Maria Smith

VP, Payments & Financial Services Walgreens

Maria has over 25 years in with Fortune 100 companies on the merchant-side of global payments strategy, development of financial products & services, rewards/loyalty management and strategic partnerships. She spent over 20 years with The Walt Disney where she served as the global internal consultant for all payment programs and products in the US, Europe and Asia, and was part of the team that launched the highly successful Disney Visa Credit Card and Debit Card portfolios with Chase. At Starbucks she led payment strategy, Starbucks Card and strategic marketing partnership in loyalty. Maria also worked with Expedia on cross-brand collaboration in loyalty program development related to financial products. Maria is currently leading Walgreens payment and financial services organization, which includes reducing cost of payment and driving the financial services category as an alternative profit strategy. She is also an advisor to emerging technology start-ups in payments and blockchain.