Fired Up

Business News Network
Business News Network
  • 5.0 (3)
  • Business

How do culture and leadership shape performance in the AI era?That’s the question Paulette Rowe is putting to some of fintech’s most admired leaders on Fired Up, a brand new podcast on the PYMNTS Business News Network.One of The Financial Technology Report’s Top 25 Payments Executives of 2025, Paulette has built a reputation for value creation and business transformation at global companies as well as scaling high-growth, PE-backed businesses.Culture has always been central to her formula for success. Now she’s finding out if culture is the real competitive advantage in a world where everyone has access to the same AI tools.

Episodes

  1. 20h ago

    The Trailblazer: Becoming Truly AI Native with Aled Miles

    This Episode of Fired Up with Paulette Rowe dives into what happens when you realize that the business you've just taken on as CEO has to fundamentally reinvent itself while the technology disrupting it is changing almost faster than you can imagine. Paulette is joined by Aled Miles, President and CEO of Intellistack for a conversation about culture and AI. But it's also about transformation, fear, judgement and what it takes to lead when standing still may be the biggest risk of all. Guest: Aled Miles A California-based UK/US citizen, Aled is the CEO of Intellistack, enabling workflow, orchestration & data management across industries, including healthcare, education, finance, and insurance. Miles was appointed as the Welsh Government Envoy to the United States in 2020. He serves on the U.S. advisory board of The King's Trust. The trust was founded 50 years ago by King Charles III to help young adults aged 11 to 30, helping over 1.5 million to succeed. Aled was awarded an OBE in the United Kingdom's New Year's Honours List, 2026. He served a 6-year term on the board of the National Conservatoire of Wales and remains an “Innovator-in-Residence’ at the University of Southern California (USC). Host: Paulette Rowe One of The Financial Technology Report's Top 25 Payments Executives of 2025, Paulette Rowe has spent her career leading transformation in complex, tech-intensive businesses across global markets. Her roles span GE Capital, Meta and NatWest, where she led a 20,000-person retail banking network. At Barclays, she led the merchant acquiring business processing one in three UK card payments. More recently, she has taken on scaling high-growth, PE-backed companies. As CEO of fintech unicorn Stax Payments, she transformed the business, strengthening its financial performance, building it into a full-stack processor, and driving an AI rollout that helped deliver award winning customer service. Across every role and boardroom seat, her approach has been the same: invest in culture not as a soft add-on, but as the foundation of P&L performance. Now, as AI reshapes how every company operates, she’s putting that belief to the test with some of the most admired leaders in fintech and beyond - probing the question every leader needs to consider: how much does culture really drive success, and does AI change that equation?

  2. Sep 23

    The Heat Is On: Why AI Demands More Human Leadership w/ Sophie Wade

    In this episode of Fired Up, host Paulette Rowe sits down with Sophie Wade — founder of Flex Network, author of Empathy Works, and a leading voice on the future of work — to unpack why human-centric leadership might be the real competitive advantage in the age of AI. Tune in for a conversation about trust, empathy, and what it really takes to lead an organization through what might be the most impactful technological shift of our lifetimes. Guest: Sophie Wade Sophie helps business leaders with work/workforce innovation and human-AI integration as AI accelerates the transformation of business models, operations, work, careers, and the shift from jobs to skills and projects. She enables companies to adapt to dynamic work and workforce needs in alignment with business needs during unpredictable conditions. As the founder of Flexcel Network, international keynote speaker and author of The Work In Progress Report newsletter, Sophie writes and speaks regularly about modern work: human-centric leadership, AI-driven work and workforce evolution, distributed teams, empathy at work, the Future of Work, talent mobility and self-directed careers. She has authored many articles including in MIT Sloan Management, Fast Company, and Fortune and two books about the Future of Work "Embracing Progress: Next Steps for the Future of Work" and "Empathy Works: The Key to Competitive Advantage in the New Era of Work”. Host: Paulette Rowe One of The Financial Technology Report's Top 25 Payments Executives of 2025, Paulette Rowe has spent her career leading transformation in complex, tech-intensive businesses across global markets. Her roles span GE Capital, Meta and NatWest, where she led a 20,000-person retail banking network. At Barclays, she led the merchant acquiring business processing one in three UK card payments. More recently, she has taken on scaling high-growth, PE-backed companies. As CEO of fintech unicorn Stax Payments, she transformed the business,strengthening its financial performance, building it into a full-stack processor, and driving an AI rollout that helped deliver award winning customer service. Across every role and boardroom seat, her approach has been the same: invest in culture not as a soft add-on, but as the foundation of P&L performance. Now, as AI reshapes how every company operates, she’s putting that belief to the test with some of the most admired leaders in fintech and beyond - probing the question every leader needs to consider: how much does culture really drive success, and does AI change that equation?

  3. Sep 15

    Out of the Frying Pan w/ PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster: Does Culture Determine Whether AI Delivers?

    How do culture and leadership shape performance in the AI era? That’s the question Paulette Rowe is putting to some of fintech’s most admired leaders on Fired Up, a brand new podcast on the PYMNTS Business News Network. Hosted by Paulette Rowe: One of The Financial Technology Report's Top 25 Payments Executives of 2025, Paulette Rowe has spent her career leading transformation in complex, tech-intensive businesses across global markets. Her roles span GE Capital, Meta and NatWest, where she led a 20,000-person retail banking network. At Barclays, she led the merchant acquiring business processing one in three UK card payments. More recently, she has taken on scaling high-growth, PE-backed companies. As CEO of fintech unicorn Stax Payments, she transformed the business,strengthening its financial performance, building it into a full-stack processor, and driving an AI rollout that helped deliver award winning customer service. Across every role and boardroom seat, her approach has been the same: invest in culture not as a soft add-on, but as the foundation of P&L performance. Now, as AI reshapes how every company operates, she’s putting that belief to the test with some of the most admired leaders in fintech and beyond - probing the question every leader needs to consider: how much does culture really drive success, and does AI change that equation? Guest: PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster is one of the world’s leading experts in payments innovation and the digital economy, advising multinational companies and sitting on boards of emerging AI, healthtech and real-time payments firms, including a non-executive director on the Sezzle board, a publicly traded BNPL provider. She founded PYMNTS.com in 2009, a top media platform covering innovation in payments, commerce and the digital economy. Webster is also the author of the NEXT newsletter and a co-founder of Market Platform Dynamics, specializing in driving and monetizing innovation across industries.

  • 3 Episodes

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

How do culture and leadership shape performance in the AI era?That’s the question Paulette Rowe is putting to some of fintech’s most admired leaders on Fired Up, a brand new podcast on the PYMNTS Business News Network.One of The Financial Technology Report’s Top 25 Payments Executives of 2025, Paulette has built a reputation for value creation and business transformation at global companies as well as scaling high-growth, PE-backed businesses.Culture has always been central to her formula for success. Now she’s finding out if culture is the real competitive advantage in a world where everyone has access to the same AI tools.

Information

  • Channel
    Business News Network
  • Creator
    PYMNTS
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    3
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Fired Up
  • Show Website
    Fired Up
  • Provider
    Whats Next Media And Analytics LLC

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