Oct 14, 2026 · 21 min · 12 segments
The latest episode of Nacha’s Payments SmartCast features Ashley Mustico, AAP, AFPP, APRP, Nacha Senior Director, Education and Accreditation, and Miriam Sheril, Head of Product – US at Form3…
Dan RothHostThe 15 Under 40 Awards are something that was born from our conference planning seasons.
And as we were planning our conference and we were bringing together all of these great minds and all these great organizations, it became really clear that payments is an industry where people tend to stay for a really long time, which is a great thing, but it also means that we need to be really intentional about developing and recognizing the next generation of leaders as they're emerging.
So one of the things that we recognized is that we had all these really talented people that were doing really, really meaningful work, and we're still really early in their careers so we wanted a way to recognize them and essentially give them greater visibility within the industry and at the time we thought what better way to do that than at the payments conference uh...
so the fifteen hundred forty really became an opportunity to identify people who One, we're already making an impact, but then celebrate what they've accomplished and give them an opportunity to become more connected into that broader payments community.
And then the hope is really that these people will become more involved and they'll start building those relationships, share their expertise back and forth, because even those who have been here for a long time can learn things from the emerging leaders.
But I want to drill down just a little bit on when you talked about what you were trying to address with the program and who this is for.
Now, as you review the nominations each year, tell our listeners a little bit about the qualities, achievements or leadership characteristics that tend to distinguish the most compelling candidates.
And I will say that the nominations are always great because they all kind of approach it from a different angle depending on who's submitting it.
But the strongest nominations are always those that really can demonstrate the person's impact we really want to know what they've accomplished it's not necessarily about what their title is or that they're managing the largest team we really want to understand what that person is contributing either to their organization or to the payments industry as a whole so if there is an important project that they're leading or they're solving a problem from a different angle um or you know just developing people as part of managing a team We want to see the work that they're doing and if they're bringing a different perspective to something that we've already been working on.
So I always tell people, don't assume that the selection committee understands why something is impressive.
Tell us what the person did, why it mattered, and what exactly changed because of their involvement.
Nominations that tell a story are the ones that really stand out when we're reviewing.
The 15 Under 40 Awards are something that was born from our conference planning seasons.
And as we were planning our conference and we were bringing together all of these great minds and all these great organizations, it became really clear that payments is an industry where people tend to stay for a really long time, which is a great thing, but it also means that we need to be really intentional about developing and recognizing the next generation of leaders as they're emerging.
So one of the things that we recognized is that we had all these really talented people that were doing really, really meaningful work, and we're still really early in their careers so we wanted a way to recognize them and essentially give them greater visibility within the industry and at the time we thought what better way to do that than at the payments conference uh...
so the fifteen hundred forty really became an opportunity to identify people who One, we're already making an impact, but then celebrate what they've accomplished and give them an opportunity to become more connected into that broader payments community.
And then the hope is really that these people will become more involved and they'll start building those relationships, share their expertise back and forth, because even those who have been here for a long time can learn things from the emerging leaders.
But I want to drill down just a little bit on when you talked about what you were trying to address with the program and who this is for.
Now, as you review the nominations each year, tell our listeners a little bit about the qualities, achievements or leadership characteristics that tend to distinguish the most compelling candidates.
And I will say that the nominations are always great because they all kind of approach it from a different angle depending on who's submitting it.
But the strongest nominations are always those that really can demonstrate the person's impact we really want to know what they've accomplished it's not necessarily about what their title is or that they're managing the largest team we really want to understand what that person is contributing either to their organization or to the payments industry as a whole so if there is an important project that they're leading or they're solving a problem from a different angle um or you know just developing people as part of managing a team We want to see the work that they're doing and if they're bringing a different perspective to something that we've already been working on.
So I always tell people, don't assume that the selection committee understands why something is impressive.
Tell us what the person did, why it mattered, and what exactly changed because of their involvement.
Nominations that tell a story are the ones that really stand out when we're reviewing.
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