them how to build people, teach them how to get the most out of the individual. Teach them to lead in either a leadership position or as an individual contributor – their choice.”
PTW 2026’s opening general session featured Sara Walsh, the Managing Director of Global Payments Solutions at Bank of America, interviewing her colleague Wendy Stewart, President of BoA’s Global Commercial Banking division.
- “Be vocal about what you want next, and then deliver excellent work. It’s important your sponsor feels their protégé is capable.”
- “Getting involved and rolling up your sleeves is a great way to develop leadership skills. It creates an environment where people want to work with you. Grit and determination will get the job done.”
- “I worked with great leaders, who I learned a lot from. And I worked with leaders who weren’t so great – and I learned from them, too.”
- On leading during uncertainty: “Understand your ‘why” and start there to guide you and your team. The ‘what’ becomes clearer when the ‘why’ is understood. Then say the same thing over and over and over again. Eventually it will stick, and eventually things will become clearer no matter how uncertain the times.”
I was honored to moderate a breakout session where I facilitated a conversation with Roh Doylida, a business mentor and second-career entrepreneurship coach at her firm Finding My Journey. These concepts she shared jumped out to me:
- The Wisdom Bridge: Say to the world who you are and take ownership of that. Set your own ideas of who you are; don’t let someone else do that for you.
- Many women get stop/started because of socioeconomic drivers. Reorient your perceived detriments as a strength. Understand what you’ve learned from your “failures” and understand what you’re capable of. Embody what you’re worth and what you bring to the table. Itemize what you’ve achieved in the past, then reposition and communicate your unique value.
- Secure confidence lands well. Performed confidence does not. You don’t have to be pushy or tough and go out of your way to prove yourself to others. You have to be secure.
Among the insights I shared that dazzled the crowd were – no, we’re not doing that. Let’s get back to the important work of listening …
The session “Shaping the Future of Payments: Where Technology Meets Human Leadership” featured JPMorganChase executives Jessica Young, the Managing Director of U.S. Small Business Payment Solutions, and John Skinner, the Managing Director of SMB/Mid-Market Merchant Services.
- “The best leaders are vulnerable. If they screw up, they tell their team they screwed up.”
- “We hear so much about AI that doesn’t make sense to us which then makes us all suffer from AIA – AI Anxiety. The only way to solve that is to embrace AI. Be careful that you control AI, and don’t let it control you.”
- “I’m a collaborative leader by nature. But sometimes the team needs me to flex a different skill, like when there’s a crisis. In those situations I need to make a quick call.”
- “Because of AI, the innovation bottleneck has moved from technology to product. We can’t write product specs fast enough to keep up with the technology.”
“Built to Rise: Resilience, Today’s Talent, and the Workforce of Tomorrow” featured Aflac General Counsel and SVP Audrey Boone Tillman being interviewed by PayTech Women CEO Dr. Gail Burgos:
- “You’ve got to help people tap into the whole picture beyond their tasks and skills. You might be great at those tasks and skills, but do you know where the organization is going? And are you locked into that? That’s the responsibility of leaders – to get people locked into where the organization is going.”
- “My attitude is I don’t give up. We’re going to get there. I don’t know what we’re going to look like or feel like when we get there, but we’ll get there.”
For more from PayTech Women, let me turn things over to my colleague Ayana Scriven.
The AI Shift: From Adoption to Advantage
I was thrilled to moderate the breakout session “The AI Shift: From Adoption to Advantage,” featuring Kara Starratt, Chief of Staff at Paysafe, and Mendy Ouzillou, Executive Coach at MMOmentum. We explored how organizations can move beyond AI adoption to use the technology more strategically.
Some of the top insights shared were:
- Artificial intelligence should be viewed as “artificial inference.” AI can provide valuable insights to inform decisions, but it should never replace human judgment, critical thinking, or decision-making.
- AI isn’t perfect and can make mistakes. Always verify AI-generated information, especially when analyzing data. Asking AI to double-check its own work can help identify potential errors.
- Organizations need a clear strategy for implementing AI, including identifying practical use cases and establishing a budget. Without a plan, AI usage and associated costs can quickly add up without delivering meaningful value.
- Security and fraud prevention must remain priorities when adopting AI tools. Organizations should understand how to protect sensitive information and establish safeguards around AI usage.
PayTech Women Expansion
PayTech Women also shared updates on its continued growth, including an expansion into Canada:
- After years of members conducting business in Toronto, PayTech Women has established a chapter in the city to strengthen its presence in Canada.
- Additional Canadian chapters are planned for Vancouver and Calgary.
- The association also announced plans to expand internationally into India and establish additional U.S. chapters in Columbus, GA; Jacksonville, FL; and Tennessee.
Ayana Scriven is the Sr. Marketing Communications Manager for the Retail Solutions Providers Association (RSPA). Her work includes supporting RSPA’s industry events, member communities, and Scholarship Program, managing the association’s social media channels, and executing marketing communications strategies. Through these efforts, Ayana helps strengthen member engagement, promote RSPA’s programs and resources, and expand the association’s reach across the retail IT channel.
