Merchant Risk Council names FY26–27 regional advisory boards

The Merchant Risk Council has announced its FY26–27 Regional Advisory Board members across North America, Europe, APAC and LATAM. The appointments are meant to help shape regional programs, member engagement and the payments and fraud prevention agenda for merchants, issuers and solution providers.

Why it matters: - The Merchant Risk Council’s regional boards help guide programs for payments and fraud prevention professionals across four major markets. - The appointments affect how MRC shapes education, advocacy, community engagement and regional priorities for a network of 775+ companies. - The board mix brings merchant, issuer, payments and solution-provider perspectives to issues such as fraud prevention, payment optimization and risk management.

What happened: - MRC announced its FY26–27 Regional Advisory Board members for North America, Europe, APAC and LATAM on Aug. 17, 2026. - The new regional appointees are Amandeep Batra of Stripe, Aaron Boyd of Mastercard, Fiennes Davey of Kingfisher, Bruno Farinelli of Experian, Katie Franklin of Walmart, Stephanie Gorostiza of Sony Interactive Entertainment, Shivendra Kishor of Instacart, Gabija Lankauskaite of Boku and Krithika Ramadoss of Navan. - Julie Fergerson, CEO of the Merchant Risk Council, said the advisory board members help keep MRC connected to member needs and guide strategic priorities.

The details: - The Americas Advisory Board includes Jean Anderson of The Walt Disney Company, Purnima Chaudhry of PayPal, Jim Cho of Checkout.com, Stu Dwyer of Uber, Natalie England of Visa, Katie Franklin of Walmart, Stephanie Gorostiza of Sony Interactive Entertainment, Brady Harrison of Equifax, Shivendra Kishor of Instacart, Laura Lennon of Block, Inc., Brant Peterson of WorldPay, now Global Payments, Krithika Ramadoss of Navan, Holly Sandberg of Etix, Rakhi Seth-Forrest of NBC Universal and Allan Shearer of J.P. Morgan. - The European Advisory Board includes Amandeep Batra of Stripe, Pedro Bennasar, Aaron Boyd of Mastercard, Leon Brown of Richemont, Patricia Brolly of J.P. Morgan, Maxime Colas of Checkout.com, Fiennes Davey of Kingfisher, James Fry of WorldPay, now Global Payments, Marko Ivanovic of Adidas, Gabija Lankauskaite of Boku, Thomas Pappas of Insparx, Rema Rao of Uber, Galit Shani-Michel of Forter, Mark Shaw of Flutter Entertainment, Xavier Sheikrojan of Signifyd, Cheeson Tan of Sony Interactive Entertainment and Joe Walters of Revolut as board observer. - The APAC Advisory Board includes Jonathan Acher of Coda, Con Archis of Stripe, Avi Ben-Galil of Riskified, Monique Biady of Checkout.com, Mike Hemsley of Spotify, Monica Jasuga as MRC APAC co-leader, Shalani Khatwani of Netflix, Martyna Lazar of Visa, Robbie MacDiarmid of CMSPI, David McLellan of Boku, Thomas Mulligan of Sportsbet, Laurice Romero of Canva, Vishal Singhvi of Heineken as MRC APAC co-leader, Sanrio Taguba of AirAsia, Bin Yao of Google, Virginia Yang of Adyen, William Yang of Antom and Athena Zhang of Walmart. - The LATAM Advisory Board includes Bruno Barbieri of Google, Juarez Borges Filho of Checkout.com, Kahue Cardoso of Magazine Luiza, Ania Czech of Netflix, Juan Pablo D’Antiochia of Worldpay, Bruno Farineli of Experian, Gustavo Fernandez of dLocal, Jorge Garza of adidas, Edgar Humberto of Lenovo, Christian Leon of Signifyd, Alejandro Moron of Despegar.com, Carlos Nomura of PagoNXT, Cassia Pinheiro of Adyen as MRC LATAM co-leader, Thais Redondo of iFood, Fabiana Saenz of Mercado Livre, Moises Santos of Visa and Dieter Spangenberg of Koin. - The Global Board of Directors includes Sam Anson of Sony Interactive Entertainment, Brigette Korney of Adyen, Lex Ledger of Spotify, Kevin Lee of Sift, Brad Mares of Target, Stuart Mann of Accertify, Kristen Morrow-Greven of Netflix, Corey Murphy of CarTrawler, Tim Russo, Dave Senci of Mastercard and Jamie Simmons of Capital One as board observer.

Between the lines: - The board appointments show MRC leaning on executives from major merchants, card networks, fintechs and fraud-prevention firms to keep its regional agenda aligned with market changes. - The broad geographic spread suggests MRC wants region-specific input while keeping a global structure in place. - The presence of co-leaders and a board observer indicates MRC is using the advisory structure to add operational depth, not just symbolic representation.

What's next: - The FY26–27 board members are positioned to support MRC’s regional initiatives, educational programming and advocacy work over the new term. - MRC will continue using its regional and global boards to inform member engagement and community programming across the payments ecosystem. - More information is available in the MRC announcement.