The man himself
All I originally wanted was a job
Twenty-eight years, thirty-six countries, four books, three apps, one daily novel, and a working explanation of what happens in the two seconds after you tap your card.
Born in Edinburgh, raised in Cape Town, currently in Atlanta with a wife, two children, and a growing collection of GoPros purchased in the sincere belief that the adventures will follow.
In between: twenty-eight years in payments across thirty-six countries. CEO for North America at Castles Technology. CEO of Newland NPT North America. Senior roles at Bank of America, Visa/CyberSource, Fiserv/Clover, Vantiv, and Ingenico, where I helped lead the US EMV migration across 4.2 million merchant locations. If you stood in a checkout line in 2016 wondering why the chip reader was so slow, I accept partial responsibility.
Nobody handed me a map when I started. I learned the industry the slow way, one baffling acronym at a time, and I remember precisely what that felt like. So the best part of the job now is being the guide I never had: mentoring newcomers, teaching students and career switchers, and making the case that payments is the largest and most welcoming industry hiding in plain sight.
My daughter, Holly, is now studying fintech. We have just co-authored the third edition of the US Payment Handbook, which I choose to interpret as a five-star review of the dinner table conversation.
I have also read over six hundred business and psychology books (so far). Most of them so you do not have to.
