Charting new paths in Fintech Education…Women of Impact Series; Laura Gibson-Lamothe, Executive Director of the Georgia Fintech Academy.

I was born to parents who were embarking on, international. Kind of experience. My father played basketball, professionally overseas. I was born in Italy. I lived in Spain, Holland, Israel. I actually came back to the States and went to it. Mhm.

On our show today, we welcome Laura Gibson Lamothe, Executive Director of the Georgia FinTech Academy.

Mhm.

It's now January 2023, and you are the Executive Director of the Georgia FinTech Academy. You established some objectives you felt needed to be focused on immediately. To what extent have they been accomplished? In other words, how does your report card read?

Oh, yes. Our report card is Welcome to Bridges to Excellence podcast, inspired leadership in payments and fintech, bringing you conversations with payments, most fascinating people on top of their game, leaders, influencers, experts, and innovators. Each weekly episode turns our guests wisdom into practical advice. Their personal journey starts now. are meant to inspire and challenge you to explore your possibilities. Here is your host, Desmond Nicholson. Picture this for a moment, a dynamic leader standing at the crossroads of technology and finance, guiding the next generation of innovators. Today, as part of our Women of Impact series, I'm honored to introduce Laura Gibson-Lamothe. The executive director of the Georgia FinTech Academy. Her journey in FinTech is nothing short of remarkable. And her story is one of bold vision and transformative leadership. When Laura stepped into her role in January, 2023, she just did not take on a title. She embraced a mission. In a short time, she had propelled the Academy to new heights, expanding strategic partnerships that bridge the gap between academia and industry, increasing student engagement, and enhancing the Academy's visibility in ways that have caught the attention of leaders across Georgia's financial tech community. Her influence has not only lifted the academy, but has positioned it as a key player in the fintech ecosystem. But Laura's impact goes far beyond her current role. With over two decades of experience, she has been at the forefront of digital transformation, program and product development, and implementing innovative tech solutions that drive growth, profitability, and customer satisfaction. In the payments, financial services, and fintech sectors, she is known as a trusted advisor, one who sees opportunities where others might see challenges. And now, as she shapes the future of fintech education, Laura's leadership earned her recognition as a finalist for the prestigious Fintech Person of the Year 2024 award earlier this year, and most recently, Named a finalist for the 2024 Women in Technology of the Year Award, a testament to her vision, dedication, and drive for excellence. Laura's visionary leadership continues to break boundaries, advance diversity, and foster innovation in a rapidly changing industry. Join us on this episode as Laura takes us on her journey with some actionable takeaways along the way. Enjoy the episode, mhm.

Laura, welcome to the Bridges to Excellence podcast.

Thank you so much, Desmond, for having me, and I'm honored to be a part of this Women of Impact series.

It's great having you here. Someone to talk about the role educational institutions like the Georgia FinTech Academy is playing, preparing the next generation of FinTech professionals. I know as a fact, over the years, the majority of people entering the payments industry got in by happenstance. We kind of fell into it, myself included. So with that said, we celebrate the work you and the Academy are doing. And for that, we thank you. Mhm. Let's get to the conversation. Start, if you will, by giving us an introduction overview of Georgia Fintech Academy, how it fits into the overall Georgia State University system, its mission, and your role as the executive director.

Yeah. So just a, an overview, a brief overview of the FinTech Academy. Uh, we've been around since 2019 and our focus on talent development for the industry, for the FinTech industry specifically, we offer a robust FinTech curriculum. I call it curriculum as a service on the backend support. 26 universities comprised within the university system of Georgia, these public universities and institutions are able to offer a variety of different fintech degrees of study through the curriculum that we offer through those university systems. And so, over the years, we've specialized in very technical areas of focus from data science to cyber security and other disciplines, and we continue to mature and build out a very robust curriculum from six courses to now 42 and plus, uh, courses that are offered. Complementing the curriculum, we have everything else from a programming perspective that's needed to make sure that students are well rounded and prepared to enter into the industry. Uh, one of the things I'm excited to highlight is our speaker series, twice a week, each week during each semester, which is a mouthful. We have industry leaders representing a variety of backgrounds, in areas speak to our students virtually on a platform to provide accessibility across the entire university system. We have a co host student podcast, which is focused on providing students the opportunity to interview. Um, and then we also do career fairs and student trips where we're visiting different, partners and, industry sponsors who are eager to interact, network and attract top talent. and so we focus on all these programming elements, but we're in the prime location to do this. Uh, the state of Georgia, which I'm constantly waving the flag for from a FinTech perspective is become a key player in this space. we are a FinTech hub also known as transactionally, to most of the folks that have, heard that terminology before it's because of the fact that we, have such a presence here from a processing perspective. I mean, 80 percent of U. S. payment transactions are processed through the state of Georgia. That's 120 billion plus transactions annually. and those companies that are facilitating payments, are, contributing 70 billion plus in revenue. with also 240 billion plus fintech spending. Um, that are also here in the state of Georgia. And so we are bridging the gap, as you mentioned, between industry and academia. by being that partner, we're not only, intentionally trying to tap into a very diverse segment of students to provide them access, exposure, and pathways into the industry, but we're partnering with a lot of these companies to develop. Talent acquisition strategies and help gain momentum in how they hire and staff talent going forward. Well done. Now let's get more personal by sharing your backstory. So, so Laura, what do I need to know about you and your earliest years to understand the woman who sits in front of me today? And what were those formative experiences that shapes you most profoundly? Well, I know we don't have all day and all night Desmond, so I'll be brief. A lot of my background is very interesting because I was born to parents who were embarking on a international kind of experience. My father played baseball. Basketball, professionally overseas. I was born in Italy. I lived in Spain, Holland, Israel. I actually came back to the States and went to a Jewish Orthodox school for my elementary education. so I had a very diverse, globally diverse upbringing, uh, exposure. I think that complements to my ability to adapt and to be comfortable interacting with people with all different types of backgrounds. Also the athleticism was something that I inherited from my father. I am incredibly grateful. I am not 6'10 like my father. I used to have a complex, especially since I've been the same height, 5'8 almost 5'9 depending on the audience, I might add a couple of inches, especially when I was playing collegiately, I definitely have lied on the roster, But I definitely went through a period of life where I was following the same footsteps of my parents. I, was pursuing education academically. I also played three sports in college. I call it a, it's a triathlete cause I played three sports, but I also say I would try anything for full scholarship. And so I played three sports competitively, division one, basketball, volleyball, and softball in that order. And I navigated my entire life being, or most of my life being a student athlete. Now retired, I look back and I think about some of the challenges and things I've had to overcome in my journey, are very much what makes me successful, in so many different functions and roles I've had in my professional career from time management. Teamwork and being able to be innovative and think outside of the box. These are all skills that I've had to, obtain over the years from my early childhood and going to live from country to country and, having different situations, even academically, to then playing collegiately and adapting to different teams and in different channels and in areas of challenge for me as an athlete, to, post graduation trying to navigate my career. And you mentioned earlier, many of us, I've been in the industry 20 years, which kind of dates me at this point. I fell into it, I couldn't find a job and. In the arts or in, education, which is what I was focused on, in my undergrad experience. And I pretty much just picked up the first paid internship that I could find, which was at the United States patent and trademark office, doing a server migration, underneath the PMO project management office. And I was like, why did I not know this earlier? I love telling people what to for a living. I love. Project plans. I love, I live by Excel. I always have had Excel plans for everything in my life, including grocery shopping, like that's just who I was. And I did not know there was a niche for me with the skills that I didn't even look at as skills in this industry. and that, gave me the momentum, and the exposure and the access, um, once I had that internship, it completely changed my life and the trajectory, I think of my entire career. So how and when did you actually get into FinTech? Take us through the highlights of your career path and preceding roles that ultimately brought you onto the Georgia State University faculty. Yeah, I would just say early 2000s. We don't need to get specific with the numbers, but I started off my career at Bank of America. Bank of America had a college pipeline program and actually the transition between that internship I just mentioned in that Bank of America gig was that I had a mentor. Which is one of the most critical things. It was a friend's mother who actually was training people to get PMP certification. I apprenticed under her. I had a short stint contract with security clearance working for the Pentagon on a special project. Which again, gave me not only the exposure, but some level of experience where I was able to present myself, I think, in a compelling way and being able to navigate to the government side of things in the organizational structure there, but applied for the Bank of America college pipeline program, which was rotational. And in that rotational program, I got a taste for it all, almost like a broad enterprise view, change management and enterprise release management to some product lines, e comm and small business banking. I got a lot of different variety in that stint of the rotation that they built out as part of that cycle. And I landed in change management, again, complimenting, uh, The project management, exposure I had early on, but project management was the gateway for me and my career. It went from there to bank hopping in Charlotte, North Carolina, where there's so many different banks. We like to say, it's almost like, you go into work and the coal mine, back in the day, like everyone's just riding into the coal mine. We're riding into one of the banks. And so I went from, bank of America where, um, I had the tremendous opportunity and I have some battle wounds from Countrywide and Merrill Lynch's acquisition. Those were the two things that really what started out my career working on some very challenging projects with a lot of scrutiny and visibility, it put me in kind of that pressure cooker to shine. and to be promoted and to be given more challenging, um, efforts and initiatives. I moved over to Wachovia six months later, they were acquired by Wells Fargo. So then now I'm the M and A girl, I'm the merger and acquisitions girl. Cause coming from big America, countrywide Merrill Lynch. Gaining a reputation for helping clean up, being on a cleanup crew, going over to Wachovia, being at the Wells Fargo side, helping with transition type projects and efforts digitally and physically with some of their branches, and then. Moving to Ally. Ally was three months in house to bake. It had a logo and the team I was on, was responsible for helping stand up, the core platform on FIS, developing different solutions from inbound, outbound customer email. I think about some of the things I implemented during that time, IVR for the first time from scratch. no longer was I delving into like enhancements. I'm building out new solutions from scratch, which was what excited me. I then became kind of, again, an M and A girl, a lot of banks that are trying to, gain traction speed to market has been an immense focus because once you have a brand and now you're starting to build a client base, you want to start offering. Everything cross selling and being able to offer a full suite of services. So then it was, co brand credit card. I helped lead the co brand credit card with T. D. Bank. The implementation successful. You thought about in sourcing it, which meant. We need to be PCI compliant. So I led PCI compliance. I was responsible for QSA, I was responsible for building out an operations, building out a governance model to maintain that PCI compliant rock that we got for the first time, some really exciting work. Then we acquired an investment portfolio, we acquired a mortgage, we acquired other verticals. I started working on the auto dealer side as well, formerly GMAC and an entity, sub entity underneath the Ally Financial Umbrella. I had visibility to basically all lines of business and experience in all lines of business. And so what drove me actually to Atlanta was an opportunity to work for a service provider to Ally, which was a amazing opportunity to really partner and then get the endorsement and the approval by Ally leadership to go over to Feature Space, which specializes in, fraud risk management, leveraging machine learning and artificial intelligence. a big player here in that, FinTech ecosystem that I mentioned earlier in Atlanta, and I started working for them, leading operations, replicating a lot of the mature operations that were developed in Cambridge, UK over here in Atlanta to service their growing U. S. portfolio. And that was such a amazing journey for me, but then the pandemic happened. I think you might recall right before the pandemic, There were a whole lot of mergers and acquisitions during that time. And, pipeline kind of froze, didn't really make sense for the role that I was coming in yet. and I pivoted into consulting. During the pandemic, I was completely grounded. All the things I used to like love and admire about consulting, the traveling and the status that you would acquire because you're traveling, meeting with clients here and there. It's not as sexy when you're just like working from your home office during the pandemic. just hours over hours doing, risk and compliance work, which is not my favorite thing. I want to do the thing that's like customer impacting and front end type of solutions. And I sat during the pandemic and re evaluated my whole life. I know I'm not that old, but I definitely reflected on my journey and like what I want for myself going forward. And I said, Hey, maybe there's something more out there for me that aligns with my passions, compliments, some of the experience that I have where I can truly, make an impact, leave a legacy. Those things were the things I thought about and my predecessor, Tommy Marshall, who was in the role I'm in currently was moving off. he got bit by the startup bug, moving off to, to work with a startup and mentioned this role and I was like, Oh, I don't know. This is not in my vision board for my career. I want to be CIO, CTO at a bank. That's what I wanted for myself. And I literally had a heart to heart with myself, many pros and cons written down in a spreadsheet because I told you already, I love spreadsheets. And I really evaluated the opportunity to join the FinTech Academy, the opportunity to now in a post pandemic environment, work on the scalability, help evolve and drive the scalability of the program. And yeah, we've seen tremendous results. And I would say a couple of years in. This is the most fulfilling moment of my life, the conversations and the individuals that we're touching and reaching is just so fulfilling for me to be a part of that and everything I do, striving to deliver more of that, um, deeper across the state of Georgia. And now there's opportunities for expansion beyond the state of Georgia. And so it's just been an extremely rewarding experience to think about. My past and how I can help, support a brighter future for others. Okay. So it's now January, 2023, and you are the executive director of Georgia Fintech Academy. My understanding is that after you got into the role, you established some objectives you felt needed to be focused on immediately. And I've jotted some notes down here. Okay. Uh, they were, strategic industry partnerships, student engagement, enhanced visibility and reputation, and the fourth one, internal faculty development. Now taken one at a time, in brief, can you expand on the scope of these objectives, starting with the strategic industry partnerships, and to what extent have they been accomplished? Okay.

In other words, how does your report card read?

Oh, yes. Our report card is strong. And this is the competitive athletic nature in me, Desmond. I came into this role, I immediately in my first like, what, 30, 60 days did a SWOT analysis. I didn't want to come in guns a blazing. I was cautious of the environment. Academia works very much differently than the industry does. And so there was a period of just assessing the lay of the land. And. the things that I identified, which were the ones that you highlighted were what we've really prioritized focusing on going forward. but strategic partnerships are immensely important. So it's one thing to, focus on helping students, identify FinTech, as a path for them and then obviously support them in their journey. But it's another thing to say, we have jobs for you, students. We are working. strategically with the industry to ensure that you're getting the top, best in class education, but then we're also preparing and equipping you to be competitive in this very competitive, employer landscape. And so, our focus has been on the industries, partnerships that we have, and it's been so meaningful because we are mostly considered a non profit, as far as, the FinTech Academy goes. So financially, and then also as part of influencing the curriculum, and then also ensuring that we get those students the opportunities for internships and jobs. I've been the whole point of navigating and strengthening our strategic industry partnerships. The student engagement piece we have really focused on and we've been proud to boast about our efforts to cultivate a diverse talent pipeline. When I talk about diversity, I'm super excited about it because 70 percent of our student population represents that underrepresented, segment, group of backgrounds. And so we are intentionally striving to pull in diverse talent. And then also we are stretching ourselves across the entire state of Georgia, which I mentioned these universities, the 26 have 350, 000 students enrolled at them currently. And so the student engagement is key for us. It's essential for us to be able to provide awareness that FinTech exists, awareness of the opportunities in FinTech, awareness around the compensation and the monies, the salaries that students can make in this, in this program. dynamic, interesting, field. but all of that has been, uh, shared by way of the channel, of student engagement. We have student orgs that were aligned closely with across each of these universities, and I call it the mega church of FinTech, the Georgia FinTech Academy sits at the top. We broadcast out all these different resources, as I highlighted earlier. but then we have on campus presence by way of these student organizations. These are influencers, that are sharing and evangelizing on behalf of fintech that, hey, this is something you should consider. And we attract students in, not only because They get it, they see it in the news, they read, they're also starting their own financial literacy journeys as well. and so all of that comprised is what really appeals and brings in students, and that's how we really focus on student engagement. The other piece is enhanced visibility, as you mentioned, and the reputation around the FinTech Academy. So now we're starting to get recognize in the state, out of the state and even globally. the awards that you mentioned, for me are also mirrored by the awards that we're receiving for the fintech academy in general. the, A.C.C.S.B. which is an accreditation entity. that provides that accreditation for curriculum across the entire globe. Actually, it's not just a U. S. thing, it's a global thing. They're an accreditation entity. It's very serious from an academic perspective. we were flagged, or awarded the 2023 Innovations That Inspire. Our program, the structure, how we operate. And the metrics are report card of what we've achieved has, given us that recognition to receive that award. We also from, the Technology Association of Georgia were just nominated and then selected as a finalist for, tech for good. Focusing on diversity and inclusion are, metrics around, not only how we're preparing, and helping cultivate an inclusive fintech environment because of our social efforts and our programming, but then our intentional. approach to be able to attract, students that represent diverse backgrounds. so all of that provides, some visibility and gives us, some credibility in this space, I think, as we continue to grow. And lastly, the faculty development, we've been around for five years doing this, and we have a variety of professors, almost 20 that are aligned to the program, representing the different universities of which they're employed, those, faculty members need, some, there's some investment required there. for them, they need access to industry. I actually, built, a whole database. We have an intake process for volunteers. We are constantly matchmaking, faculty needs with industry. Support and resources. These faculty members are extremely passionate about the students that they serve, and they're constantly looking for opportunities, whether it be a guest speaker to participate in the delivery, the facilitation of some of the curriculum to. experiential learning, which is one element I'm extremely excited about. The experiential learning piece is, it could be a capstone project or a short, hackathon that's aligned to a class. we've even had, in the most, extreme, use case of this is a project that turned into a patent in which a student was listed on this patent. I want more of those opportunities, paid or unpaid research, projects or challenges. We'll take them all. but giving students relevant real world, experience in the classroom, really gets them the opportunity to apply, the methodology, to a real world. So those are the four. I know I wasn't brief, Desmond. I apologize for that. That's quite okay. I think that was a requirement. You said at the front end, but yeah, those were the four and four. Well, well done. Well done. Now, if I may be presumptuous, it appears to me that the heartbeat of your program is grounded in your strategic partnerships and collaboration amongst. Stakeholders within the Georgia Fintech ecosystem. So before I get to my next question, here are some facts I wish to share with our listeners as reported by the Technology Association of Georgia Fintech Ecosystem Report. Well, first off, Georgia is recognized as a global Fintech hub, and as you mentioned before, home of some 250 plus Fintech companies. Okay, now the 12 public FinTech companies in Georgia alone generates in excess of $50 billion. Okay. And please, correct me if, uh, some of these numbers are slightly off and over. $2 billion in venture capital was invested in Georgia early stage fintechs from 2020 to 2022 Atlanta, his home of one of the 12 Federal Reserve banks. 21, 000 people are employed by the top fintech companies in metro Atlanta and 42, 000 people overall. with an additional 8, 000 employed in Columbus, Georgia. Now, in addition, um, a recent Wall Street Journal article rated Atlanta as a prime job market in the nation for grads in search of fintech opportunities. So, based upon these stats, the academy appears to be operating in an opportunity rich environment, which leads to my next question. Who are some of your top tier sponsors and partners? And how does, Georgia Fintech Academy provides for these companies? Yeah, I think about, our top, tier, I would call it like platinum sponsor is FIS. FIS. Has been a long way the entire journey since the inception of the Georgia Fintech Academy. They recently renewed last year for another $1, 000, 000 contribution and gift, which was hugely impactful for the ongoing development enhancements that we're making to ensure alignment with industry demands from an FIS. Perspective, we've done it all. All the things that I highlighted that the Academy. Is intending to do on behalf of our students. we've done in partnership with, sponsors and partners like FIS income and, U. S. Bank, Elevon and visa these brands. We work diligently with to ensure that we've calibrated the curriculum. We're constantly looking for ways to involve into enhance it. we also work side by side from a talent acquisition perspective to ensure we understand their evolving needs for talent and how we can continue to, provide the right level of education, in skills development to ensure that our students are, ready for those roles. and so our partnership has evolved over the years to think more innovatively when it comes to. How you source and bring in talent. I think one of the things that I'm most excited about, we did with FIS last semester, which was, looking at their Jacksonville headquarters, location, there were a lot of early talent roles, available at that specific location. We took, 55 students from the most Southern universities. So thinking about like Columbus state university, Savannah state, Albany, a couple from up north. So Georgia Tech also kind of came in with that batch, but a quarter of them were offered and accepted job positions last spring from that one trip. That trip was a scouting opportunity. We proactively did some work upfront our due diligence to make sure we bought in top talent. We had them apply prior to the trip. The trip was really just kind of the last check the box type of exercise. But I think now employers have to be more strategic and intentional with that recruiting process and that recruiting journey, to ensure that they're bringing in talent. And then also, being intentional when we talk about diverse talent as well. And so, it was a win win situation, but I think that's an example of how effective, these, you know, collaborative relationships can be with a very, interested and committed industry partner. Good. I understand that DEI, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is a foundational pillar deeply rooted in the DNA of the Academy. Talk to us about the extent of which this culture is infused in the overall running of the Academy. Yeah, I think one of the things that people assume if you look at the landscape of Georgia, we're very diverse, but some of the campuses I, I'm at most frequently have a large population of black students. I recently found out there's a term for it, predominantly black institution, PBI. So, Georgia State, which is not an HBCU, it is a PBI. It's a predominantly black institution. It's got over 55, 000 students enrolled in that one specific university. And our focus for DEI has been to not only provide access and maybe visibility, To diverse representation in the industry. So we're bringing, you know, leaders to speak with students. We want the leaders to reflect also who the students that we serve, and it's important to provide that visibility. I know for myself, uh, coming up in banking, I definitely, was the only one in the room and I didn't see anyone that looked like me. That didn't stop me by any means. I was like, I don't mind being the first, but for some of these students, it's extremely important. They need to be able to connect. With who they see and how they see themselves being in that industry in the future. And so from a DEI perspective, we focus on. Providing access to a diverse representation of leadership, diverse backgrounds, and by backgrounds, I mean, we've talked about a lot of folks falling into this industry, such as myself. There are a lot of different pathways people have taken in the industry. So it's great to have that representation there. And then also being a resource for students. So the other side of things is you think about how the industry has evolved and They're now offering at the corporate level on the corporate side, DEI training and guidance and insights. We do the same with our students. So I think also preparing them to transition into the industry means making sure that they're well rounded individuals. And so from a DEI perspective, it's important on both sides to ensure that we're providing kind of the cultural elements of that. foundationally for our students, Mhm. let's talk about, artificial intelligence and machine learning in the ever evolving landscape of this technology. How does the Academy stay ahead of the curve to remain relevant to meet the needs of the industry? Yeah, it's so funny. AI is like a trigger word for me now. Cause it's every single place I go, every event I've attended, there's a, an AI track or. Some AI panels, AI and machine learning was at the beginning of how the curriculum was developed at the academy. And from a use case perspective, it was predictive analytics, looking at fraud trends, like that type of applicability from an AI and machine learning perspective. Our students are not only gaining the credential from, um, the university perspective, but they're also. Complimenting it with some industry certs certificates. And so while we have built the entire package that has to continue to evolve, there are unique use cases. There are other channels where we're looking at like ethical AI, for example, and some other, adjacent, but very dependent kind of areas that need to be focused on when it comes to AI and machine learning. the future is, generative AI and I get asked this question quite often. it's interesting to see that the industry hasn't solved it, but it is very much academia to play a role in solving kind of what generative AI, large language models, et cetera, mean to the fintech industry going forward. And so. What we've developed is opportunities for students to be creative, uh, for students to apply some of what they've learned in the classroom, through these, experiential learning projects. Just getting them experience and getting their hands on, certain technology, sets the tone for their ability to be a sponge, to be adaptive, to have critical thinking skills, then that's what employers truly want. so while we're not necessarily certifying the students or, giving them degrees in generative AI from a AI, and machine learning perspective, they're the data science competencies and all of the skillsets there are already foundational in what they're learning, but they're also being challenged to start to explore some of these evolving emerging technologies so that when they are on the employer side. They're ready to grow with the organization they're going into good, What career opportunities awaits graduates of the program? Yeah, we try to highlight our top focus areas. There's a lot out there. And to be honest, I struggle with some of the students who have this very rigid formula approach. They have a degree. In a specific area and they believe they can only apply to two jobs in the industry. And I'm like, it's not necessarily that cut and dry. to be honest, why even limit yourself? our focus has been to outline a good core set of roles, whether it be technical or non technical buckets that I call them. You have the engineering, the cybersecurity, the data analytics. The data visualization, which is actually a huge area where we have a lot of students that are focusing on the visualization of data. And then you have the other side, which could be business administration, product slash project management. marketing is even something that has tremendously grown in the past couple of years from a fintech perspective. A lot of students that are coming in, with marketing backgrounds and interests, but apply to the fintech industry. and so some of those areas, oh, and I, I forgot to add, um, business development and sales. that's also an attractive, niche and area for, students. Entry level. And to be honest, I feel like that's a hot one because, a lot of these, BDR sales roles, give students a great foundation of. Not only a solution, but being able to articulate the problem and understand why the technology works that way and why it's been built and designed that way. And they're learning how to speak and interact with customers. It's just a really, a great way to kind of catapult, you know, Into your career, starting off at an entry level. And so those are kind of the key roles that we continue to share and refine and prepare students to look for, but we're seeing all kinds of roles that have been launched. There's, I think, also a shift where companies. Who might not have had previously the capacity to do a rotational process, like I mentioned with my own professional journey at the beginning, they're starting to develop that now, which is amazingly helpful for a lot of students who don't really know they haven't figured it out. They figured they like FinTech, they're interested in certain areas within FinTech, but they haven't necessarily outside of an internship, which lasts for such a short period of time at a lot of experience in the industry. And so those programs, especially rotation is extremely helpful because they get a taste of some of those roles that I just mentioned, and they can really choose their destination once they've actually had the exposure. Good. Um, I'm curious, what's the stats on FinTech position placements locally since the Academy's inception in 2019? Yeah, so fortunately, we've been able to track out of the 8, 000 we've had come through the academy, over 2, 500 have been placed in fintech jobs. mostly here locally. Unfortunately, those numbers are very manual, and I know we've probably placed more than what we've been able to track, but it's a very manual process. But for us, the reward is to see the placement and to continue to drive placement numbers. This past spring semester, I had the honor of attending a conference where they were representing students, graduates, alumni's were representing a variety of different brands on an expo floor. And that was extremely exciting for me to see full circle the student in the classroom to now the student who's employed and representing a company. And then also bringing in talent themselves and working from that perspective as well.

Let's switch gears for a moment.

Mhm.

Earlier this year, you were part of a group from the U. S. attending the Transatlantic FinTech Exchange in Belfast, Ireland. What was that about? Were there any takeaways from the experience you felt could apply at the Academy?

Yes, that was such a rewarding experience. I went along with the American Transaction Processors Coalition. They are a government lobbying trade association. Their efforts have spanned across from transactionality to, the broader U. S. to now global, partnering with. Ireland and cultivating this experience where we got to not only see Belfast, but we also did a Dublin. So Southern and Northern Ireland, both in the same trip, they rolled out the red carpet. There's a little bit of economic development, conversation, which workforce rolls up into, which is what I represent. And I represent that here in Atlanta as well with, our close partners, the Metro, Chamber of Commerce, but there in Ireland. It also bridge conversations. We had a couple of panel discussions as well in both areas, but it bridge conversations with universities. They're universities that also have a fintech focus the numbers that we have the volume from a curriculum perspective, but then the numbers of students. overshadow what they have, in Ireland in general, And so our conversations were around student apprenticeships. Apprenticeship models are very common in the UK, and we are embarking on a journey to look at alternative academic pathways, I call it, here in the U. S. Students don't necessarily want to wait four years and make such a hefty investment in education before they can start working. And so we're creatively working with partners like those in Ireland who have run. Apprenticeship programs for years in building out what that could look like for the Fintech Academy to have a registered apprenticeship program. The other piece is, study abroad student exchange. maybe even a micro credential that could be shared cross, areas, territories. And I think the fun pieces we talk about faculty development, giving faculty an opportunity to stretch grow and develop themselves beyond where they are now. All of those things could happen with these global, strategic partnerships, through the relationships we have, through associations and organizations, and then our, industry partners, and then also these universities that are, located elsewhere that also are tied together through the shared common interest of fintech. And that was 1 of those things that we explored what that would look like through that Ireland trip. So it was very successful. And now it gave me, let's just say 120 more to dues on my to do list coming out of it because I'm like, all of it. Great. Right? But like, my priority is to help getting students hired. And so that's always been the focus Priority and the driving force, of which we're marching towards for the academy, but there's a lot of other opportunities to help and amplify and help grow and develop what we're doing, by diversifying our offering. And so I'm really excited to, to be a part of that Ireland trip. Yeah. Um, and have those conversations there and as we speak, any of these initiatives being implemented at the academy. Yeah, I think the 1 that was implemented is kind of that exchange. We've stood up routines. We started building out our project plan per se, and how we develop, but it's still early days. We went. What was it? May, this year and the fall semester is heavy. The fall semester is an intense period because it's just the fall semester is busy, but then on the industry side it's just full of conferences, get togethers, galas, etc. And so we are just immensely focused on both sides. On current state, While we're in parallel, at least making partial investments in, nurturing and developing that plan to get to some of those things that I highlighted that we came away with from our trip. Now, switching gears again, What are your thoughts on mentorship and what role mentoring played in your career? Does any one person come to mind? Yeah, a mentorship is key. I came in thinking I could create some sort of office hours on my calendar and meet with every student that had a need. And I realized really quickly, I can't, I don't have the capacity to do so. and so we built this like volunteer form, which we have one of the areas that people can volunteer from the industry, uh, being that of mentorship, which we're strategically planning and aligning students with industry mentors and they're providing. That access to the mentorship there, but it plays a huge role. We have students from all different backgrounds, some undergraduate, some graduate level students. So they have different needs some students who are, early days, not sure what they want to do. And some who have a very detailed plan and really just need some coaching on what next steps to take. And so we've been, intentionally building out that mentorship or I should say evolving that mentorship offering. One thing I'm really excited about and this is where. Like worlds collide, right? Because I'm on the board for PayTech Women. I also have been as part of the membership engagement strategy kind of track. And then as part of that Next Gen has been a focus. And so win, win kind of situation for me is tying some of the students that we have through the academy and funneling them through the resources pay tech women has to offer. And so the mentorship piece there has been really beneficial for me. And as we embark on our journey to mature, our mentorship. Offering more broadly within the FinTech Academy, leveraging what we have at Paytech Woman has been very helpful, but mentorship is extremely beneficial. I think about how, as we started this call, I talked about how I fell into this industry, a friend of mine's, mother was training people in project management, PMP certification, and she became my mentor and to be honest, I don't even think I would have considered banking. I knew she knew some folks at Bank of America. Next thing I know, she's advising me on my application and coaching me on my interview skills and really hands on providing that level of guidance, which is what I had hoped to be for everybody. But I realize it's not realistic, but I think that mentorship, is it incredibly helpful? and it played a huge role in my ability to land the first job that really set the tone for the rest of my 20 year career in banking. And so we're really strategically looking to develop a mentorship offering that continues to evolve with the evolution of the type of students that we're serving. And it's been incredibly meaningful to see those mentorship relationships, develop very good. Laura, as you go about your daily task as the Executive Director of the Fintech Academy, have you come to terms in understanding your leadership style? And if so, how would you describe your style of leadership and the guiding principles behind it? My leadership style is pretty open. I'd like to say I take the servant leadership approach. so there's one thing that I really enjoy about being a leader, and it's the strategy, the big picture vision, but I love being able to work within a team to articulate the approach to achieving that vision and making sure everyone is on board and aligned. We constantly focus with my board to recalibrate what we have and ensure that we're aligned to our core objectives for the year and strategically identifying initiatives that help further the development of those objectives and the progress made towards those objectives, but my leadership style has always been to be hands on, but not all the way in the weeds to be able to delegate to the team and empower them to be able to do what they need to do to be successful. And then to also just be a support. That's what I guess I mean by the servant leadership pieces to provide that support when it's needed. and to have emotional intelligence enough to understand when there needs to be a different approach taken or some aid, in regards to some of the things that we have to do. Now. What are you most excited about Georgia FinTech's Academy future? Well, this thing could go so far. right now. I'm challenged to not introduce scope creep on a daily basis. the fact that we're now gaining reputation and Fintech education. There's an opportunity to. Continue to work and evolve our executive education offering. We actually did a partnership with Fiserv and Synchrony last year, where we were focused on diversity supplier, supply chain, type initiative where they were bringing in, diverse suppliers, providing some training and then putting them through their third party supplier risk management. Program in the hopes of being selected to be a supplier to Fiserv and to Synchrony and a part of that training was fintech like foundations. We took our core course and we tailored it. We basically white labeled it and it was so exciting to see that happen. But then I'm like. There's a market for this. we literally can go pro, you know what I mean? Like now there's an opportunity to provide and supply a lot of these companies, the same opportunity to white label some of our curriculum and, to integrate it within their learning management, portals and programs. And so we were working with a couple of companies now to evaluate what that looks like, to pilot in 2025. So I'm really excited about that. The other piece is, obviously right now our brand and our name is the Georgia Fintech Academy. So we have a strong focus on Georgia, but we recently were tapped on the shoulder from Visa's, CEO, Ryan McCurney to do a non for credit fintech class at Notre Dame. Wow. First of the kind, where this fall, we, helped them develop a, I don't like to use the word curriculum, but we helped them develop an extracurricular class, with a capstone project in FinTech. the hope was to provide students exposure, the same thing we're doing at the FinTech Academy, but at Notre Dame. And that's one of the first use cases where we're starting to partner and consult, I think, externally from the state of Georgia. And so there's opportunities on both sides academically to spread beyond the state. To provide guidance and SME insights. And then on the other side, from a continued education, there's upskilling. As you mentioned, many of us have fallen into this industry and had no training. My training was the practical real world experiences that developed my knowledge of payments. and to be honest, it was like, learn as you go. it wasn't, I can relate me. Yeah. And so it was learn as you go. And so I think a lot of companies could benefit, a lot of individuals could benefit from, taking some of the courses that we've, worked so hard to refine. and so those two channels, I think are the things that I'm most excited about. 'cause that completely changes. the layout of how we operate at the FinTech Academy. It also spreads our, the demographics of who we serve and there's opportunities for revenue, which is one thing that as a nonprofit, I strive for, because I'm constantly fundraising the lifeblood of the business. Yes. Yes. What do you attribute your overall success and wellbeing? Hmm. I attribute the fact that. I don't even know if this fits the well being part, and that could be questionable, Desmond, but the success is attributed to the fact that I am hungry, passionate, highly driven and motivated to, the success of this program. This is so fulfilling as I mentioned earlier. And not only do I get excited about it, the people I talk to seem to get excited about it. I don't know, maybe my energy is a little bit of a turnoff, but I feel like when I talk to people about it, they're like, Oh, I can get behind this. And I see why this is a need. And I love This and why wasn't this, available when I was in college? Like these are the reactions I get and that's what fuels, myself and all of the folks that, currently work and or partner with the FinTech Academy. And I think that's, attributed, uh, to the success of the program. but I think from a wellness perspective, there's also a balance, right? Like you talked about it, before, like all of the things that we're trying to achieve, it can take a toll if you don't create some sort of balance. And I haven't quite figured that out because I just love this so much. I live, breathe, eat, dream, everything. FinTech Academy. And I do know that lessons learned from some of my previous roles that I do need to think about what that balance looks like. Good. We'll be right back for our final segment. The lightning round bridges to excellence inspired leadership in payments and fintech. Okay, Laura, quick questions quick responses. I pose the following questions and you respond with one word or sentence or two. Are you ready. I am. The lightning round. What one word. you would use to describe your career journey so far? I would say perseverance. What is the best career advice you have ever received? Never give up. How would you define yourself in one or two words? Highly motivated and driven. What is one thing the people you work with would be surprised to learn? Oh, that's a hard one. My, my creativity, my artistic side. What's a cause that is important to you and why? Well, obvious 1, the next gen working with young people is a cause, but I also am on the board for a program nonprofit that focuses on Hispanic Latino communities, providing after school care and education programs and ESL. Uh, training as well, and I'd love to help identify ways to support folks that are immigrating and folks that have unique challenges, language barriers. It's a passion of mine as well. What one book would you recommend to our listeners and why? You know, it's funny, I don't know why this came straight to mind, but the 48 laws of power. Uh, I don't know if you're familiar with the text, but there's a chapter that in the middle of my career, I remember. Reading it, it resonated so much with me because it said never outshine the master. I had a manager at the time that really actually gave me an opportunity to grow in ways I did not realize. But that chapter in that particular book was extremely important for me. What's your guilty pleasure? Uh, desserts, all of the desserts. What drives Laura? I would say where I am at now, the Fintech Academy, working with young people and then also working with people who I can help and make an impact and influence, encourage, support. That's what drives me is seeing others succeed. mhm. Laura, it's been great having you on the show and congratulations to you and the faculty members of the Academy for your outstanding contribution to the Georgia FinTech community and of course to the industry at large. For the FinTech executive listening to this episode or anyone else who wishes to support the work of the Academy, how can they get in touch for more information? Just informing everyone to connect with us on LinkedIn. We're also on Instagram and YouTube channel as well. We have a podcast out there. It's just called Georgia FinTech Academy, where our students are actively, interviewing a variety of industry leaders. So just connect with us on those channels. And I look forward to engaging with some of you as we're always looking for folks to contribute, to mentor, to volunteer as part of our program. The website, georgia fintechacademy. org and, uh, Laura, again, we thank you. And that's our conversation a wrap up for this week. Our guests, Laura Gibson-Lamothe, Executive Director of the Georgia FinTech Academy. To our listeners, thanks for your continued support and remember hit the subscribe button so as never to miss an episode and never forget the more you expect from yourself, the more you excel. You've been listening to Bridges to Excellence podcast, inspired leadership and payments and fintech. Be sure to join us next time for more conversations with another of your colleagues in payments and fintech. Insightful conversations in their journey to excellence for transcripts and other materials covered on the show. Visit us at DesmondNicholson. com.