Coffee with the Council Podcast: Nominate Your Company for the Council’s Next Board of Advisors

Welcome to our podcast series, Coffee with the Council. I’m Alicia Malone, Senior Manager of Public Relations for the PCI Security Standards Council. It is time once again to elect the Council’s next Board of Advisors for the 2025 – 2027 term. Every two years, the Council invites its Principal and Associate Participating Organizations, as well as Affiliate Members to nominate and elect those companies who will serve as strategic leaders for the organization. Joining me today to talk all about what’s new in this year’s election process is PCI SSC’s Head of Engagement, Diana Greenhaw. Welcome, Diana.

Diana Greenhaw: Thank you, Alicia. I’m excited to join you today and to talk about the upcoming election.

Alicia Malone: Yes, so let’s dive right in. What’s new this year for the Board of Advisors?

Diana Greenhaw: So, the biggest change for this term is that the Board of Advisors is expanding from 52 seats to 64 seats. In recognition of the ever-changing needs of the payments industry, the Board of Advisors expansion provides a greater range of input for the Council. It will be comprised of 26 Principal Participating Organization seats. These are the organizations who’ve joined PCI SSC at the highest level of membership.

It will also include 26 elected seats. These are the seats that are elected by our full membership from all organizations submitting nominations. And then 12 appointed seats. These are seats appointed by our Executive Committee. And this ensures that we have sector and global representation. It ensures a balance of perspectives around the room.

We’ve also revised the membership categories to reflect a Board that is more representative of today’s industry makeup. The new term for the Board of Advisors will be made up of participants from the following new membership categories:

Merchants – there will be eight seats across this category, and these are organizations that accept payments from PCI participating brands for the sale of goods and services through any acceptance channel.

Then we have the next category: Financial Institution. There will be eight seats across this category. Financial institutions are those licensed institutions in the business of providing financial services including, but not limited to, payment account acquiring, issuing, deposits, loans, etc.

Then we have our Hardware and/or Software Solution Providers and Vendors. There are eight of these seats. These are vendors that develop or provide point-of-sale hardware or software solutions to industry participants.

Then we have our Service Provider category. We have eight seats here. These are organizations involved in the processing, storage, or transmission of payment data from PCI participating brands on behalf of another entity.

And then another one of our new categories is the “multi-category”. We have 12 seats across this category. These are organizations that fall into two or more categories of those that I’ve walked through here today.

And then finally, our “Other” category. There will be eight seats here. And these are organizations that are involved in payments from PCI participating brands, but don’t fit into one of the other defined categories.

Alicia Malone: Yes, I think some feedback we’ve received in the past is which category should you select if your company doesn’t fit easily into just one of these categories. And I think that the new multi-category slot is going to be really helpful this year. So, Diana, walk us through how the process works.

Diana Greenhaw: Sure. So, on February 3 running through February 28, that will be our nomination period. This is when the primary contacts at PPO, APO, or Affiliate Member companies can self-nominate their organization and select their membership category via the Council’s member portal on our website. One Primary and one Alternate representative may be nominated per our Principal or Associate Participating Organizations, or our Affiliate members.

Then, after the nomination period ends, from March 17 through March 28, the election period takes place. The Primary contact at each eligible membership organization may submit one vote for each of the categories on their ballot. Now, if you’re responsible for submitting those votes, you’ll want to review your choices carefully as once you’ve submitted your votes, you will not be able to change those decisions.

And then finally, the newly selected Board will be notified in April and officially seated and announced by June 1 of 2025. We’ll have our first meeting with this new Board later in June.

Alicia Malone: That’s great. So, Diana, what are some of the advantages to serving on the PCI SSC Board of Advisors?

Diana Greenhaw: Sure, so the Board of Advisors is very important to the success of the PCI Council. They bring industry, geographical, and technical insight to our strategy, our plans, and our projects. But perhaps most importantly, the Board has the opportunity to vote on the publication of new standards and major revisions to existing standards prior to their release. And in a year when many of our existing standards will go through updates, consolidation, and even new ones developed, the Board’s involvement is critical to helping the Council bring the right standards to market at the right time. It’s a great way to get more deeply involved with the Council and to have a voice at the table. I encourage all of our eligible stakeholders to consider participating with us in this way.

Alicia Malone: Fantastic. So where should you start if you’re interested in running for the Board?

Diana Greenhaw: So, where you’ll start is by reviewing all of the information that we have available on our website. If you go to www.PCISecurityStandards.org and visit the Get Involved page, you’ll find the 2025 – 2027 Board of Advisors elections link on the drop-down menu. This is a great resource because we outline the entire process and timeline here as well as address frequently asked questions.

We will also soon be launching some great video testimonials from our current Board of Advisors members so that you can hear directly what their experience has been like. And finally, I would just make sure that your primary contact can access the portal and is comfortable with how the nomination and voting process works. We are really looking forward to your participation.

Alicia Malone: That’s great. I’m looking forward to those video testimonials from current Board members because I feel like that’s always such a great way to see what their experience was like. Thank you so much for joining us today on Coffee with the Council, Diana, and for sharing all of your insights into the Board of Advisors election process.

Diana Greenhaw: Absolutely, glad to be a part of this. And I also look forward to watching those testimonials. And I really hope as the Board is expanding that we get more nominations than we’ve ever seen before.

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