Financial Crime Disruptor
Age:37
Organization: PayPal
Title: Senior Manager, Global Financial Crimes, Brand Risk Investigations
City: Chandler
State: Arizona
Megan Gonzales credits her father for instilling in her the value of hard work, teamwork, and how to adapt to become an asset to her employer.
As a proud Mexican American, she learned by his example when he climbed the corporate ladder when the topic of diversity did not exist. He did it by using his natural brilliance and initiative and by being highly skilled at building relationships and networks.
She is a senior manager overseeing PayPal’s brand risk investigations team for North American and Latin American regions. What is clear to her is that creating an environment where people can leverage their knowledge and backgrounds will create strong teams, resulting in better decision-making.
With PayPal’s footprint reaching across the globe and customers from all backgrounds in their portfolio, she said their employees need to reflect that diversity to support and understand the customer’s needs while also keeping the platform safe and mitigating any AML and reputational risk.
As the Latinx ERG global chair at PayPal, she knows that organizations like HACE are critical for their influence in changing the bias of decision-makers by providing resources, recognition, and a platform to advocate for Latinx leaders. The goal is for each generation to make it easier for the following one to make upward movement in the corporate ladder more attainable and make senior leadership roles more diverse and representative of the community.
As the ERG chair for Aliados, a Latinx employee resource group at PayPal, she represents 1,000 members across the United States and five countries covering Latin America and Europe. She is passionate about helping others, mentoring, and advocating. She knows she would not be where she was if not for her father’s guidance and sacrifice, as well as the assistance from her professional networks, including HACE.
In addition to her combined 15 years of experience investigating financial and high-risk crimes in the private and public sector, she has a bachelor’s degree in justice studies from Arizona State University. Her experience has allowed her to pursue her passion for an inclusive workplace supporting the Latinx community.
