Anthony Sharett

Q: What most notably stands out about your leadership style or what is an example of leadership success you can share with our readers?

Fortunately, colleagues at Pathward have supported my leadership style, which, I hope, is a combination of being empowering and inclusive. Pathward has evolved from a series of separate businesses and channels into a connected enterprise over the last three years through transformational change management. We accomplished this to align with our fintech partners and create increased efficiency and effectiveness. I trust Pathward teams to co-create with our partners, which enables solutions to flourish and aligns with one of Pathward’s values to find a better way.

Our values are a great example of outcomes you can enjoy from fostering an empowering and inclusive culture. As our company embarked upon our rebrand three years ago that unified the company under the Pathward umbrella, a cross-functional team of employees with representatives from all areas of the company worked together to define Pathward’s core values, which are:

Lead by example

Find a better way

Help others succeed

Dare to be great

We take our values to heart and, as a company with a workforce that is largely remote, for the first time ever brought our employees together for an in-person meeting in March 2025. That event connected teams who had met only virtually, creating opportunities for relationship building and cultural bonding. Employees also got to hear directly from our partners and well-known external contacts who are making a difference in our communities.

Q: What impact have any disruptions of the past 18 months had on you as a leader?

The macro-economic environment is ever-changing, as is the geo-political landscape. As president of Pathward, whose purpose is powering financial inclusion and access for consumers and small and mid-sized businesses, part of my leadership charge is to remind colleagues and our partners of this important mission. At times, it’s difficult to navigate the regulatory and financial challenges (which are very important) while also remembering that living out our purpose will produce the business outcomes that we desire.

Additionally, I lead the evolution of Pathward’s operating model to more properly align with our fintech partners’ needs and operate more effectively, which underscored the constant need to transparently explain the “why” behind this transformation for our employees and stakeholders.

Q: What do you feel we can be doing as a business community to empower economic growth here?

Empowering individuals means empowering our communities. Providing increased affordable housing, enabling accessibility for vocational and higher education opportunities, and supporting cultural opportunities for current and future residents typically spurs economic growth for the business community.

Likewise, educational support is a pillar within Pathward’s Community Impact Program that supports the mission of increasing access to educational resources, mentorship and tutoring for students. An example that I am proud to share is the Pathward Scholars Program that provides funding to students pursuing post-secondary education, which they can use to help cover the cost of dependent care. In partnership with the Arizona Community Foundation, Pathward awards scholarships annually. Since the program’s inception in 2021, Pathward has awarded nearly $500,000 in scholarships through the Pathward Scholars Fund. Most of the recipients are from Arizona.

Q: What is new and notable for your company’s near future that will impact our economy?

Pathward is a trusted banking platform for fintech partners to grow and thrive. As a bank with many solutions and scalable infrastructure, we offer decades of experience and deep expertise across a range of products. Our partners offer consumer and business lending solutions and professional tax services, and enable business to accept and process payments. For Pathward, we will power increased integrated solutions with partners to provide a more seamless experience with consumers and businesses.

As one of the pioneer sponsor banks — established financial institutions that provide the regulatory framework, infrastructure and expertise needed to launch and scale financial products quickly — we have more than 20 years of experience in payments to offer our partners. The most effective sponsor banks build platforms that combine tools, people and processes. These elements are layered to support a broad range of partners. At Pathward, we are creating modular, adaptable systems that empower sustainable innovation.