Jagdeep Singh Sahota, NACD.DC — Independent Board Director
Product, Innovation and Technology Governance Executive | NACD Certified Corporate Director | Chair Candidate, Technology and Risk Committees
When Jagdeep Sahota took the chair of Sahaita Inc., the organization had no formal board structure, no committees, and no audit history. He changed all of that. He recruited and organized a functioning board, established committee charters for fundraising and governance, put an audit committee in place with annual independent audits, and registered the organization on Charity Navigator, bringing it into full public accountability. The more consequential achievement was structural: he turned a founder-led grassroots organization into one that could survive and grow beyond its founder. That is what governance is for. He holds the NACD Directorship Certification (NACD.DC), the highest governance credential available to corporate directors in the United States.
That governance foundation rests on an operating career that is genuinely difficult to replicate. Sahota spent 16 years at Visa, writing the EMV chip and contactless payment specifications the global payment system runs on today, taking Visa Direct from a whiteboard to a platform now processing over $100 billion annually across more than 1,000 financial institution partners, and running the Innovation Lab where the organization's emerging technology bets were made and pressure-tested before reaching executive leadership. He subsequently served as Chief Product Officer at NMI, scaling that platform past $100 billion in volume, and as Chief Payments Officer at Banc of California, where he held P and L ownership and served as enterprise risk owner in a post-consent order regulatory environment with direct quarterly reporting to the Bank Risk Committee.
His career also includes senior product and partnership roles at PayPal, where he led merchant services product development for off-eBay commerce, and at Salesforce, where as Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships for Financial Services Cloud he structured the fintech ecosystem that brought DocMagic and Finicity, now a Mastercard company, into the FSC platform to deliver a digital mortgage product to financial institution clients. He is looking to serve on the board of a community or regional bank or growth-stage fintech where that combination directly addresses a governance gap the current board cannot fill.
What I Bring to a Board
Boards in financial services, healthcare, insurance, technology, and government are navigating forces that did not exist a decade ago: real-time payment settlement risk, AI-embedded underwriting, BaaS partnership exposure, stablecoin reserve management, and the regulatory infrastructure required to govern all of it. These are not abstract topics. They are the systems I have spent 25 years building, scaling, and governing from the inside. I bring four things that are difficult to find in combination at the board level.
Foundational technical depth
I wrote the EMV chip card and contactless payment specifications that the global payment system runs on today. I understand financial infrastructure at the protocol level, not just the strategy or product level, which means I can ask the questions in a Technology or Audit committee that surface real risk rather than surface-level reassurance.
Commercial operator experience
Commercial operator experience. I took Visa Direct from concept to a platform processing $100B+ annually. I built a payments business from scratch as Chief Payments Officer of a regulated bank, held full P and L accountability, and drove $250M in annual payment volume from launch. I know how payment businesses actually work, where the margin lives, where the risk hides, and what separates durable growth from fragile growth.
Risk governance from the inside
Risk governance from the inside. I served as Enterprise Risk Owner for all payments operations at Banc of California, presented quarterly to the Bank Risk Committee, and built the payments compliance stack, KYC, AML, OFAC, beneficial ownership, 314(a), from the ground up inside a federally regulated environment under a consent order. I have sat in the risk seat, not just reviewed reports from it.
Product Management and Consumer Focus
Product management and consumer focus. I have led full product lifecycles at enterprise scale at Visa, PayPal, JPMorgan Chase, and NMI, using design thinking methodology to keep the customer outcome at the center of every technology and compliance decision. What energizes me most at the board level is exactly that tension: helping regulated institutions move with the speed and consumer focus of a fintech without cutting the corners that regulators, customers, and long-term business health cannot afford. That perspective is rare at the board level and most valuable for institutions competing with fintechs on experience while carrying regulatory obligations fintechs do not.
How I Contribute in the Boardroom
The director role is not a continuation of the executive role with less authority. It requires a different orientation entirely: not building, but questioning. Not executing, but ensuring the people who execute are doing so with complete information and the right accountability structures around them. Many strong operators never make that shift cleanly. I have thought carefully about it.
Committee Setting — Technology and Innovation or Risk
In a Technology and Innovation or Risk committee setting, the contribution is specific. When management presents a new AI deployment, a faster payments integration, or a BaaS partnership, I do not evaluate the strategy at the pitch level. I ask about the failure modes. I ask whether the risk framework was built before or after the product roadmap. I ask what the contingency is when the integration breaks at scale. I have built these systems. I know where the gap between what management reports and what is actually happening tends to open up.
Committee Setting — Audit
In an Audit committee context, I bring specific knowledge of what adequate transaction surveillance infrastructure looks like, having built one from the ground up at Banc of California. I can read an AML or OFAC compliance report and assess whether it describes the actual risk or the performance of the monitoring dashboard. That is a different skill from reviewing a report prepared for board consumption, and it is the skill audit committees in regulated institutions most consistently lack.
Committee Setting — Strategy and Consumer Positioning
On strategy and competitive positioning, my contribution is the consumer and product lens. I have used design thinking methodology throughout my career to keep the customer outcome at the center of technology and product decisions. That perspective is particularly valuable for institutions competing with fintechs on consumer experience while carrying regulatory obligations that fintechs do not.
Committee Expertise
Technology and Innovation Committee — Chair candidate
AI governance, payments infrastructure modernization, design thinking methodology, emerging technology de-risking, real-time payments (FedNow, RTP), digital product strategy, agile delivery governance. Visa Innovation Lab experience prototyping emerging technology with enterprise partners using a structured de-risk-before-scale methodology.
Risk Committee (Primary Contributor)
Enterprise payments risk, AML and OFAC oversight, post-consent order governance, transaction monitoring adequacy, fraud and behavioral analytics, BaaS and third-party vendor risk. Direct Bank Risk Committee reporting experience at Banc of California.
Audit (Substantive Contributor)
Data governance, cybersecurity exposure, KYC and beneficial ownership compliance, regulatory reporting accuracy, AML surveillance infrastructure evaluation. Built the bank's first real-time transaction data lake and behavioral analytics platform from scratch.
Strategy (Strong Contributor)
Fintech and BaaS partnership evaluation, embedded finance strategy, M&A due diligence on payments and technology targets, competitive intelligence across major payment networks and fintech disruptors. Seven-year Mastercard brand negotiation experience. Partnership history with Google, Apple, Facebook, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and U.S. Bank.
Target Board Sectors
Community & Regional Banks
Community and Regional Banks Up to $50B in assets
Best fit when the board is: -
- Approving faster payments or BaaS strategies without a director who can stress-test the risk framework
- Navigating fintech partnerships requiring board-level technology and vendor oversight
- Operating under consent orders or heightened supervisory expectations
- Building payments technology capability without operator experience at the board level
Fintech Companies
Private and PE-Backed Fintechs Growth stage to pre-IPO
Best fit when the board is: -
- Building consumer payments products and needs design thinking discipline at the board level
- Navigating BaaS licensing, bank sponsor relationships, or embedded finance partnerships
- Preparing for institutional capital raises or exits requiring board governance maturity
- Scaling quickly and needs a director who has taken products from concept to $100B in volume
Adjacent Regulated Sectors
Adjacent Regulated Sectors Insurance, GovTech, Healthcare
Best fit when the board is: -
- Carrying payment infrastructure exposure in revenue cycle, claims, or disbursements
- Navigating AI adoption with limited technology governance fluency at the board level
- Overhauling digital platforms where consumer experience competes with compliance obligations
- Seeking a Technology and Risk committee director with transferable regulated-industry judgment
Governance Credentials
NACD Directorship Certification® (NACD.DC)
The highest governance credential for corporate directors in the United States issued by the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD), covering fiduciary duty, audit committee essentials, enterprise risk oversight, executive compensation, and boardroom dynamics. Active participant, NACD Virtual Director Program.
Board Chair — Sahaita Inc. Nonprofit
5 Years When Sahota took the chair, Sahaita had no formal board structure, no committees, and no audit history. He recruited and organized a functioning board, established committee charters for fundraising and governance, put an audit committee in place with annual independent audits, and registered the organization on Charity Navigator, bringing it into full public accountability. He turned a founder-led grassroots organization into one that could survive and grow beyond its founder.
Patents
Lead inventor on 23+ global patents and patent applications in payments, authentication, and blockchain-based payment systems.
Industry Contributions
Industry Standards and Public Contributions Active contributor to EMVCo, NACHA, and PCI Security Standards Council. Panelist, NACHA Payments Conference, June 2025 — Payments modernization for regional banks. Published author on stablecoins, digital assets, real-time payments, and emerging technology risk at luminaryadvisorsllc.com/blog.
In My Own Words
I am a payments executive and NACD-certified director who has built and governed the digital infrastructure that regulated institutions depend on, from writing the EMV payment specifications at Visa to serving as enterprise risk owner at a federally regulated bank. I am looking to serve on the board of a community or regional bank or growth-stage fintech navigating faster payments, BaaS governance, or AI adoption, where a Technology and Risk committee chair who has operated inside those systems can make a measurable difference.