.jpg)
Leaders In Payments
Leaders In Payments
Women Leaders in Payments: Billi Jo Wright, Head of Risk at Worldpay for Platforms
Billi Jo Wright's unconventional journey from working in her uncle's sheet metal factory to executive leadership in payments spans nearly three decades and offers powerful lessons about persistence, adaptability, and betting on yourself. Without a college degree but armed with boundless curiosity, Billi Jo navigated through various roles across issuing and acquiring before finding her passion in risk management, where she's thrived by approaching old problems with fresh perspectives.
Two pivotal moments shaped her career trajectory: first, when she returned to work after having four children in 18 months, eventually becoming her family's sole breadwinner; and second, when she left what seemed like a dream role at a large company to join a smaller startup where she could drive meaningful change. Both decisions required tremendous courage and self-confidence—qualities that continue to define her leadership approach.
For Billi Jo, modern leadership centers on empowerment. She builds high-performing teams by deliberately seeking diverse perspectives and complementary skill sets, then creating high-trust environments where people can thrive. This collaborative approach has proven successful through multiple acquisitions, demonstrating that effective leadership isn't about command-and-control but about enabling others to succeed.
Looking toward the future of payments, she's closely watching how artificial intelligence will transform both operational capabilities and fraud vectors. Her balanced perspective embraces innovation while remaining vigilant about emerging risks - exactly the thoughtful approach needed in today's rapidly evolving payment ecosystem.
For those building careers in payments, especially women, Billi Jo emphasizes networking, finding mentors who exemplify the leadership style you aspire to, and securing sponsors who will actively advocate for your advancement. Her advice to "get uncomfortable" acknowledges that growth often happens outside our comfort zones. Ready to transform how you think about leadership and risk in payments? Listen now and discover strategies that can elevate your approach to both.
Welcome to the Leaders in Payments podcast, where we talk to C-level leaders from across the payments landscape. We'll be discussing the products and services that impact the payment space today, as well as trends and predictions for the future of payments. We will also hear stories from our guests about their journeys to the top.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone and welcome to the Leaders in Payments podcast. I'm your host, greg Myers, and this episode is part of our Women Leaders in Payments month, something we do every year in the month of July, and it's one of my favorite times of the year. This year's theme is redefining leadership, influence, impact and innovation. So those are some of the things you're going to be hearing about during the month of July. So first, a special thank you to our sponsors. Our title sponsor is WorldPay, our participating sponsors are VisiPay and Payrock, and our episode sponsors are the Clearinghouse and Genico and PaySafe. So special thanks to those companies. Today, I'm honored to have as our special guest Billy Joe Wright, the head of risk at WorldPay for Platform. So, billy Joe, thank you so much for being here and welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Thank you, thanks for having me. I'm very excited.
Speaker 2:Great, great. So let's start out with a little icebreaker. So if you could have dinner with any female in history so could be past or present who would that be and why, and what kind of restaurant would you go to?
Speaker 3:I would say Eleanor Roosevelt, I think you know she's a woman that really kind of paved her own path and has stood kind of the testament of time. What type of like Indian restaurant, something that would give like a really neat experience that you wouldn't have every day. I think that helps just kind of get everybody in the same kind of like the level, like same type of level, as far as experiences go. So I think it would be a really good icebreaker, okay.
Speaker 2:Okay, great. So let's talk a little bit about your background and your career. So tell us a little bit about where you're from, where you grew up and what led you into payments.
Speaker 3:So I grew up in a really small town called Pittman. New Jersey is about 20 minutes outside of Philly, so I do consider myself a Philly girl. I actually didn't go to college I'm a bit of a self-made individual and started working at my uncle's sheet metal factory and eventually landed at a bank on the credit card issuing side as a part-time customer service rep, and that's really uh, that was my introduction into payments. That was almost 30 years ago. Um, I've done, uh, a myriad of different jobs, uh what you would consider to kind of be the issuing side of the house, and then I eventually moved over into acquiring um and have worked in operations, into acquiring, and have worked in operations, sales, and eventually found risk and it's where I've spent the majority of my career and in payments. And I, you know, I find it fascinating, ever changing and, you know, definitely keeps things very interesting.
Speaker 2:Yes, it does. So just curious, like, why risk? What was it that kind of attracted you to that that you stuck with it?
Speaker 3:I think I liked the challenge of it, the fact, like trying to understand how and why people are doing things a certain way. That's really kind of the foundation of, you know, trying to identify what the trend is, why they're doing it, how they're doing it and so that you can adjust to it. And it's gone from really trying to be reactive which a lot of risk is a reactive type of strategy to really being more proactive and trying to find solutions that will actually help us, Things like AI and modeling that will hopefully get us ahead of the fraudsters, as opposed to always being reactive.
Speaker 2:So if you had to walk on the stage at a conference or something, what would your hype song be, and why?
Speaker 3:So this may be a little outdated or played, but it would have to be this Girl's on Fire by Alicia Keys. I think it's such a motivating song. It lifts me up whenever I hear it and I think it's, you know, it really kind of represents a woman who is like confident, isn't afraid to take up space and, you know, really knows her worth, and so every time I hear that song it just, it's a, it's a complete motivation for me. So that would have to be the song that I would, I would walk out to Okay.
Speaker 2:That's great. So tell us a little bit about your role at WorldPay. What do you work on? What kind of excites you about what you're doing today?
Speaker 3:So I'm the chief risk and compliance officer for World Pay for Platforms. Specifically within our PayRix product, our offering is PayFac as a service right. It's pretty, I think, popular business model within the payment space. You see a lot of software companies making that journey into payments with this PayFac as a service model. Payfact as a service model.
Speaker 3:And what I really like about what I do in relation to that is I felt like this was the first time, being a risk professional, where it really allowed us to think about our risk management philosophy and kind of blend that with the customer experience right.
Speaker 3:So how do you take the experience of, like, onboarding a customer or how you manage back-end transaction monitoring and how do you create an experience that becomes a value-added service for your organization, as opposed to something you know that would typically be looked at as, like, a sales prevention department? How do we help enable the business to be successful? And we've taken that philosophy from you know the time, you know we started and you know it's something that we continue to focus on. So I think it's it excites me because it's a different way of looking at risk management of. Obviously, the people that I hire have to be experts in this field. But how do you challenge that principle and how do you kind of build a program, a platform and how we operate so that it really provides a value added service for our company? And so that part to me is very exciting, okay great.
Speaker 2:So let's talk a little bit about leadership and maybe some lessons learned. So, as you well know, leadership is ever-changing. So how do you define modern leadership and how do you embody that on a daily basis?
Speaker 3:I think you know I would define modern leadership as empowerment. One of my strengths as a leader is building high-performing teams, and the way that we kind of accomplish that is looking for individuals who complement each other right. So, as I think about teams and the different types of skill sets, that they have, the diversity, their experiences, that they have, the diversity, you know, their experiences that they bring to the table, I'm consciously, you know, as I look for new roles or even replacement roles, it's how does that team work together? And because of that, I think we've been able to build a really high trust environment and really focus on empowerment, right. So what are the things that they need to be successful? What are the things that I can do to help them be successful? And then I let them do it right, I let them kind of pave their own course and you know, for me that's, I think, a very gratifying part of my job is to be able to see somebody you know take a role and make it their own and really be successful.
Speaker 3:And I think that's what modern leadership is. It's really empowering people to make a difference and drive an impact. I've seen great leaders hire people that are really good, strong assets but really don't kind of give them the ability and give them the space to be successful. And you know, I think that's a piece that people miss sometimes. I also think, you know, the evolution of leadership is, you know, around it's very relational and collaborative. You know, I've just seen a shift in how, you know, even leaders work with each other in driving collaboration. There's less fear of being wrong or failure, less intimidation in the workplace. It's really about how do you focus on making each other successful, whether it's your colleagues or even your team, and I feel like that represents kind of our modern leadership.
Speaker 2:Okay, so I'm just curious because I know your background. So Payrix originally I mean somewhat smaller company, but was bought by a larger company and you've kind of been through that sort of that leadership that you're talking about. Do you feel like that kind of the fundamentally has been the same across small companies to large or do you see a difference?
Speaker 3:It shows up differently from time to time, right? And you know we are on our third acquisition in five years, right? So with that has come a good amount of leadership change. I think the one thing that has stayed constant was you know just what I was talking about. It's the kind of this feeling of collaboration and, you know, focus in those areas to help each other be successful. Everybody has different management styles, but I do I see that as a constant, and I've definitely seen it showing up more from an overall kind of world pay perspective and kind of this real desire to drive a culture of empowerment and trust, and I think we've done a really good job of trying to simplify that and build that from a culture standpoint. Okay, okay.
Speaker 2:So throughout your life, your career, have there been any sort of moments in time where you look back and say, hey, that really defined me. I call them aha moments. But just those kind of moments in time were really either a change, change something around your life or your career. Have you had any of those that you can speak to?
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's, there's two that I can think of that are pretty, pretty big, pivotal moments for me. There was a time I took a couple years off to have kids. I wound up having four kids in 18 months and you know, at that point I, you know, I really thought that my kind of goal in life was to be a stay-at-home mom. And you know, at that point I, you know, I really thought that my kind of goal in life was to be a stay-at-home mom and you know, that's what I was going to do. And then I got, you know, a couple of years into it and I wasn't really sure that this was going to be my path, and my husband and I at that time decided I would go back to work. And you know, for a while there we were doing, both of us were working part time and and then at one point we decided I was going to go back full time, he was actually going to stay at home with the kids, and so that was a big kind of transition for us in my mindset on you know how I thought about my career and you know it was, you know, him taking a bet on me and me taking a bet on myself to say, yeah, I'm going to be the sole provider for our family. And I think that was like it really clicked for me at that moment, you know, having that kind of motivation of the type of mother that I was, that I wanted to be, and also kind of be able to balance that from a career perspective. And so that's really when my career started to take off. I was working I was actually working at WorldPay my first time there and, you know, was able to have a really good balance there.
Speaker 3:And then the second, I think, pivotal moment for me was when I decided to join Payrix. At that time I was working for a company. It was what I thought to be my dream role. You know. It was a big role with a big company. I was really struggling because I didn't feel like I was making an impact. I didn't feel like I had a voice or the ability to really drive change in that role.
Speaker 3:And it was a hard realization for me. And I decided to kind of take that leap and go to a smaller, startup-ish type of company that would allow me to really kind of drive change and be able to make an impact and be the decision maker. And it was pivotal because that was a true kind of bet on myself. It was pivotal because that was a true kind of bet on myself. Go build something you know that was at the very beginning of a build out and see where you could take it. And you know, I think it's been such a journey to be able to take. You know this program and vision and be able to kind of see it coming to fruition and the impact that it's made from a company perspective. So those would be my two aha moments.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, great Thanks for sharing those. So what do you think is something that female leaders bring to the table that our industry needs more of?
Speaker 3:I think diversity at its core is about bringing different perspective to the table, right? So because we've grown up with different experiences, different perspectives, and that's really the value of diversity. So it's not just women but it's all aspects of diversity. So I think it's hard to generalize what women bring to the table just because we're all so different. But if I look at myself as an example, you know, I feel like you know. I have a strong sense of relationship building and inclusiveness and emotional intelligence, but every woman is going to have a different type of strength coming into their role. But I think where you get the biggest value is having the different perspective, the different experience of voices you have around the table with different experiences. That's where you really, that's where creativity comes into play, that's where solutioning and problem solving, all of that kind of comes to head, because you have different perspectives and voices around the table.
Speaker 2:Okay, so let's switch gears a little bit and talk about innovation and influence. So, as you well know, we always talk about how fast the payments industry is changing. How do you stay innovative as a leader?
Speaker 3:I think it's really important to stay you know, to really pay attention to what's going in the market. I mean, we have some really great platforms that you know give us visibility into. You know what competitors are doing, what you know cutting edge technology is coming out. How are people responding to it. So I think, if you're curious in nature and listen to there's all these podcasts like there's just so much information that's available to us that didn't really exist 20 years ago. That's a really good way to stay innovative, because you are kind of hearing what people are talking about. But, you know, I also think it's just a matter of you know not being satisfied with what your current state is right, realizing that especially, you know, if you think about payments and how innovative it is, just when you think you understand payments, something else comes in and you have to start, you know, figuring out okay, well, how do you adjust to that? How's the market? How is this going to change the landscape, right? So there's a lot you know that needs to be considered and you know complacency is really the enemy of progress. So I think having that curious mindset and really thinking about where the market's going is a key to that.
Speaker 3:I also think you know being really kind of close to your team and understanding their insights, how they're thinking about things. I mean, you spend a lot of time hiring, planning, you know doing all of these things and you have all of these voices that sit around your table. So it's like listening to them. How are they thinking about it? How should we be thinking about it from a strategy standpoint? And you know people, really, you know they want to feel like they're part of something that drives meaning and is impactful. So, you know, creating an innovative strategy, I think, is one way to get people kind of engaged and really kind of behind. You know what you're trying to accomplish as a company, as a team, as an organization. So you know, I think it's really important to kind of bring those voices and those thoughts into being a leader.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay. Well, what is one trend or change in the industry that you're watching real closely?
Speaker 3:I mean, you probably hear this a lot, but it's artificial, intelligent, right, like AI. It's fascinating to see all the ways and all the different use cases and, you know and how AI will be incorporated into our daily lives, into payments, into risk, right. There's so many possibilities that you know, I think are fascinating and in some ways, pretty intimidating too if you think about it on the grand scheme of things. But it's obviously here. It's going to have a very meaningful impact to how we operate from a day-to-day perspective. So understanding it, watching it, seeing what others are doing with it, and the different use cases and how it's being applied is very interesting to me. I'm also, you know, I'm in risk, so I'm also very conscious of how it could impact us negatively, right, and the different ways that fraud will show up in the form of AI. I mean, we're already seeing it out there, right, and with deep fakes and things like that. So watch that very carefully, because it obviously can have a pretty big impact on our business and how we operate from a risk management standpoint.
Speaker 2:Okay, so how do you think women leaders can influence the future direction of payments?
Speaker 3:Well, what I think is fascinating is the number of kind of female CEOs and executive kind of leaders that are in FinTech and you know, I think it's really inspiring and encouraging.
Speaker 3:It really changes, you know, I think influences payments by just having you know I talked a little bit about this earlier just having that different perspective, having the different experiences, really being able to relate to things differently in.
Speaker 3:That shows up in strategies, right, that shows up in, you know, how companies build cultures, and so that's the part, you know, that I think is going to really kind of influence our, our payments and the FinTech space.
Speaker 3:You know, one example of that is you know, I was just I just met with a CEO who had just been appointed to a company and it's a company that I've known for quite some time and you know, it was just interesting to see her perspective of that they're in the, you know, the aesthetic and wellness space, and it was just really interesting to see her perspective and how she thinks about the business and the strategy that she's forming. And you could tell it is because she really you know from her own personal experience really related to the space, she wants to empower the space. She was genuinely excited about it and you could see it show up in the strategy, you could see it show up in the employee engagement and you know, I think that's just that's the power of having, you know, different perspectives show up in the industry and so you know, I think that's, you know, that's a that's a pretty telltale sign of you know how we'll, how we'll see it shape our industry.
Speaker 2:Okay, so let's let's talk about mentorship and impact. So over the course of your career, have you had mentors, whether directly or indirectly? You know who were they. If you could share, want to share and kind of how did they impact you?
Speaker 3:So if I think about and this person wasn't really a mentor of mine but it was, you know, sheryl Sandberg, right, the author of Lean In, she was very influential to me because I think up until that point, you know, I'd worked in a very like male dominated kind of space and so, really, didn't think much about it. But after I kind of reflected back, after reading the book, you know, I think I kind of looked at other females as threats, right, there wasn't many of us in the space, right. And so, you know, if I saw somebody that was, you know, as good as me or, you know, was very kind of intelligent, I was a little threatened because I didn't really, you know, we didn't see, you know there wasn't, I didn't have much exposure to that and I thought, well, if she's really good, then what makes me special? Right. And it wasn't until I read that book where, you know, it really flipped the script for me and said you know how do you embrace that? You know how do you build a network that allows you. And so you know how do you embrace that. You know how do you build a network that allows you.
Speaker 3:And so, you know, our CMO at the time this was when I was at WorldPay, the first time she introduced a bunch of us to this book and it was really it had a huge influence on how I kind of approached building relationships with other women and you know, I can't even think about you know, I'm so grateful for the network of and friend and friendships that I've built over the years of really strong, powerful women and how, you know, we lift each other up in those scenarios and really are an encouragement.
Speaker 3:So that was a very influential woman that I can call out. And then I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Stephanie Ferris. Right, she is the CEO of FIS and former owner of ours and she's a powerhouse, she's strategic, she's strategic, she's, you know, very influential. And you know she helped me at a time when I was, you know, had a pretty hard career decision and she took the time to meet with me and talk through it with me and I just, you know, appreciated that and you know, I think she's a powerhouse and I've always admired her.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I think you bring up something there that's important that I want to talk maybe a little bit more about, and it's not that, you know, you felt you got mentorship from a book, so it doesn't have to be a person and it doesn't have to be, I think, what some people get caught up in and I think I did early in my career, so it really doesn't matter if you're male or female is, you know, you have to have this formal program where you're going to meet every once a month for one hour and you need to have an agenda and you got, you know he's got to be or she's got to be an executive and you got to be higher than them or lower. You know is all that, and I feel like you can get mentorship from a book. You can get mentorship from a speaker from you know a lot of different places. So just curious your kind of thoughts on that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've always, even if somebody thought they were a mentor to me, I've always used, you know, any interaction that I've had, whether it was good or bad, to help influence myself as a leader. Right, and mentorships, sponsorships are really important and you know, I encourage everybody to really try and find somebody. And you know, I think you know there's so many people that are willing to give time to talk and help people advance their career. But you, like you said, you don't, it doesn't need to be formal. You can learn from anybody, you can learn from anything, and so I think it comes from like that curious mindset of you know what do you want to do, what do you want to accomplish, and you know there's so many resources that are available to us and if you kind of just take the time to build those things and and learn about them and learn about yourself, it's you know, it's, it's there's a lot yourself, there's a lot of information and a lot of opportunity out there.
Speaker 2:I think that's a good segue into the next question. So if you have a female, maybe mid-management, maybe just fresh into payments, and you could give them one piece of advice, what would that be?
Speaker 3:It would be not to underestimate the power of network, networking and connecting communication. You know, find mentors, find individuals that emulate the type of leader that you want to be. Find a sponsor. Sponsors and mentors are a little bit different, right. A mentor is somebody that's going to give you career advice. A sponsor is somebody that is going to be an advocate for you, somebody that's going to, you know, really take time to try and promote you and, you know, take a personal kind of commitment to you. But you know, try to find those individuals and put yourself out there, be uncomfortable.
Speaker 3:I remember when I first started out and I'd'd go to conferences and you know, I'd have to go to networking events and I just I thought it was horrifying and even now it's still not a natural thing for me, but it's like get yourself out there, be uncomfortable, make the connections. Everybody else is just as uncomfortable. So, you know, make the come. You know, have the conversations, make the connections put. You know, really make time into building relationships and, and you know, lean on them when you need to, whether it's advice, it's, you know, information, help. You know there's, there's people out there that are really willing to help you, and so I think there's a lot of value in building relationships, and I'll go back to the curious mindset. Have a very curious mindset.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's some great advice. So let's wrap up with one more fun question. So when you're looking at your phone, maybe after work hours, what is the one app that's non-work related that you use the most, and what does that say about you?
Speaker 3:Unfortunately, it's probably the Wells Fargo app, and that means I am a mom of four college age-ish type of kids where I'm sending money to them constantly. That's a bit of a joke, but it's probably a sad reality as well. I would say the other one's probably Amazon. I bought a house recently and I've decided I'm going to do home decor as a part-time gig, and so I buy a lot on Amazon.
Speaker 2:Great, great. Well, this has been a great conversation, billy Joe, it's been really great having you on the show. Is there anything else you'd like to add before we wrap up?
Speaker 3:I want to thank you for having me on your podcast and really kind of taking the time to highlight women in payments. I think the more we're able to kind of talk about our experiences and our journeys and how we've gotten to where we are, I think it'll help a lot of individuals that are starting out in their career. So I really appreciate you kind of taking the time and having me on here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so. Thank you so much. I know your time is very valuable, so I really appreciate you being here today. Thanks, and to all your listeners out there. I thank you for your time as well, and until the next story.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us this week on the Leaders in Payments podcast. Make sure you visit our website at leadersinpaymentscom, where you can subscribe to the show and where you'll find our show notes. If you enjoyed listening, please share on your social channels as well.