Coffee with the Council Podcast: Meet the Council’s New Head of Product and Technology

Welcome to our podcast series, Coffee with the Council. I’m Alicia Malone, Senior Manager of Public Relations for the PCI Security Standards Council. Today we’ll meet one of the Council’s newest employees, our Head of Product and Technology, Deanne Zettler. Deanne comes to the PCI SSC with more than 25 years of experience leading product and technology strategies, solutions and operations in financial services, including stops at Discover Financial Services and Silicon Valley Bank. Thank you for joining us today, Deanne, and welcome to the team.

Deanne Zettler: Hi, Alicia. Thank you so much for having me today. I’m very excited to be here and also part of the PCI SSC leadership team.

Alicia Malone: Well, we are so glad to have you as well, Deanne. Your new role as Head of Product and Technology is also a new position at the PCI Security Standards Council. Tell us a little about what this new role is and what you’ve been hired to do.

Deanne Zettler: So, in my new role, I will be leading PCI towards implementing a product delivery model that’s focused on evolving, not only the way we work internally within the organization, but also with our stakeholder community as well. We’re going to be driving towards agility in our standards development process and in our supporting programs. And we’re also very focused on our engagement and our stakeholder engagement model to really complement the Request for Comment framework that we have today.

Our focus is going to be on evolving our end-to-end product delivery model, not only focused on the delivery of our standards, but also on our supporting programs, training certifications, and quality programs as part of our go-to-market strategy. So, ultimately, my goal in this role is to help drive efficiency inside and outside the Council to ensure we’re working on the right things at the right time to meet industry needs.

Alicia Malone: So, this isn’t really new for you. You’ve had more than 25 years of experience leading product and technology strategies, solutions, and operations in the financial services sector. Can you describe your career path in this industry and how it led you to PCI SSC?

Deanne Zettler: Well, I want to start by emphasizing that I bring a unique skill set to PCI, which really complements its strong security expertise. And as you noted, my background has centered on leading technology strategy, product and technology delivery, and transformation programs. So, when I learned about this new leadership position here at PCI SSC, I was extremely excited about the opportunity to leverage my deep payments background and then also my delivery expertise to help drive PCI’s vision to transform into a product-focused delivery organization.

Now I’ve spent most of my career in growing leadership roles at Discover for over 20 years or so and, of that time, I spent about a decade focused on its global payments technology and business development divisions. Within these roles, I was responsible for its payments network fraud systems, managing its biannual network releases, which, by the way, included PCI compliance programs. And we also focused on strategic product and payment partnership programs.

So, I like to share that my favorite experience at Discover really was leading its strategic partnership programs. And that included initiatives such as launching its new mobile payments infrastructure that enabled Discover to integrate with major mobile wallet providers, and also implementing white-label network capabilities with a major fintech that helped to bridge its online and brick and mortar transactions. Now, I like to really kind of emphasize that these were my favorite initiatives because it required us to transform the way we work internal to the organization, also to elevate our technology solutions, and then also our payment security as well. All of this was required to keep pace with innovation and the disruptors that we were seeing in the payment ecosystem. And this is really where I grew a passion for transformation programs, really focusing on innovation and technology modernization.

After Discover, I was able to leverage this experience at two other financial institutions to evolve their product and technology delivery and then also their operations programs as well. So, circling back on this role at PCI SSC, my combined payments background coupled with my product delivery and transformation leadership really suited well for the direction that the Council was taking.

Alicia Malone: You do seem like the perfect fit for the Council and our objectives and initiatives moving forward. As you know, the payment security industry continues to evolve and change at lightning speed. And therefore, it is so important that the Council continues to evolve and change to keep pace and stay relevant. What is your vision in terms of helping the Council succeed in its mission to secure payment data in regards to its standards and programs?

Deanne Zettler: I think first I would like to clarify that pace does not always necessarily mean speed. Rather, we’re focused on pacing our product delivery with our stakeholders to ensure we’re focusing on the right work at the right time to meet market needs. This really includes carefully aligning, again, how we work as an organization, what we work on, and who we work with to get it right together to build, I’d say, robust and commercially achievable security standards.

So, to make this happen, our immediate focus will be on driving simplicity, really to remove any unnecessary complexity from our go-to-market plan. And some of the areas that we’re focusing on includes consolidating our standards footprint, ensuring consistency across our standards, and then eliminating as much duplication as possible. The great news is that PCI already has plans to consolidate and realign a standards footprint in both the near-term and in the longer-term horizons. And I’d say speaking of our longer-term horizons, we’re going to be leveraging more longer-range roadmaps focused on our end-to-end delivery.

Our goal is to be more forward-looking, as far out as five to ten years, to stay ahead really and respond faster to the changing payment security landscape. This approach will really need to take into consideration our stakeholder community to contribute ideas and then also suggested timing for that work. Then, my team will be working to operationalize the roadmap and really leverage our advisory and our governance processes to confirm our short, our mid-, and longer-term priorities to address the evolving security needs of the industry.

Alicia Malone: What are you most looking forward to in this new role?

Deanne Zettler: Well, that’s a great question. And I would say there’s actually several things. First, I’m very excited to work with the talented team here at PCI SSC to help lead the future of the organization. And this really builds upon the success of the Council over the past 18 years. I’m also excited to transition into a product structure that enables, I would say, more agility in our go-to-market planning. And finally, I would say I’m excited to work with our stakeholder community in evolving our product delivery model.

I just want to comment that it was amazing to meet so many of our stakeholders at the North America Community Meeting in Boston just earlier this month. And these stakeholders represented a variety of different aspects of the payments ecosystem, including our banks, retailers, technology, networks, processors, service providers, and then hardware and software developers as well. So, I really look forward to partnering with our stakeholder community to again align how we work, what we’re working on, to get it right together.

Alicia Malone: That’s great, and I know that the Community Meetings really are such a great opportunity to get some face time with everybody involved in all aspects of the payment industry. So outside of your day job, tell us a little bit about yourself. What kinds of things are you passionate about? What would you like others to know about you?

Deanne Zettler: Well, I would say my greatest passion is my family. My husband and I actually just celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary earlier this month. And we also have two fantastic sons that are both in college this year. So, we are extremely proud of our sons, and it’s been just so fun to see them grow into adults. And then we’re also transitioning into empty nesters. With that being said, my husband and I have both managed our careers while raising a family. So, for those that are listening out there, I know it can be challenging, but it’s also very rewarding. And we like to think that we were strong role models for our boys growing up.

In addition to family, I like to stay active as much as possible. And I really enjoy practicing hot yoga. It provides both a physical and mental challenge, which I think is needed kind of outside the working environment. I like to say that for hot yoga, it actually gives me a full system reboot that helps drive some thought clarity as well as the physical benefits as well. Outside of yoga, I also enjoy trail hiking and spending time out in nature. We’re fortunate enough to have many nature preserves and lakes around our area, so it gives us a lot of different variety and options to stay connected outdoors, and as I say, finally you know we’re looking forward to really being able to travel a bit more now that we’re empty nesters, so a lot of great things going on.

Alicia Malone: That’s wonderful. And I also love traveling, too, and being in nature. It sounds like we have a lot of things in common. And of course, since you’re on Coffee with the Council, I would be remiss if I didn’t ask you how you take your coffee. Or if you’re not a coffee drinker, what do you prefer instead?

Deanne Zettler: Well, I’m definitely a coffee drinker. I’m actually one of those people who look forward to their coffee before they go to bed at night. It’s definitely a staple in the morning. But I would say I don’t drink anything that’s very fancy. I enjoy drinking a dark, maybe bold brew with some whole cream and half and half to start my day. So, on the simple side, but certainly a staple in my morning.

Alicia Malone: Absolutely, coffee is a necessity in my book. So, I completely agree with you. Well, thank you so much for joining us on Coffee with the Council, Deanne. It’s been such a pleasure getting to know you and I look forward to working with you at the Council.

Deanne Zettler: Well, thank you so much, Alicia. It’s my pleasure and I’m also excited to work with you and our great team at PCI SSC.

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