YPP Spotlight – Up to the Challenge: Expert to Advocate in Less Than a Decade

Ashley Thompson got her start in payments — a career that has taken her to the halls of state governments across the country to advocate for the $6 trillion industry — on somewhat of a whim.

“My payments career actually began in college,” said Ashley Thompson, an ETA Young Payments Professional Scholar and Government Relations Analyst at TSYS, “I was in need of a part-time job and saw an opening for a collections agent in the TSYS call center.”

And that’s how it began for Thompson, now a payments policy expert with nearly a decade of payments industry experience despite starting her professional career less than a decade ago.

Thompson, a graduate of Columbus State University with a Bachelors in Managerial Finance and a Troy University alumna for her M.B.A., leveraged her part-time college gig into a bona fide career on the merchant acquiring side of the payments industry upon graduation, Thompson said.

“Little did I know that my first job at TSYS in college was the start to a great career in the payments industry,” Thompson said, “I eventually applied to a role in the TSYS Merchant Acquiring division in which I became an SME in the clearing and settlement of merchant payments.”

Thanks to top-notch mentors, Thompson says, she was able to learn a great deal about the ins and outs of merchant acquiring ecosystem. Working her way up TSYS merchant acquiring — from collections, to client operations, to research and analysis on accounting systems — she also completed an MBA from Troy University, graduating with impressive Latin honors in 2013.

Looking to leverage her merchant acquiring knowledge at TSYS in a new and unique way, Thompson says she “took a leap of faith” when she applied for a role in Government Relations at the Georgia-based processor.

“I’ve always been fascinated and intrigued with the political world, so being able to combine my curiosity and my knowledge of payments was an opportunity that I could not pass up,” Thompson said.

In her Government Relations Analyst role now almost two years, Thompson says that her work primarily focuses on being a payments advocate and expert for state governments. “States are becoming increasingly interested in the payments industry, so it’s definitely important that our industry as a whole starts to aim toward educating state legislators.”

And being a resource to state policymakers keeps her busy. “State legislatures are fast-paced,” Thompson said, “A bill can be introduced on a Monday and voted out of committee and voted in a full assembly on Friday. Therefore, my role is vital identifying any risks or opportunity one bill may have on our company or industry as soon as possible.”

Thompson says that fostering relationships and keeping an open mind have helped her get to her preferred place in the payments industry. “My advice [to young payments professionals] would be learn all you can. I was very fortunate to work in numerous positions in the payments industry. This has helped me to sculpt a comprehensive working knowledge of our industry,” she said, “My brain is literally like a sponge. Find industry thought leaders, mentors, and hard-working peers and try to learn as much as you can! Therefore, when an opportunity presents itself, you’ll be ready for the challenge.”