Our team
Umar Farooq
Co-Head of Global Payments, J.P. Morgan
Umar Farooq is the Co-Head of Global Payments, which combines treasury services, trade and working capital, commercial cards and merchant services to help clients operate across 200+ countries and territories.1 The business is the largest processor of USD payments across the world, with a daily transaction volume of around $10 trillion. Prior to this, Umar was the Global Head of Financial Institution Payments and CEO of Kinexys by J.P. Morgan.
Previously, he was the Global Head of Digital Wholesale Payments and Head of Blockchain for the Corporate and Investment Bank. Umar has also held leadership positions in Chase Bank, including Head of Small Business Segment and National Sales Manager for Chase Business Banking.
Max Neukirchen
Co-Head of Global Payments, J.P. Morgan
Max Neukirchen is the Co-Head of J.P. Morgan Global Payments. As part of the Commercial & Investment Bank, J.P. Morgan Payments delivers treasury services, merchants services and financial technology solutions to corporate clients, financial institutions, governments, e-commerce retailers, and small and medium-sized businesses. In his role, Max oversees the Product, Client Service & Implementations, Sales, and Payments support teams globally.
From 2021 to 2024, Max led Payments & Commerce Solutions, combining J.P. Morgan Treasury Payments, Merchant Acquiring, and Embedded Banking franchises to provide integrated offerings to clients. Before that, he served as the CEO of Merchant Services, the Head of Firmwide Strategy and Business Development, and Chief of Staff for the Corporate & Investment Bank. Max joined J.P. Morgan Chase in 2013.
Naveen Mallela
Global Co-Head of Kinexys
Kara Kennedy is the Global Co-Head of Kinexys, which is a division within J.P. Morgan focused on digital assets and digital payments. Kara has direct responsibility for the Kinexys Digital Assets and Kinexys Labs teams. Kara previously served as Head of Digital Asset Product for J.P. Morgan’s Securities Services, where she led extension of the custody network to include internal and external blockchain platforms.
Prior to joining J.P. Morgan in 2021, she led digital asset product management as part of the Global Custody team at BNY Mellon, following 5 years leading product innovation in the Depositary Receipts business. Her background also includes product management experience in exchange traded products, unit trusts and secondary market trading.
Kara holds a Masters degree in politics from the University of Edinburgh and is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Securities & Investment.
Oliver Harris
Head of Kinexys by J.P. Morgan
Oli brings more than 15 years of global leadership experience across institutional finance, digital assets and emerging technologies. Previously, he led the Digital Assets Americas team at Goldman Sachs. Prior to that, Oli spent six years at our firm, where he helped shape our digital assets strategy and led the development and commercialization of Quorum, the enterprise Ethereum platform. He also led strategy for the International Consumer Bank, including Chase UK.
