Panel Discussion Overview
Every year, businesses in North America make $27 Trillion dollars in B2B payments and spend an estimated $510B on manual Accounts Payables costs (direct and indirect) making those payments. More than 50% of these payments are still made by paper checks. By automating Accounts Payable, businesses can save as much as 80% of these costs.
Modern finance leaders know that moving to electronic payments isn’t just about cost savings, but instead part of a broader strategy of digitizing their finance function overall, and specifically adopting a holistic electronic payment strategy. In doing so, you can leverage electronic payment methods to generate cash, reduce fraud, increase visibility and control, and strengthen supplier relationships.
Join us for this panel discussion where you will learn:
- Why and how to accelerate movement to electronic payments
- How to reduce your costs of payments
- Types of electronic payments and benefits of each
- How to reduce risk from your payments process
Moderator
Vijay Ramnathan, President, MineralTree
Panelists
Kevin Phalen, Global Head of Business Solutions, Visa
Brent Sitarski, Chief Financial Officer, Touchstone
Gary Conroy, Chief Product Officer, TransferMate
Kevin Phalen, Global Head of Business Solutions, Visa
Kevin Phalen leads Visa Business Solutions, a global team that brings to life innovative products and solutions to Visa’s clients and partners who support businesses of all sizes – from SMBs to large multi-national corporations – and governments around the world. Kevin joined Visa in 2017 and is leveraging his experience in commercial payments and transaction banking to increase Visa’s edge as the leader in the business-to-business payments space. Prior to joining Visa, Kevin led the Commercial Card, Prepaid Card and Comprehensive Payables business for Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Throughout his tenure at the bank, he also led the Public Sector Banking GTS coverage team, the merchant acquiring business, along with the Trade and Supply Chain business. Kevin also spent 7 years at JP Morgan Chase earlier in his career. Kevin and his wife Deb have two sons, Liam and Quin, recent graduates of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
Brent Sitarski, Chief Financial Officer, Touchstone
Brent is the Chief Financial Officer of Touchstone Merchandise Group, LLC, a merchandising and promotional program solutions company. Touchstone is a leading distributor in the industry offering clients creative solutions to enhance their brand and has been recognized by the Inc 5000 list as one of fastest growing private companies the last two years. As CFO, Brent oversees the company’s financial strategy and operations. Prior to Touchstone, Brent has held leadership roles responsible for corporate controllership, acquisitions / integrations and treasury management. Brent has a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Northern Illinois University, and a Masters of Business Administration from Xavier University.
Gary Conroy, Chief Product Officer
As Chief Product Officer for TransferMate Global Payments, Gary Conroy is committed to simplifying B2B cross-border payments. Conroy brings more than 20 years of experience working banking and payments across consumer, business, card, international banking and FX. Conroy has a proven track record of scaling payments and fintech companies globally. As Managing Director of Realex Payments, Conroy grew the company from an Irish-focused SME to a worldwide eCommerce gateway of choice for Global Payments Inc., processing more than €50 billion annually. At TransferMate, Conroy has helped lead the company’s global expansion through winning major industry-leading strategic partnership deals, building a world-class product, and securing €51 million in investments from AIB and ING banks. Over the past two years at TransferMate, Conroy has helped lead the charge in growing the company into one of the world’s leading payments partners for banks and
software providers, with recent deals with Wells Fargo, Coupa and Tradeshift. As a respected industry speaker, Conroy has presented, moderated and debated at Money2020, BPFI International Banking, FinTech Ireland, Internet Expo, Pay Expo, Irish Funds and many others. His unique perspective on growing payments companies from SMEs to large, multinational players allows him to contribute to discussions on topics such as real-time payments, cross-border commerce, global regulation and licensing, as well as APIs.
Vijay Ramnathan, President, MineralTree
Vijay Ramnathan is a fintech and payments geek and has spent over 20 years in the space. Vijay got started in the accounting and finance profession and has spent his professional life in payments and financial services. He is driven to lead and grow companies with a focus on exceptional customer experience, new technologies and cultivating exceptional talent. He is passionate about having a strong understanding of customer needs and creating distinctive solutions that drive value for all stakeholders.
He has functional expertise in product development/innovation, marketing, sales, business expansion, global expansion, and channel development. He has been an architect of change who works alongside talented teams to drive tremendous impact for customers, shareholders and employees. His passion is in building and scaling fast growing companies by solving important problems through product and business model innovation.
Vijay is an entrepreneur at heart and has a penchant for creating new business opportunities and identifying, creating and growing adjacencies.
In these 21 years, he has built many new products and businesses that serve consumers, small businesses, fortune 500 companies and government agencies. These have delivered over $450MM in new/incremental revenue for the companies he has worked for [US Bank, Corporate Payments Systems for 14 years, Fifth Third Bank, Corporate Strategy & Innovation for 3 years and over 3 years with Fleetcor Inc. (Comdata Corporate Payments)].
Vijay grew up in India, has a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce (Osmania University), is a Chartered Accountant (ICAI), went to Grad school at the University of Iowa (Strategy & Marketing), lived in Minneapolis for 14 years followed by 7 years in Cincinnati before moving to Boston with his wife (of 19 years) and 11-year old son.
