Karen Buell is Chief Operating Officer at equipifi, the category creator in bank-led Buy Now, Pay Later. She leads all post-sale functions — implementations, technical success, support, and account management — helping banks and credit unions bring modern BNPL to their consumers without ceding ground to third-party lenders.

Her path includes fixing and scaling a fintech startup 5x to a $150M acquisition, followed by senior leadership roles at Paymentus and Alkami. But her first transition came early: ~10 years ago, Karen was an entrepreneur inside a 135-year-old financial institution, building new ground within traditional banking before leaving for the speed and reinvention of fintech and startups. Born-and-raised in the Northeast, she recently relocated her family 2,600 miles to Scottsdale, Arizona to build alongside equipifi's executive team in person — one transition in a career defined by them.