DANA L. COX
Smyrna,GA
Summary
Senior product, payments, and transformation executive with 30+ years connecting business strategy, technology, and commercial execution across financial services and fintech. Former Mastercard SVP who led 155+ professionals across 13 countries with a $15M team budget, bringing additional product strategy leadership at DreamFi and technology delivery leadership at FIS/Metavante. Aligns executive teams around customer outcomes and go-to-market readiness, with results including a 48% reduction in Cross Border Services implementation time. Designs AI-enabled operating models that strengthen governance and connect product, technology, and operations.
Overview
1
1
Certification
26
26
years of professional experience
Work History
Vice President, Product Management and Development
DreamFi, Inc.
Atlanta, GA
01.2025 - 01.2026
- Reported to the CEO as the senior product executive, with Head of Product scope across strategy, multi-year roadmap, digital customer experience, platform readiness, and regulated product governance at an early-stage fintech.
- Led January 2026 commercial-launch readiness across account opening, checking, savings, debit, money movement, and partner-enabled experiences; coordinated Product, Technology, Design, Operations, Risk, Compliance, Support, Marketing, vendors, and the sponsor bank.
- Owned product vision, roadmap, prioritization, and lifecycle decisions across onboarding, transactions, engagement, and support; used customer feedback and production behavior to surface friction and guide enhancements.
- Established AI-assisted product operating model for discovery, specifications, prioritization, governance, decision records, launch-readiness standards, dependencies, success measures, and escalation paths, enhancing operational efficiency.
- Defined target-state money-movement and integration requirements for ACH, real-time payments, internal transfers, debit-card funding, settlement, reconciliation, fraud controls, and operational support to streamline financial transactions.
- Defined member-activation and platform-health measures; applied Metabase and working SQL knowledge to basic query review, output validation, and guidance for analysts and technical partners on complex reporting.
- Led third-party and strategic partner integrations across banking, payments, identity, insurance, marketing, and technology, aligning customer value and growth with regulatory compliance and operational capabilities.
Senior Vice President, Global Delivery Enablement
Mastercard
Purchase, NY
01.2021 - 01.2024
- Led 155+ professionals across 13 countries in global delivery, customer implementation, commercialization, and transformation across Mastercard business lines, including Services, Risk/Security, and Processing/Gateway. Owned the departmental operating budget; advised executives on priorities, capacity, and execution risk.
- Led post-acquisition integration into Customer Delivery by aligning operating models, processes, systems, governance, and responsibilities, while assessing work placement and recommending resource allocation across regional and global teams.
- Co-sponsored the Cross Border Services onboarding transformation, reducing sales-to-contract time by approximately 38% and implementation time by 48%, with $39M in projected five-year business value. The approach was designed for replication across 28 additional products.
- Sponsored Project Phoenix with AI Services to assess onboarding across 12 payment products, combining automation, product enhancements, and a centralized global expert team. A Mastercard Payment Gateway Services initiative delivered a $500K benefit through earlier revenue realization.
- Advanced forms digitization and automated enablement, reducing automated-enablement implementation time by 50% and customer activation turnaround from 2-3 weeks to 24-48 hours.
- Owned budget, headcount forecasting, vendor investment, and workforce allocation; balanced capacity against portfolio priorities, customer commitments, and execution risk.
- Established global delivery governance, KPIs, and executive reviews, consolidating Domo reporting to reduce dashboards by 28%, reporting cards by 48%, and reports by 26%.
- Presented strategy, transformation plans, operating models, delivery risks, and performance to regional presidents, EVPs across all five regions, and global business executives; led customer steering committees and executive governance.
- Founded a Global Delivery Enablement mentoring program that expanded across teams as participants changed roles; achieved 91% participant retention in year two and 30% advancement into leadership roles.
Vice President, Product Delivery
Mastercard
Purchase, NY
01.2018 - 01.2021
- Led portfolio delivery and commercialization across debit, credit, prepaid, commercial, small-business, loyalty, and fintech offerings supporting $270B+ in gross dollar volume. Directed 17 product integrators and implementation leaders.
- Drove $396.8M net revenue and 105.3% growth in client conversions through portfolio planning, product readiness, customer adoption, implementation governance, and executive alignment across $270B gross-dollar-volume portfolio.
- Established the North America Fintech Center of Excellence and a repeatable commercialization and implementation model from product readiness through launch and scale.
- Expanded fintech commercialization and implementation for Apple, Lyft, Hatch Bank, and Monzo, enabling $437M+ in net revenue across $152.6B in gross dollar volume.
- Commercialized prepaid gig bundle, Mastercard Track, and small business premium debit, increasing core product launches by 366.7% over three years and standardizing methods to reduce deployment time by four weeks.
- Aligned product fit, technical feasibility, customer value, and delivery approach for 38 strategic prospects, resulting in 14 closed deals.
- Led product integrators in designing implementation processes, creating internal and customer-facing materials, training regional implementation and support teams, and translating product-performance and Voice of Customer insights for Product.
- Established pre- and post-launch portfolio governance, KPI visibility, forecasting, and executive reviews to improve issue resolution, investment discipline, and cross-portfolio coordination.
Business Leader / Director, Product Delivery and Technology Account Management
Mastercard
O'Fallon, MO
01.2015 - 01.2018
- Directed Mastercard delivery for GSA SmartPay 3, a federal payments transformation representing approximately $105B in gross dollar volume over 13 years. Led steering committees, contract and SOW governance, scope changes, customer commitments, and cross-functional risk resolution, increasing market share from 9% to 35%.
- Led product delivery and technology account management for complex U.S. payment engagements; advised customer executives and aligned Product, Technology, Sales, Consulting, and Implementation from strategy and solution design through launch and ongoing client performance.
- Delivered Mastercard's first omni-channel wallet for its largest global issuer; led CitiPay work within a SAFe Agile delivery model and standardized launches supporting Mastercard B2B Hub and Track.
- Conducted quarterly business reviews with peer-group benchmarks, identifying operational improvements and aligning customer and internal stakeholders on account priorities.
- Supported Sales in contract renewals with customer technology, operational-performance, and delivery insights.
- Coordinated resolution of major incidents affecting client operations, working with customers and internal teams to communicate operational risks and delivery implications.
- Integrated Voice of Customer, business justification, analytics, and customer technology needs into product development and market-readiness decisions.
Technology Account Manager
Mastercard
O'Fallon, MO
01.2014 - 01.2015
- Managed strategic customer technology relationships and executive engagement, facilitating account planning and resolving technical and operational issues; communicated customer feedback to Product to inform technology enhancements.
- Advised customer and internal executives on business planning and governed technology design and implementation, ensuring alignment of customer outcomes with Mastercard priorities.
- Assessed client performance via quarterly business reviews and peer comparisons; collaborated with Sales on renewals and coordinated with customers and internal teams during major incidents.
- Represented Voice of Customer in product development and rule changes, identifying opportunities to improve customer economics through new and existing capabilities.
Implementation Project Manager | Processing Solutions
Mastercard
O'Fallon, MO
01.2012 - 01.2014
- Onboarded Mastercard's largest prepaid issuer, enabling seamless integration across 3,200+ programs.
- Supported issuer-processing implementations, processor conversions, and new program launches in Processing Solutions; coordinated customers, processors, developers, and internal teams through operational readiness.
- Reviewed business and functional requirements with customers, processors, and developers; defined data and system needs and assessed change impacts on customers and related applications.
- Coordinated technology activities and product enhancements; advised customers on development opportunities and process improvements to meet shared business objectives.
- Presented business and technical recommendations to customer and internal leaders; mentored colleagues on implementation practices, enhancing problem solving and customer communication skills.
Senior Technology Integration Project Manager, TPMC
Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) / Metavante
Milwaukee, WI
01.2006 - 01.2011
- Led technology integration for 15+ concurrent infrastructure and payments initiatives valued from $10K to $15M; used Planview to govern portfolio priorities, resources, risks, dependencies, and operational handoffs.
- Co-developed and implemented Technology Project Management and Consulting methodology, aligning lifecycle stages, stage gates, risk-tiered deliverables, audits, and remediation with Enterprise PMO standards to enhance project consistency.
- Built prioritization matrix and three-tier escalation model for 200+ Technology Review Committee tasks, enabling delivery of initiatives within two to six weeks of approval.
- Led the Business Intelligence Center disaster-recovery upgrade and delivered the FraudNavigator environment supporting the Base24-to-HP Connex migration.
- Standardized operational handoffs through runbooks, infrastructure documentation, application handover, and staff training, ensuring seamless transitions and operational clarity.
Project Consultant and Conversion Project Manager
Fiserv Corporation
Milwaukee, WI
01.2003 - 01.2006
- Managed Fiserv VISION and USERS conversions for new and existing clients, leading kickoffs, project plans, resource coordination, schedules, escalation, and implementation readiness.
- Managed VISION partnerships with Fiserv product companies; coordinated integrated implementation and support plans, tracked resource hours to ensure alignment with project budgets, and fulfilled project billing requirements.
- Led online project-plan development for conversions; documented Data Warehouse installation procedures and helped maintain an intranet library of processes, procedures, and project documentation.
- Delivered on-site customer training, leveraging post-conversion reviews and client feedback to enhance implementation experience.
Project Manager
eFunds Corporation
Milwaukee, WI
01.2000 - 01.2002
- Managed product and service implementations for new and existing customers, defining requirements and implementation plans and coordinating internal resources through installation and support handover.
- Supported project planning, reported status and budget, and analyzed business requirements to enhance implementation processes and improve customer coordination.
- Validated client configurations, resolved implementation issues, and documented installation procedures; implemented beta clients for new products and services to ensure successful launches.
- Completed contract assignment with Spherion in 2006
Education
MBA - Business Administration And Management
Cardinal Stritch University
Milwaukee, WI05-2001
Bachelor of Science - Business Management
Upper Iowa University
Fayette, IA05-1998
Skills
- Product strategy
- Digital banking
- Product commercialization
- Client success
- Global implementation
- Operating model
- Post-acquisition integration
- Portfolio governance
- AI operations
- Budget planning
- Stakeholder leadership
- Talent development
- Process optimization
- Cross-functional team leadership
- Resource management
- Executive communication
- Coaching program
- Stakeholder leadership
Selected Business Impact
- Enabled $437M+ in net revenue across $152.6B in gross dollar volume through fintech commercialization and implementation for Apple, Lyft, Hatch Bank, and Monzo.
- Co-sponsored a Cross Border Services transformation that reduced implementation time by 48% and sales-to-contract time by approximately 38%, with $39M in projected five-year business value.
- Led DreamFi from pre-launch development through its January 2026 commercial launch; established Mastercard's North America Fintech Center of Excellence.
Mastercard Leadership Progression
- Senior Vice President, Global Delivery Enablement
- Vice President, Product Delivery
- Director, Product Delivery & Technology Account Management
- Technology Account Management
- Implementation Project Manager
Personal Information
Title: PRODUCT, PAYMENTS & GLOBAL DELIVERY EXECUTIVE
Affiliations
- Project Management Professional (PMP) | Project Management Institute
- Board Member, Custom Collaborative | Jr. Board Mentor, Savvy Ladies
Entrepreneurship & Strategic Advisory
- Founder and Principal
- FIX Coaching and Consulting, LLC | Atlanta, GA | 2023 - Present
- Advise founders and executives on growth strategy, operating models, organizational effectiveness, team performance, process improvement, scalable execution, and leadership transitions.
- Advise on acquisitions and exits: evaluate purchase opportunities, prepare businesses for sale, and use acquisitions to support expansion and strategic value creation.
Accomplishments
- Exceptional Sales Performance - Quarterly award celebrating individuals and teams for extraordinary wins that yield high impact results for Mastercard.
- Market Mover Award - Recognizing big wins for Mastercard, which include new strategic deals that significantly shifts market share or are large priority deals for a given region.
Certification
- Project Management Certificate - Cardinal Stritch University - Issued 2012
- PMP Certified - Project Management Institute - Issued Nov 2014 · Expired Nov 2023
Timeline
Vice President, Product Management and Development
DreamFi, Inc.
01.2025 - 01.2026
Senior Vice President, Global Delivery Enablement
Mastercard
01.2021 - 01.2024
Vice President, Product Delivery
Mastercard
01.2018 - 01.2021
Business Leader / Director, Product Delivery and Technology Account Management
Mastercard
01.2015 - 01.2018
Technology Account Manager
Mastercard
01.2014 - 01.2015
Implementation Project Manager | Processing Solutions
Mastercard
01.2012 - 01.2014
Senior Technology Integration Project Manager, TPMC
Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) / Metavante
01.2006 - 01.2011
Project Consultant and Conversion Project Manager
Fiserv Corporation
01.2003 - 01.2006
Project Manager
eFunds Corporation
01.2000 - 01.2002
MBA - Business Administration And Management
Cardinal Stritch University
Bachelor of Science - Business Management
Upper Iowa University