Ernest is a highly experienced Deputy System Administrator at the Arizona Department of Economic Security with 25 years in the field of government IT. Over the years, he has specialized in government payment systems. He introduced direct deposit for child welfare providers and was part of the team that transitioned Arizona to a new EBT vendor in 2017. More recently Ernest has dedicated his expertise to combating EBT benefit theft in the SNAP and TANF programs, successfully mitigating and pushing back on in-state and out of state card cloning and skimming schemes. Ernest also played a pivotal role in implementing Pandemic EBT (P-EBT) and Sun Bucks (S-EBT) that complimented existing SNAP and TANF programs by providing critical support to families when schools close.

Ernest holds a BSBA in Computer Information Systems from Northern Arizona University and thrives on solving complex challenges. Outside his professional life, Ernest enjoys skiing and fixing cars, channeling his passion for problem-solving into hands on hobbies.

Mr. Aron is Deloitte’s Global and U.S. Payments Leader. He has over 30 years of experience, specializing in providing business strategy, operations and technology solutions to payments clients. His focus areas include corporate payments, credit and debit cards, alternative payments, online lending, payment networks and treasury management with expertise in the development and rollout of new business lines, products, services and associated operating models both in the U.S. and Internationally. Mr. Aron has partnered with financial institutions, merchants, networks and FinTech payments providers to develop new payments-related product and service strategies using emerging technologies or new acquisitions. Mr. Aron has been a guest speaker at numerous industry conferences and client board and advisory meetings in subjects around the world. Mr. Aron has a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Lia Cao is a Managing Director, Global Head of Embedded Finance & Solutions at J.P. Morgan Payments in the Corporate and Investment Bank (CIB). In this role, Lia leads a global product and solutioning team to build and deliver a full suite of innovative and scalable embedded finance products, industry-tailored payment solutions and value-added services that power our clients to transform commerce experiences for their ecosystem participants. The embedded finance product suite ranges from payments to banking solutions. Value-added services include trust & safety and data & analytics. And the industry solutions cover healthcare payment solutions, mobility payment solutions and more.

Prior to this role, Lia co-led the global corporate and e-commerce sales and solutions teams that covered over 2,000 clients globally. The team delivers integrated solutions that meet complex client needs, incorporating all aspects of the firm’s holistic payments offering: Treasury Services, FX, Merchant Acquiring, Commercial Card and Trade.

Prior to that, Lia was the Head of Wholesale Payments Solutions and North America Head of Treasury Services (TS) Corporate Sales at J.P. Morgan. In her solutions role, Lia was responsible for the overall global solution strategy to maximize commercialization of the firm’s capabilities with some of our largest and most strategic global clients. In her sales role, Lia led the NA TS Corporate Sales team across all industry segments, cover over 700 NA headquartered large corporations.

Previously, Lia held various executive roles including the Head of Business Transformation for Treasury Services and Head of CIB Strategy in the Americas. Lia joined J.P. Morgan in 2011 in the Corporate Strategy Group and was responsible for leading many cross line of business initiatives.

Prior to joining J.P. Morgan, Lia worked as an Associate Principal in McKinsey & Company, a leading global management consulting firm. She spent more than five years at McKinsey, serving a wide range of banking and capital markets clients.

Lia holds a Ph.D Degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Urban Economics and Real Estate Finance. She holds Bachelor and Master Degrees from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.

Matt is responsible for driving the next generation of retail banking payments at JP Morgan Chase. He is responsible for strategy, advocacy and delivery of Payments 2.0 which includes instant payments, Pay by Bank, aggregator-based payments, as well as associated capabilities necessary to safely and securely modernize payments.

Prior to joining Chase, Matt was a Vice President with Visa where he was most recently responsible for both Real-Time Payments and Open Banking Product and Strategy in North America. Previously at Visa, he was Global Strategy and Business Operations Lead for Visa Direct and prior to that he led North America Product Strategy, Initiatives and New Product Development. Matt was also Board Member, on the Executive Committee and Chaired the Network Committee for the U.S. Faster Payments Council.

Before joining Visa in 2015, Matt was a Managing Director at Accenture where he was Global Strategy Lead for Payments as well as Head of Accenture Payment Services in North America. Prior to Accenture, Matt served in a similar role as a Principal at Booz Allen. Matt previously served as Director at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Fiscal Service.

Matt has over 25 years of experience in retail, commercial and cross-border payments covering strategy, customer-centric product development, operations, enterprise risk, digital (mobile, analytics, etc.), large-scale transformation, business process reengineering, operating model development, and supervisory and regulatory structures and compliance. Matt has worked closely with financial institutions, payment networks, retailers, and technology companies in applying his experience as well as at the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve.

Education experience:
J.D. from Catholic University and bachelor’s degree in Accounting from George Washington University

Matt lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and has a son and daughter.

Albert currently leads Priority’s Banking and Treasury Solutions Business Unit. Priority (PRTH) is a publicly traded financial technology company processing nearly $130 billion in annual payment volumes and manages over $1.4 billion on daily cash balances. The Treasury Solutions Business Unit is one of the fastest growing in the company and is dedicated to maximizing cash flow and streamlining financial operations for customers.

Albert has over 25 years of experience in finance, strategic planning and operational roles across a variety of financial and technology companies including Wells Fargo, Hewlett Packard, PayPal, Blackhawk Network, and Priority Technologies. His broad experience including CFO and Corporate Treasurer positions gives him a unique perspective on financial services.

Albert has an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin (Hook ‘em Horns) and lives in San Jose, CA.