MWAA 2019 to showcase payments innovation, leadership
The Midwest Acquirers Association (MWAA) will host its 17th annual conference July 17-18, 2019, at Chicago’s Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center Hotel. This year’s conference will highlight payments industry leaders, technology, products and services in exhibits, workshops and presentations. The not-for-profit trade association remains committed to educating payments professionals by keeping them up to date on emerging trends in the ever-changing payments ecosystem, event organizers stated.
Mark Dunn, president of Field Guide Enterprises LLC, MWAA co-founder, past president and current treasurer, will open the conference on Wednesday, July 17. Additional presentations will explore the following trending topics:
- Digital transformation: Keynote speaker Jordan McKee, research director at 451 Research, will examine the impact of digital transformation on the payments value chain. McKee, an ETA Forty Under 40 honoree in 2018, will share insights from his research on how emerging technologies are reshaping the end-to-end shopping journey.
- Payment facilitators: Garima Shah, chief business development officer at Direct Connect, will present “Does it pay to become a payfac?”
- Advanced analytics: Gary Kielich, president and co-founder of Systems Technology Group Inc. (STG) will discuss the relationship between data analytics and merchant adhesion at the POS.
- Financial recovery strategies: Harris Love, EVP of revenue at FRS, will share revenue recovery strategies based on his experience with commercial litigation and executive management.
- Surcharging: Jill Miller, partner at Varnum LLP and Michelle Geraci, VP sales at Transaction Services, will present legal best practices related to credit card surcharging in separate presentations.
- Software integration: Mary Winingham, founder and principal at MirrorConsulting, will moderate a merchant panel discussion. This topic will also be explored in a panel moderated by Katie Robinson, VP, GM of payment solutions at iStream Financial Services will explore this topic with panelists Jake West, director at Vend; Mark Ward, CFO, OneCause and Mark Passifone at Clearent.
- Government update: Scott Talbott, SVP, government affairs at the Electronic Transactions Association (ETA) in Washington DC will share legislative and regulatory updates directly affecting the payments industry.
Special Award Presentation
MWAA leaders will honor O.B. Rawls IV, president of payment processing North America at Paysafe Group, in a special awards ceremony on July 17 at 4:30 p.m., stating, “Rawls will be honored for a payments career spanning over 30 years, including his current position at Paysafe and previous leadership role at iPayment. As CEO at iPayment, Rawls proved instrumental in growing the payment and processing solutions provider until its acquisition by Paysafe in June 2018. This transformed Paysafe into a top-5 non-bank acquirer in the US, and saw Rawls appointed as President of the Group’s payment processing division for both the US and Canada.”
This is the second major award this year for Rawls, who received the 2019 Distinguished Payments Professional Star Award at the ETA Transact conference in Las Vegas in April.
Noting that this is an exciting time to be in payments, Rawls called the award a great honor that acknowledges the contributions of numerous payments industry professionals with whom he has worked throughout his career.
Dinah Suppes, MWAA president & board member added, “O.B.’s extensive contributions to the industry have established him as an iconic figure in the payments space. He has had the kind of career and reputation we all aspire, combining knowledge and a commitment to relationships."
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