Jim Smith
Director
Jim Smith is a seasoned leader and pioneer in digital, data and financial services. Over the past 30 years, Mr. Smith has been at the forefront of leveraging technology and data in innovative ways and in developing new products. He helped create the first ever internet banking offering in 1995 and led development of many other industry firsts including mobile banking, Apple Pay and Zelle, a digital payments network started by a consortium of U.S. banks, including Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo. Mr. Smith served in a variety of senior management positions at Wells Fargo & Company, most recently serving as Executive Vice President, Head of Digital & Direct Virtual Channels from June 2014 to September 2020, where he was responsible for enterprise digital strategy, capabilities and channels along with enterprise responsibility for retail contact centers (phone, email, chat) and served on the Wells Fargo & Company Management Committee. Mr. Smith has also served as a founding member of the board of directors of Akoya LLC, a privately held financial data access network that allows aggregators and fintech companies to directly connect with financial institutions to securely obtain consumer-permissioned financial data. Mr. Smith is also an external advisor to Bain & Company, a management consulting firm. Mr. Smith previously served as a member of the board of directors of clearXchange from 2011 to 2015. Mr. Smith is also a mentor for the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship at Santa Clara University., including head of Enterprise Data & Analytics and head of the Enterprise Patent Office. Mr. Smith’s expertise in financial services and operations and his experience driving digital strategy, transformation, and product development in senior leadership roles across the consumer financial service industry adds a deep understanding of those important areas to PROG Holdings’ Board of Directors.