Laura Mccracken Email & Phone Number

London, Gb

London, England, Gb

London, England, Gb

Elected by industry peers to serve on the Advisory Board of The Payments Association and appointed as Chair of Judges for the Pay 360 Awards.

Dublin 2, Ie

Lead Accenture's Global 'Commerce + Payments' practice, advising the world’s leading retailers, brands, and platforms on how to light up their marketplace and social commerce strategies through effective collaboration with payment and fintech companies.

London, London, Gb

Boadilla Del Monte, Madrid, Es

In January 2021, PagoNext (part of Santander Group) acquired assets from Wirecard including its core technical assets and 500+ employees. I was retained as one of five EVPs to develop and launch a new merchant acquiring business in Europe operating under the brand of Getnet.

Aschheim / Munich, Bavaria, De

Sale of Wirecard Assets: In January 2021, I helped to sell Wirecard’s core technical assets and 500+ employees to PagoNext (part of Santander Group). Post-Crisis: In June 2020, the KPMG special audit (called for by the Supervisory Board to investigate accounting irregularities) uncovered a $2B hole in the balance sheet. This led to the arrest of several senior executives who had been involved in inflating the revenues of the company to manipulate share price. Soon thereafter, Wirecard Group declared insolvency and began the process of finding a buyer for the core business. At this point, I was asked by the new CEO to serve on several solvent entity Boards in order to determine their strategic way forward (ongoing concern, entity share sale, asset sale, solvent wind-down, or insolvency). Pre-Crisis: Recruited to Wirecard by the Board to transform the organisation from an entity-led to a vertical-focused org. During my first 9 months, I achieved the following:* Created the Global Fintech vertical with an existing portfolio of fast-growing clients, such as Revolut, Funding Circle, Curve, Stocard, SisalPay, RatePay and Pay Maya* Integrated global team of 120+ sales and account management employees and began to harmonise purpose, values, goals, incentives, and processes* Developed a strategy to create a platform-powered ecosystem to help FinTechs thrive by leveraging Wirecard's end-to-end issuing, acquiring, lending and licensing capabilities* Gained Board approval to launch a Fintech Accelerator programme and VC fund to drive innovation and support FinTech clients through their product launch and customer growth cycles* Presented evaluation and recommendations to the Supervisory Board on company-wide governance

Menlo Park, Ca, Us

Responsible for developing the long-term strategy and partnerships across Europe to enable commerce on Facebook Marketplace, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp. Exploring, developing and negotiating strategic partnerships with issuers, acquirers, schemes, and fintechs and overseeing new product launches. Serving as the voice of Facebook within the Financial Services & Payments industry and the voice of the industry within Facebook.

Seattle, Wa, Us

Responsible for Amazon's payment products , including co-brand credit/debit cards, purchase finance, installment lending, The Money Store and Shop with Points (SWP) across our international marketplaces. Led a high performing regional team of 50+, including product management, business development, marketing, operations, finance, data science, and account management and managed a multi-billion $ P&L across 5 countries.

Seattle, Wa, Us

April 2016 - Aug 2017: Regional Head of Amazon Incentives & B2B Gift Cards - EU* Led Amazon's B2B business across Europe with team of 50 sales, marketing, account management, product management and operations professionals. * Partnered with direct clients and reselling/channel partners, leveraging Amazon Incentives and the Amazon brand to acquire new customers, enhance customer loyalty, reward employees and streamline payments. * Drove the 'One Amazon' approach across Amazon B2B business lines, including Amazon Media Group, Pay with Amazon, AWS, Prime, Devices, Amazon Lockers, Amazon Instant Video and Associates. July 2014 - April 2016: Head of Corporate Gift Cards - UK (B2B and B&M)* Led UK B2B Corporate Gift Cards team of 12 in the UK comprised of sales, marketing, account management, product management and operations.

Partner, The Ashton Partnership LLP (2012 – 2014)Boutique executive search and talent advisory firm* Led the Digital Commerce & Payments practice* Originated and executed retained executive search mandates at Board and C-suite level* Conducted board effectiveness evaluations and human capital due diligence assignmentsConsultant, Wrightson Wood LLC (2010 – 2012)Boutique executive search and talent advisory firm focused on the payments industry* Conducted executive searches at NED, MD, Director and VP levels in consumer financial services with cients such as Barclays, Kessler, WorldPay, Western Union and Accourt* Advised clients on talent strategy, culture assessment and succession planningExecutive Director, Russell Reynolds Associates (2007 - 2009)* Delivered retained executive search mandates for C-suite and Board in the retail banking, commercial banking and payments industries, as well as portfolio companies within private equity firms (Representative clients: HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds, Alchemy, Palamon Capital Partners, Credit Bank of Moscow, American Express, RBS)* Provided executive assessment for top management as part of succession planning, employee development and post-merger integration

New York, New York, Us

Based in Singapore, responsible for business development across the Asia Pacific region within the Global Consumer Group* Structured and negotiated multi-market co-brand card partnerships with retailers, airlines, telecoms, and regional banks* Partnered with US or European-based companies to develop deals in Japan and Asia* Managed M&A team on valuations for card portfolio acquisitions and creation of joint ventures* Provided leadership/consultation to AP country teams for the development of local deals* Developed and deployed the global ‘agent banking’ strategy for Citi across AP and EMEA

New York, Ny, Us

During 10-year tenure with Amex, based in NYC and London, held a variety of B2B roles across 4 business units, including Global Corporate Services, Small Business Services, International Consumer Services, and Global Network Services.Director, International Partnerships* Strategy: Developed global strategies for the ‘partnerships channel’ across international markets, including portfolio acquisition strategy, private banking strategy, airline co-brand blueprint, high-spend partnership initiative, retail co-brand strategy, “B2B2C culture” development * Negotiation: Negotiated / closed deals with strategic partners, portfolio acquisitions and joint ventures, such as Alitalia, AeroMexico, British Airways, Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways, KLM, SAS* Partnership Optimization: Led team to optimize top 25 co-branded card deals across international

New York, Ny, Us

American Express - Global Corporate Card & Business Travel / B2B (1999 – 2001)Director-Field Effectiveness - Sales Planning, Incentive Design & Reward* Led team of 9 sales planning and compensation experts to drive growth through the B2B sales force* Managing targets, incentive plans and rewards for all B2B sales and account development groups, encompassing 23 positions/550 field employees* Established purpose, responsibilities and rules of engagement for sales and account development* Optimized the investment of $20+ million incentive budgetAmerican Express - Small Business Services/ OPEN Network (1998 – 1999)Director, Assistant to the President * Assisted the President in all aspects of leadership of the $30 billion business unit* Communicated SBS strategy, goals, and performance to the Wall Street, BOD, and employees* Led annual talent review and employee development for executive team (direct reports to President)* Managed various strategic consulting projects: Amex market share analysis, pricing strategy American Express - Global Corporate Card & Business Travel / B2B (1997 – 1998)Senior Manager, Sales Planning & Incentive Design * Created sales targets, incentive plans and contests for all B2B sales/ account development groups* Manage team responsible for rewards & recognition * Lead cross-functional team responsible for re-organizing sales force and change management projectAmerican Express - Global Corporate Card & Business Travel / B2B (1995 – 1997)Senior Manager, Pricing * Created complex financial models and revenue share agreement with clients* Developed pricing strategy and trained the sales force

Mba

Mba

Masters, Leadership Coaching