Women in Technology: Acumen Financial Advantage’s Samantha Paxson

In what is a recurring feature, Finopotamus spotlights innovative women who are positively impacting technology applications in the credit union industry, and beyond.

In the latest installment in our “Women in Technology” series, we visited with Acumen Financial Advantage’s Chief Growth Officer Samantha Paxson. The Boston-based fintech bills itself as helping organizations, including credit unions, strengthen financial performance, reinforce leadership continuity, and steward resources for long-term value.

By W.B. King

When Samantha Paxson entered the payments space in the early 2000s, technology wasn’t the driving component—it was the opportunity to solve meaningful problems.

“I’ve always been fascinated by human behavior, strategy, and innovation. Technology became the vehicle that allowed me to turn those interests into impact at scale,” she told Finopotamus. “Throughout my career, I’ve viewed technology less as software and more as a catalyst for growth. Whether helping credit unions serve members, modernizing operations, or creating new opportunities, I’ve been motivated by technology’s ability to solve problems, improve lives, and strengthen companies.”

Tectonic Tech Shift

Samantha Paxson

For nearly 19 years, Paxson worked for Co-op Solutions (now Velera). Starting as a vice president of marketing, she ended her tenure as EVP and chief experience officer. During this time, she founded (and still leads) Power & Light Collaborative, a consultancy dedicated to uncovering growth potential for fintechs servicing community-focused financial institutions. She also served on multiple credit union and fintech boards, including as an Advisor in Residence for EY.

Over the years, there has been a “tectonic shift” in the manner tech departments operate, she reflected. “When I started, technology teams were measured by stability, uptime, and project delivery. Today, the most successful technology organizations are woven into the operational fabric of the enterprise and measured by business outcomes, consumer experience, speed to market, innovation, and growth,” said Paxson who assumed her role as Acumen’s chief growth officer in April 2025.

“Management styles have evolved as well. Traditional command-and-control structures have given way to more collaborative, cross-functional teams. Technology leaders now sit at the strategy table alongside CEOs, CFOs, and business leaders,” she continued. “We’ve also moved from multi-year development cycles to agile, iterative approaches. The expectation today is not simply to keep systems running. It’s to continuously innovate, deepen relationships, and create competitive advantage while maintaining trust, security, and reliability.”

Challenging Assumptions Reshapes the Future

Whereas women were underrepresented when Paxson entered the tech space, she told Finopotamus that today “women are leading technology organizations, product teams, fintech companies, cybersecurity initiatives, and enterprise transformations across our industry.”

With many women holding positions such as founder, CIO, CTO and CEO, younger women coming up the corporate latter, she noted, have role models they can emulate. “We’ve made tremendous progress, but we’re not done yet,” she noted. “The best innovation happens when diverse perspectives come together to challenge assumptions, solve problems, and shape the future.”

Rather than pointing to one or two people, Paxson credits a “visionary village of CEOs and leaders” as mentors. “In many ways, I was the architect of my own journey. What these leaders gave me was something incredibly valuable: trust, freedom, and the space to build,” she shared. “They saw potential in me, challenged me to think bigger, and gave me the opportunity to create things that didn’t previously exist.”

Based on that trust, she founded and designed the Co-op THINK brand, a premier thought leadership and growth strategy platform (and annual conference) that brought relevant change to the credit union industry for 16 years. “I wasn’t simply executing strategy. I was helping shape it,” she said. “The greatest gift they gave me was autonomy.”

These experiences helped shape her leadership ethos—a people-first approach. “Some of the leaders I work with today have been alongside me for more than 20 years. I’ve had the privilege of creating opportunities, advocating for their growth, and watching them become leaders in their own right,” Paxson said. “I’ve had the privilege of hiring people when they were laid off, advocating for compensation they deserved, and helping them step into roles bigger than they imagined for themselves.”

Intelligent Personalization

According to Paxson, the following tech-trends are fundamentally changing how credit unions serve members: real-time payments, AI-powered service, digital account opening, embedded lending experiences, and modern data platforms.

“The evolution has moved from digital transformation focused on efficiency and convenience to intelligent personalization that creates more meaningful, relevant experiences for members,” she continued. “What’s most exciting is how these technologies are converging: Stablecoin enablement of real-time payments, AI-powered personalized insights and agentic delivery, and embedded financial experiences — all driven by data and designed to help credit unions better understand, anticipate, and serve member needs.”

The institutions that will lead the next decade will be those that successfully combine innovation with trust, she explained. “Using technology not to create distance, but to deepen relationships and improve financial well-being,” Paxson said. “Imagine a world where a member’s financial needs are anticipated before they’re expressed, money moves instantly and intelligently, and employees spend less time on administrative work and more time advising and serving.”

Member Relevance, not Product Breadth

Similar to her people-first leadership methodology, Paxson has long celebrated the credit union movement because it always works backwards from the member.

“The real opportunity is to create a personal financial operating system that helps members make better decisions, achieve stronger financial outcomes, and seamlessly navigate their financial lives,” she said. “Institutions that can consistently know their members, anticipate their needs, deliver relevant solutions, and create measurable value will earn the right to grow. In the next era of financial services, member relevance, not product breadth, will be the ultimate competitive advantage.”

When it comes to innovation and technology, no organization can innovate on their own, including credit unions, Paxson noted. “The question is no longer whether to partner. It is how to partner in ways that strengthen the member relationship. The best partnerships are not built around products. They are built around outcomes,” she told Finopotamus. “The future belongs to connected ecosystems. The organizations that win will be those that curate the right partnerships, integrate capabilities seamlessly, and relentlessly focus every innovation on member outcomes.”