professional biography for christopher j. uriarte
Chris Uriarte is a partner at Glenbrook Partners, a global consultancy focused on payments and fintech strategy. He is a career product and technology executive who has spent the last 25 years developing products and services within the payments, fraud and risk management industries. For a large portion of his career, he’s been a recognized expert in areas related to payments, credit card fraud and financial fraud, having developed specialized solutions for many of the world's largest banks and retailers. He has extensive global operational experience in companies of all sizes, having spent much of his career based in New York, London, Miami and Shanghai.
He was most recently the Chief Information Officer and SVP of Data Sciences and Technology at Acima Corporation, a $2.4 billion FinTech company specializing in innovative payment services, utilized by more than 15,000 merchants worldwide. His oversight included digital product development, payments, risk management, fraud, enterprise technology and data sciences. He also served as an officer with the organization’s parent company, Rent-A-Center Corporation (NASDAQ: RCII).
He formerly served as Chief Information Officer and a Global Consulting Practice Leader at Aon’s Cyber Solutions (NYSE: AON). He led several operational and consulting practices for the group, which also included the historical Stroz Friedberg and Cytelligence Corporations. His leadership scope included product development, product management, PMO & governance, business operations and enterprise technology. He was also the executive leader of the company’s Electronic Discovery and Intelligence consulting practices, where he focused on security, risk management, payments and fraud consulting for Fortune 500 clients.
He was previously the Vice President and Head of International Operations & Implementations at American Express (NYSE: AXP). At Amex, he led the company's efforts to deploy new products and services into global markets, with a particular focus on emerging markets and payment types. During his tenure at Amex, he oversaw teams and initiatives in the US, Mexico, Brazil, Western Europe and mainland China, and was the executive in charge of delivering two of the company’s top 5 programs over the course of his tenure.
Prior to Amex, he spent eleven years as the Chief Technology Officer and Head of International Development at Retail Decisions (now part of ACI Worldwide), a London-based specialist in payment processing and fraud prevention. He led the company's product, research, development and strategy efforts for a decade, a time that included the company’s IPO and eventual sale to private equity. During the peak of his tenure at ReD, the solutions he developed were utilized by four of the world’s top five retailers and many global banks.
Earlier in his career, he worked for Vesta Corporation, The AdProTech Group, and was an adjunct to the Rutgers University Center for Applied Computing Technologies.
He is a recipient of the Infoworld Magazine CTO 25 Award, awarded annually to the twenty-five most innovative technology executives in the country. He is also a recipient of American Express's most prestigious employee awards, including the American Express Special Chairman's Award for Excellence and the Amex Pinnacle President's Award.
He has served as a member of the boards of directors or advisory boards for several companies and trade organizations, including the Direct Response Forum (DRF), Dynamic Vision Distributions, Inc., Merchant Risk Council, Clearsale Corporation, Oracle Corporation and Golden Gate Software (later acquired by Oracle). Most recently, he served on the Board of Directors of Fusion Recruiting Labs, Inc. (now GoToro), which won several major industry and startup awards, including being ranked No. 223 on the Inc. 5000 list and No. 70 on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 list.
Chris is based in New York City and Miami.
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