Kristin Hallstrom

Senior Payments Consultant - Digital Payments for American Express

London, United Kingdom

@KristinHalls1 | @AmexUK | LinkedIn Profile

You’re originally from Arizona. How did you come to live in London?

When people first learn that I moved from such a warm, sunny and generally easy place to live in, they normally ask this question with shock and wonder! But for me, it easy to answer how the move to London was a very conscious decision. I have always found travel and exploring new cultures and ideas energising and wanted to take the next step by moving to an international city to truly experience what one learns by integrating within another culture by living within it. The unique fusion of the multi-layered London culture was the perfect choice for me, along with being closer to Europe for further adventures, just an Easy-Jet flight away. Once I decided London was the right city for me, I created a 6 month plan to make the move and started to build a new network in London remotely from Phoenix. With the supportive help of mentors and sponsors, I re-located to London with my company to begin an exciting and challenging opportunity in strategy and business development.

What’s it been like living in London as an expat for the past five years? Do you believe the city has changed you personally?

It has been a fun and sometimes challenging journey of self-exploration to move abroad. I have lived in a few different cities/countries for short periods of time and this always felt like I was a visitor and have found that becoming a true expat is a wholly different experience. By launching myself into a new country and its culture, I discovered new aspects about myself on several levels, learning how to rapidly adapt within the context of a different culture and its customs and the importance of quickly building strong relationships, both professionally and personally. This new level of adaptability has made me even more flexible and agile in many ways, including communication and decision-making at work.

You’ve been with American Express for most of your professional career. What is it about the company that you’ve enjoyed the most?

Working for a company like American Express is a great experience and enjoy the opportunity to gain first-hand experience in many different areas of the payments business; from merchant acquiring to global network processing to card issuing. Personal and professional development is very important to me and I appreciate the high caliber of mentors who provide support and guidance as I’ve taken on new opportunities and challenged myself to succeed in very different roles.

You took a break from FIs to work for a high-growth startup. What was this experience like?

In my experience, the transition from a large, global organisation to a smaller startup environment in a completely different field was a healthy shock to the system. Similar to moving to a new country, it challenges you to quickly adapt to a new structure and if within a collaborative and supportive environment like that of Sefaira, bringing the energy and satisfaction of being part of a team to build and expand an exciting product from the ground up. Whether making the move permanently or temporarily, I would recommend it to others as one way to reignite the entrepreneurial and innovative spirit within.

One of the reasons you noted for coming back to work in the payments industry was the “financial services industry shake-up”. What did you mean by this?

Recent new entrants in emerging payments have infused a new energy across not just the industry, but more importantly with the customers who use those payment systems. This has opened doors to further stretch the boundaries in payments-related innovations, expanding not just the ease of payments in the world of credit and debit, but also opening new avenues to those ‘unbanked / underbanked’ to more easily move and manage their funds, facilitating their business opportunities as well. These are a few examples of why the ‘industry shake-up’ has inspired me to return to the payments industry, to be part of shaping this fresh injection of optimism, growth and innovation.

Do you consider yourself to be an “intraprenuer” within Amex?

I thrive on exploring new opportunities and connecting new technology ideas. Though I have not yet entered into my own work venture, it would be impossible to not let my inner entrepreneurial spirit shine through and find many ways to use it within my roles at American Express. It’s very fulfilling for me to find new ways to grow an initial target into a full blown plan and rolling it out faster and better than expected within a ‘New-York minute’ while looking for the next opportunity in tandem. The importance of this type of role is becoming more possible as organisations want to innovate and now finally realise that entreprenuers can thrive in the right corporate environment, bringing the creative and agile perspective required to keep on the forefront of disruption in the financial sector.

You’ve been a mentor for Startupbootcamp in London. How do you approach your role as a mentor to startups?

My approach is very similar to a consultant’s approach, but with the eventuality of developing a closer affinity to their product; I quickly learn about the product and its strengths, unearthing its unsolved challenges, giving advice and general insights into the industry to help shape the direction of the product and its plans. Working with Franisco Lorca and the Startupbootcamp team and the quality of the innovative projects and teams within their programme is such a rewarding experience. It gives me insight into how startups think, make decisions and move as fast as they do, while feeding a need to use my inner entrepreneur and passion of strategic planning with a team who is passionate about making their idea succeed.

Who(m) do you believe has had the most influence with respect to your own career?

While I have received support from countless people along the way, there are a few exceptional leaders who have most influenced my career, such as my past leader and mentor, Kim Jurick. By taking up the mantle, challenging me to work past self-imposed constraints and guiding me in how to think outside the box in pursuing my goals, she helped me to realise what I was after, and more. I have also found great influence in surrounding myself with a network of dynamic colleagues and friends from different industries, incorporating the much needed sanity check to keep sight of my purpose in my goals and career.

Who do you consider to be strong women leaders in the FinTech space?

I find trailblazers like Danae Ringelmann of Indigogo and Amy Nauiokas of Anthemis who founded companies to further fuel FinTech innovation an immense positive influence industry. Equally inspiring are women like Jennifer Bailey of Apple Pay now front and centre of the FinTech space, who in a different way and business environment, lead the strategy of disruptive technology, opening doors for other FinTech entrants.

What do you see as the 3 leading future trends for FinTech?

Amongst all the noise in the industry, there are a number of clear payments-related trends in FinTech that will continue to grow into the future. First and foremost, we will see the obvious and unrestrained trend in mobile payments continue; whether used in-store through mobile wallets or in the growing e-commerce sector via mobile website, the growing, but nascent app channel or social media sites. This trend will continue to grow, especially as personal mobility in work and leisure increases along with smartphone augmentation.

As it matures, we’ll see another leading trend in the rise of products delivering value added services offered by merchants and banks to their customers and cardholders to deepen customer affinity (rewards, incentives). This also includes new technology and products underpinning the value added service offered between 3rd parties, card networks and solution providers, such as cloud based APIs and the data analysis machines, providing ways to build and connect loyalty schemes and a myriad of payment products together.

Another key future trend to watch in FinTech is in the Peer to Peer (P2P) payment and remittances space. The movement of P2P mobile products from its recent mainstay in emerging markets will complete a holistic suite of payment options to the consumer. With few exceptions like Scandinavia, most European markets still retain a high percentage of a cash transactions with the banked and un(der)banked alike. We are already seeing many well-positioned FinTech products in the space and the business model to monetise it in the developed world is ironed out, we’ll see much more!