Kathleen Pierce-Gilmore is Silicon Valley Bank’s Head of Payments. In the role, she leads the team responsible for the bank’s suite of direct payments and embedded payments solutions. Kathleen is responsible for the payments business strategy and vision, product management, product development and innovation, risk governance, and the overall P&L of the business.
In a period of rapid and dramatic change in the payments landscape, Kathleen brings the vision and execution needed to evolve the bank’s payments suite, bringing best-in-class solutions to its clients. Since joining Silicon Valley Bank in 2020, Kathleen has instilled a client-first approach to product innovation. She has forged tight alliances with the client segment leads across the bank to deepen her team’s understanding of specific client needs and challenges. This approach has strengthened the connectivity between the client experience and product teams, resulting in innovative and tailored payments offerings. Kathleen has also dramatically advanced the embedded payments solutions strategy, notably launching the Payment Facilitation business and new rails like Real-Time Payments (RTP), Push to Card and Global ACH.
Kathleen’s resume of diverse leadership positions gives her a unique perspective in her current role with Silicon Valley Bank. She spent more than a decade leading teams at industry behemoths including American Express, Capital One and PayPal. She then brought her talents to the fintech startup world, giving her unrivaled insight into the innovation economy clients Silicon Valley Bank serves. The unique combination of experiences gives Kathleen the institutional knowledge and risk management background necessary to lead a large organization – now the 14th largest bank in the U.S. – as well as the client insight and culture of innovation needed to compete in today’s payments landscape.
Kathleen is a longtime non-executive director on the board of Sezzle, a buy now, pay later (BNPL) payments company. She also serves on the board of directors for Tala, a global, digital financial services company that helps historically underbanked communities to borrow, save and grow their money. She recently became a board observer for Infinicept after SVB’s recent investment in the company. Kathleen holds a certification from the Financial Times Nonexecutive Director Diploma program.
