Bridging Academia and Industry: The Georgia Fintech Academy’s Role in Career Development

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity Careers. Brought to you by Kennesaw State University’s Executive MBA program, the accelerated degree program for working professionals looking to advance their career and enhance their leadership skills. For more information, go to Kennesaw Edu’s MBA. Now, here’s your host.

Stone Payton: Welcome to another exciting and informative edition of High Velocity Careers. Stone Payton here with you this afternoon. This is going to be a good one. Please join me in welcoming to the Broadcast Executive director with Georgia Fintech Academy, Laura Gibson-Lamothe. How are you?

Laura Gibson-Lamothe: I am so good. Thank you for asking. I’m excited about our conversation today with High Velocity Careers. This is an exciting topic and I’m always evangelizing on behalf of careers in fintech, so this should be a good one.

Stone Payton: We are clearly right in your wheelhouse. It may be a good place to start. Can you share with our listening audience a little bit about about your career path?

Laura Gibson-Lamothe: Yes, my career path is an interesting one. Academically. I, uh, undergrad focused on, um, a fine arts. I had a passion for the creative side of things and, um, being, uh, interested in, uh, fine arts and approaching potentially graphic design as my career focus was something that came to a head post-graduation when I realized I couldn’t make as much money as I had hoped with that degree. Um, I did not want to be a starving artist, I must say. I took a paid internship at the United States Patent and Trademark Office, which sounds very official, in Washington, D.C., where I did a server migration, a system server migration, um, initiative. And I led, uh, over 300, um, hardware installations, uh, for a very intense, uh, government funded initiative. And that was my gateway into tech, which led me into banking. Um, I no regrets looking back and reflecting on my, uh, life decisions to kind of pivot, uh, early in my career. But I like to say that fine arts degree gave me all of the, uh, cutting edge on being creative in the design and how I articulate messages, whether it be internal presentations or external customer facing, uh, engagement. So I’ve definitely put that fine arts degree to good use.

Stone Payton: You certainly did. And now you’re the grand Poobah of Georgia Fintech Academy. How would you describe mission? Purpose? What are you and your organization really trying to do for folks?

Laura Gibson-Lamothe: Yeah, we are bridging the gap between academia and industry by providing a full variety of services for our students. We engage with the 26 institutions underneath the University System of Georgia, which are all the public colleges and universities. We provide curriculum as a service, I like to call it. So we enable the offering of fintech degrees, and then we offer a whole suite of other services programing, which is really specifically targeted towards providing students visibility into the the, you know, multiple career pathways in the industry, providing them access to a network, giving them exposure into those, you know, very tough timelines for application to internship windows and and even long term, um, full time position opportunities. Our focus is to help students get staffed, um, provide them the education, create exposure into the opportunities in the industry, and then to help facilitate that connectivity into those those opportunities for employment. Um, and so it’s been a tremendous journey to over the past five years. See the evolution of that program. We’ve engaged over 8000 students. We’ve placed almost 3000 that we can track because tracking is quite laborious. Um, and unfortunately, data is hard to come by. But we’ve been able to to start sharing some of these success stories of students who have come in, uh, maybe outside of a Stem or Steam related discipline. Um, some who have, you know, from the beginning, uh, really targeted some more tech roles. Um, you know, tech focused roles with the fintech vertical or fintech lens, but seeing them progress to the point where they’re now on the the industry side, um, really paying it forward and kind of helping, you know, the future generations, um, navigate their, you know, career entrance into the industry is is a rewarding opportunity to see that that evolution.

Stone Payton: Well, I don’t pretend to know what they are, but I have to believe there must be an incredible variety of career opportunities available in fintech, probably a bunch of roles and responsibilities that not even on my radar. Yeah.

Laura Gibson-Lamothe: Yes, I love to start those conversations with defining what is fintech. I think a lot of people, um, have different views on what fintech, aka financial technology stands for. And for us, for our perspective, it’s it’s literally anyone that operates within that broader ecosystem. So a fintech, financial technology thinking, payments and how people interact as human beings with payments, with finances. Um, it’s an enabling mechanism, uh, bringing cutting edge solutions so that people can transact on the go. Um, most students I talk to, they’re very familiar with Venmo and Cash App. But thinking about banking, thinking about all of the retail, you know, scenarios where people are using their mobile wallets or their Apple Watch to pay and Apple Pay to Google Pay and all of these different wallet. Um, you know, uh, formations. Students can really, uh, relate to the leveraging that technology. And on the back end, there’s so many different services that support that from, you know, cybersecurity and info security to data science and machine learning. Um, you know, from a fraud perspective or just being able to provide tailored customer experiences and different types of scenarios and use cases. The opportunities are quite broad and so I always tell students, you know, especially for me being a fine arts major, as we started off with this call and I’ve, I’ve, you know, gained I continued my education. I explored, you know, technical certifications.

Laura Gibson-Lamothe: I have kind of a mixed bag of variety of education along the way. Um, along with my professional experiences. But I can say the industry opportunities are broad. It could be anything from, you know, project management, which many people are familiar with. It’s across multiple different industries to product management, people that are influencing the new products, the new features that that customers, consumers are interacting with to, you know, folks who are fingers to keys, developing, um, developers, engineers. Um, and then even cybersecurity analysts and folks that are really at the helm of protecting data, protecting the environment that contains, um, all of the information and the technology that’s keeping these, these technologies running, um, to even, um, we’re now exploring, you know, some, some newer trends. Um, AI has been a huge focus on from an industry perspective and then also academically. And people keep talking about generative AI specifically and, you know, prompt engineering. How can you leverage these technologies to advance the way that we operate and maybe even gain some efficiencies? And so there’s there’s roles abound. And I think I might have highlighted already eight of them. Um, but those are kind of the traditional ones that we, you know, tend to see a lot of students come in from an early talent perspective. Um, and things just expand beyond there. Um, beyond that point.

Stone Payton: Well, your enthusiasm is contagious and it just comes out over the airwaves in fabulous form. And you did hint at this a little bit earlier in the conversation. But what are you finding at this point in your career in this field? What are you finding the most rewarding? What’s the most fun about it these days for you?

Laura Gibson-Lamothe: I think for me, it’s looking at ways to provide the students that we serve a cutting edge, a competitive, competitive edge in the industry. So I think for me, moving the needle means getting students the opportunity for, yes, a, you know, exposure and a network, which is extremely important. I constantly am enforcing, reinforcing to students to take advantage of these opportunities to connect with the the volunteers, the guest leader, speakers that we have that are dedicating their time, um, you know, to the academy in itself, but then also being able to to kind of rationalize ways where we can really provide students opportunities to really demonstrate what they’ve learned or learn in unique ways. One example of this is we really focus on experiential learning as part of what we do at the academy, outside of the traditional coursework that a student might have, taking a specific class and learning through that class. Certain competencies. There’s a real special. I feel like the secret sauce is being able to bring industry into that academic setting. Um, you know, most likely through a capstone project or a project type of initiative or a mini hackathon, I call it. Um, but during that, that duration of that course, giving students a problem statement, a challenge, letting them, you know, demonstrate what they’ve learned in front of industry, to then have conversations that lead to potentially hiring opportunities and staffing opportunities.

Laura Gibson-Lamothe: That’s that’s one of those things that I feel like is a huge asset that the Fintech Academy has to offer and provide across the university system, and we look to broker those industry relationships with our academic partners to help facilitate that. Um, the other thing is we do and we’re starting to do more of them university wide, uh, events and In hackathons. We did recently a run it by the buyers, which is kind of like a junior Shark tank, where we gave out, um, just over $6,000 in scholarship monies. So students were able to pitch their idea, their innovative payments slash fintech solution to industry. Um, and I’m using air quotes you can’t see on the podcast, but air quotes for, um, buyers, uh, folks who would potentially be interested in investing, um, you know, from a venture capital perspective in those solutions. So almost a mock style pitch day, uh, and these students pitched, they were, you know, selected down, selected to a finalist group. And we had students from UGA to Kennesaw and Georgia State all participate in this competition. And we’re looking to do more of those in 2025. That’s a really meaningful opportunity. But again, it gets students in the front, uh, you know, kind of exhibition style demonstrating what they they’ve learned, demonstrating their skills and then building those relationships real time to to get those job opportunities.

Stone Payton: Well, I got to say, listening to you, this conversation is bringing into abundant focus for me. Uh, it’s challenging a preconceived notion, I guess, or a bit of a bias that I had, I guess. I guess me and maybe other laypeople when it comes to fintech, think of it as a very transactional ecosystem. But boy, this work and to be successful in the field is so grounded in relationship, isn’t it?

Laura Gibson-Lamothe: It really is. I mean, I wish I knew what I know now back in the day, I tell you, coming out, I remember my first time, um, in the banking world. Everyone told me, you know, I was in my early 20s. Like, everyone knows everyone. It’s such a small, tight knit group. And I’m like, how could it be tight knit when there’s. There’s folks everywhere scattered across the US, globally, the world just seems so big. But in reality, now that I’ve been, you know, in the industry for almost 20 years, it is quite small and my, my network is even bigger than I once thought it was. I come across people, you know, people move from, you know, bank to bank or financial institution to another financial institution to a fintech startup. Um, and we all are interconnected or what do you call it, one degree of separation away from each other. And I think, you know, now I hear panels constantly talking about network. Back in the day, I think we were so reliant on just demonstrating value, um, contributing to an organization, getting some, you know, big wins and successes.

Laura Gibson-Lamothe: But that can’t be done without, you know, truly also being your own PR, building your network, having connectivity internally within the organization or the company you work for. And externally, it’s the opportunity for internal growth and promotion and then also industry growth and promotion. There’s opportunities everywhere. You never know when you’re going to need that connection, that you have to get to where you need to to be. And so I, I promote all the time network. But yes, the industry does feel so small. And I recently went to Amsterdam for a conference and lo and behold, I’m walking in the showroom floor and people are like, Laura, how are you doing? And I’m like, I wasn’t expecting to see you all the way out here, um, in Amsterdam. But I am truly, to this day, still amazed at like how how we’re so, you know, connected and how how small the world seems to be. Um, but yes, completely agree with you. The network is the most powerful thing. And yes, this this industry does seem small at times.

Stone Payton: Well, it’s impressive that the enterprises, the industry leaders that you’ve gotten involved in this effort, it sounds like they’re coming to speak. They’re participating fully. And it occurs to me that some of this is genuinely some enlightened self-interest, because they want to, as much as anyone, kind of, uh, close the gap a bit between what a traditional graduate has coming out of this, uh, this domain and what they really need there in the workforce. Right.

Laura Gibson-Lamothe: Yeah, I think of it this way. You know, what better way to, you know, source talent that already is, you know, best prepared to transition into your organization. And I think, you know, doing some of these, uh, experiential learning projects is a great example of that. We’ve had students who have, um, you know, done some, uh, brainstorming around innovation concepts for business. And it required that company to, you know, dedicate a couple of hours volunteering, um, telling them about what the company does and what the business does and how it’s growing, and some of the strategic priorities for them. And then the students came out of this, this business challenge with recommendations and a solution. But they also learned about the organization. Right. Like when at the end of the day, if they were, you know, to pursue an opportunity at this company, they’re not starting from scratch. They know who a visa is or an FIS is. They know even some of the terminology because they learned that in the classroom, they learned, you know, some of the opportunities and some of the challenges that they’re facing as a company. And so they come in just a little bit ahead of the curve. They’re not like coming in fresh. They’re coming in with some background, some insights and some knowledge. And so I think that is a win win for both the student and for the employer. Um, giving the student the opportunity, the exposure and the experience and then giving the employer an opportunity to to even influence and see how students are able to adapt and apply some of the you know, critical thinking skills and soft skills as well.

Stone Payton: Well, this relationship oriented ethos, values, system mindset coupled with and you’ve mentioned it several times, experiential learning, first of all, vastly different than my little bit of formal education. I’ll tell you that. But I have to believe it also sort of sets a marvelous foundation for lifelong learning. I mean, that would if you’re going to experience learning that way, you’re going to continue. You’re going to be a life learner, aren’t you?

Laura Gibson-Lamothe: Yeah. You’re right. It’s a pattern that can be repeated. And I’m also interested, encouraged to see it happen on both sides, not only from a student perspective, but from the career professionals who are volunteering. We’re seeing the same thing, and it’s almost an entry point to kind of like refresh or re vitalize some of those thoughts of continuing their educational journey or going back and getting a certification of some sort. And so we do see it on, on both sides. And some of these themes that are being taught, um, are best practices no matter what industry you enter. I was joking around with some folks earlier today around, um, our focus on innovation and design thinking, uh, concepts. I applied some of those concepts. Um, and I should say principles to how I plan my personal life. I I’m going on vacation. Hopefully, I’m in the process of filling out this spreadsheet that I like to use for my personal life. I’m a project manager at heart, and I love to have things organized, and I use some of these things that I’ve learned from a functional perspective, uh, professionally in my personal life as well. So yeah, there’s opportunities abound to apply what they’re learning and to continue that evolution of continuous learning and growth and development.

Stone Payton: So let’s dive into the nuts and bolts logistics of this thing. If I’m a student within this multi-institution group, there’s a path for me to to learn about this. These are courses I take. Walk us through that a little bit.

Laura Gibson-Lamothe: Yeah. So it’s unique to each institution. So within the university system we have these collaborative agreements with each institution. And so we’re behind the scenes from a curriculum perspective, opening up the curriculum to be leveraged by these institutions. And so if you were, for example, like Kennesaw State, you would come through the fintech program, potentially get a fintech cert certificate in fintech. Um, or you could even pursue what they’re offering now is the, the Mis and financial digital financial technologies. Um, and so there’s there’s multiple pathways for you at that specific university, and it would be accessible through advisors, through the faculty, through your normal typical registration process. There’s nothing new, and it should be transparent to the student that’s coming by way of that university. One of the fascinating things to add, though, to that point is the fact that we’re we’re really unique in the fact that we have a network of faculty that are spread across multiple institutions. And so you might be taking a course at Kennesaw State in fintech, but taught by a professor at a different university, um, and vice versa. We have Kennesaw State, you know, faculty that are also a part of the faculty network teaching core courses that are offered at other institutions as well. Um, and so this shared model, almost a shared service across university system is very unique. But it’s it’s powerful because it’s enabling institutions who might not necessarily have the infrastructure or the faculty. Experienced faculty or the credentials to offer, um, you know, these degrees or some of these courses. The ability to tap into, um, that core set of courses and curriculum.

Stone Payton: The depth and breadth of what you’re able to provide. And I don’t know if it’s the right word or not, but the diversity of thought is, uh. That is incredible. You it is. Now, you have also taken specific interest in serving, uh, very specific constituencies within this arena as well. Uh, isn’t there something like Patek women or something like that that you’re involved with?

Laura Gibson-Lamothe: Yes. So Patek Women is a nonprofit organization focusing on moving the needle for diversity and for for women in the payments and fintech ecosystems. Um, it’s an amazing relationship because we have joined a little bit of what we’re doing at the Fintech Academy with Tech Women organization. I’ve been on the board. This will be my coming up on my fourth year, um, on the as a board member, always looking for ways to, you know, engage and to increase our member base. But one thing that we’ve identified as a service to our Georgia Fintech Academy community, which is, you know, the universities that we’re speaking of, is to extend those services to them. So students who are, you know, enrolled in undergrad can sign up for an account, um, to become a member and take advantage of, uh, mentorship, job board postings, um, in-person sessions, online virtual webinars. All of these resources extend to them. We pay tech woman has an annual leadership summit, which we just had recently, um, here in Atlanta. Companies from across the US traveled to Atlanta. And there are their big brand names like, like discover, for example, who hosted a lot of our students at, um, some on campus at the conference events and a private company dinner as well. Just talking about career opportunities at discover and and networking with these students. And so there’s been a lot of time like just benefit in seeing, you know, how these two pieces can come together to extend resource and opportunity to students who are interested in fintech and payments?

Stone Payton: I don’t know when or how or where you would find the time. I was encouraged to hear you mention vacation earlier in the conversation, but I’m interested to know interest pursuits, hobbies outside the scope of your work. What? Anything you have a tendency to nerd out about that’s not Fintech Academy.

Laura Gibson-Lamothe: Yeah, you know, it’s funny because I do. I I’m on borderline insanity when it comes to this job. I am Relentless when it comes to opportunities for students. I. I do appreciate the fact that I can’t be everywhere all the time. Um, and it’s it’s one of those opportunities for me as I continue to evolve, um, alongside with the Fintech Academy, um, you know, develop what that looks like. But for me, my passions outside of this, uh, include travel. I love travel. And when I think about travel globally, for me, I was born in Italy. I, I grew up abroad. My father played professional basketball overseas. So I lived in Israel, Holland, Spain, um, you know, came back in the States in middle school. But for me, I’ve always had a kind of a global view. And in my career it’s enabled me, um, I like to say fintech is, you know, money and there’s money in money. You can make money in money. And for me, it it enabled, uh, financial stability. Financial independence. All of these things that supported my opportunities to really enjoy some of these things I’m passionate about that you’re hitting on, like travel and I love traveling, and now it’s actually kind of intersecting not to bring back, because I know you were asking about my personal life, but like, it’s it’s allowed opportunities for me to connect with universities globally. Like we we went to Ireland this summer with the American Transaction Processors Coalition, um, and signed a cooperative agreement with two universities in Belfast and in Dublin. And there are opportunities to collaborate and leverage. Um, they’re interested in have developed a fintech program. They have a smaller but, you know, robust curriculum. They’re doing apprenticeships and some other things that we have not yet embarked on that journey here in the US for the Fintech Academy. Um, but I get to kill two birds with one stone personal trip. Love travel. Secondarily, there’s also a thing that I can do to help drive and promote what we’re doing at the Fintech Academy. It’s a win win.

Stone Payton: I am so glad that I asked. Before we wrap, let’s leave our listeners if we could students, business leaders alike with a couple things to chew on be thinking about. Sometimes I refer to them as as pro tips, maybe even what we in the in the larger business community and the media world, you know what we can be doing to help. But let’s leave them with a little something to chew on.

Laura Gibson-Lamothe: Yeah, I think for, you know, the the professional experience, professional audience, for me, it’s more of giving a call to action. You know, if you’re not giving back, if you’re not mentoring, then what are you doing with your time? Investing in the next generation is investing in the future. And to be honest, I can personally attest that I would not be where I am today. If I had not had influenced directly by folks who volunteered their time and mentored me throughout my career. Um, and so I constantly am promoting and advocating for folks to volunteer for those opportunities. Um, by way of the Fintech Academy, if that’s something of interest. Um, or just, you know, locally at any of your institutions at the high school level, you know, and college. Um, folks need people to, to help support what they’re trying to do to help move the needle for our students. And then secondly, from a student perspective, I know times are challenging and I’ve noticed, you know, post pandemic, there’s almost, uh, new social anxieties, um, and stresses that our students are facing. And I just, you know, like to impress upon students to put themselves out there, be vulnerable, connect with people we mentioned earlier, the network is the most powerful thing.

Laura Gibson-Lamothe: Take advantage of all of the opportunities that you have. For us, we promote open it up to almost anyone who is at the the undergraduate or graduate level. Doesn’t matter if you’re in the university system of Georgia or not. Um, we have plenty of opportunities that are externally facing and public on our website. Uh, Georgia Fintech Academy. Org. Um, and so I really like to impress upon people to take advantage of these resources because they are resources. Um, and if you’re ever in need to, you know, pursue opportunities in fintech or want to explore what that would look like. Um, we have a whole, you know, um, roster of resources out there to kind of help you navigate those decisions and provide you some, some foundational, um, knowledge in what that would look like for you. So those two pieces, I think I would, I would like to leave with, with everyone, um, to engage and to connect and to network.

Stone Payton: That is marvelous counsel and just all around good mojo. Let’s leave them with that website again and any other coordinates you might want them to have.

Laura Gibson-Lamothe: Yeah, I would go out to the Georgia Fintech academy.org website for those that are interested in volunteer, it’s just Georgia Fintech Academy. Org forward slash volunteer simple form. There’s four different ways to really volunteer and connect with us. Um we also are on LinkedIn heavily. So look at our, um, Georgia Fintech Academy member page out on LinkedIn. Um, we are constantly promoting a lot of our events, um, and our collaborations with industry out there. So so give us a follow. Uh, we also have recently stood up our YouTube channel, which is easily found under Georgia Fintech Academy. Um, as well as Instagram because that’s how students like to consume, uh, content these days. So we’re we’re hip. We’re hip and fresh at the Georgia Fintech Academy.

Speaker4: Well, Laura.

Stone Payton: It has been an absolute delight having you on the broadcast this afternoon. Thank you for your insight, your perspective, your enthusiasm, the momentum that you guys have gained, the work that you and your team are doing is so important for so many. And we sure appreciate you.

Laura Gibson-Lamothe: Thank you so much. You’ve been a great host and I’ve really enjoyed this conversation and really appreciate it.

Stone Payton: My pleasure. Alright, until next time. This is Stone Payton for our guest today, Laura Gibson, Lamoth Executive Director with Georgia Fintech Academy and everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying, we’ll see you next time on High Velocity Careers.