David Watson is the President and CEO of The Clearing House, which clears and settles approximately $2 trillion in bank-to-bank payments each day. The Clearing House is owned by 22 of the largest commercial banks in the U.S., whose CEOs comprise the organization’s Supervisory Board of Directors. Mr. Watson additionally oversees The Clearing House Association, the nation’s first banking trade association, which today advocates for policies that help to provide for a safe, sound, and efficient U.S. payments system. 

Mr. Watson brings extensive experience to the role, with an international career spanning more than 20 years in the financial services industry. Prior to joining TCH, he was with Swift, the global financial messaging provider, where he most recently served as Chief Product Officer, responsible for the company’s product engineering, development, and innovation. Previously Mr. Watson was Chief Strategy Officer, where he had responsibility for market and competitive intelligence, strategic planning, thought leadership, and execution on key strategic initiatives for the company.  

Prior to Swift, Mr. Watson spent nearly 17 years with Deutsche Bank where he served in commercial, product and leadership roles, including as Head of Cash Management Americas and as Global Head of Product Development, Global Transaction Banking. While at Deutsche Bank, he served as a director on TCH’s Payments Company Board for several years and was on the board of Deutsche Bank Trust Company Delaware.
 
Mr. Watson holds a degree in Business from Edinburgh University in his native Scotland and has lived in Germany, the UK, and the U.S.

Mr. Alexander is the Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer for The Clearing House and is responsible for directing and coordinating all technology and operations across the Company.

Prior to joining The Clearing House, Mr. Alexander was Executive Vice President, Chief Information Officer, and Head of the Technology Group at the New York Federal Reserve Bank, where he also served on the Bank’s Management Committee. Prior to being named Head of the Technology Group and CIO, Mr. Alexander led the Bank’s application development efforts, and was instrumental in the development of a Bank and System-wide architecture and for the development and completion of the Fedwire modernization.

Mr. Alexander has more than 25 years of international management and development experience with premier firms in the technology and financial services industry including Oracle and AXA Equitable. Mr. Alexander holds a B.Sc. in Computing Science and an M.B.A. from the University of Glasgow in Scotland.

Mr. Cadman is the Executive Vice President and Chief Auditor for The Clearing House and is responsible for directing and coordinating audit assurance activities across the entire Company.

Mr. Cadman has over 25 years’ of global financial services experience. Prior to joining The Clearing House, Mr. Cadman held several senior positions at Citigroup, most recently as the Managing Director and Chief Auditor for the Operations & Technology functions within the Institutional Clients Group which encompassed Capital Markets, Transaction Services, Investment Banking and Private Banking.

Prior to joining Citigroup, Mr. Cadman worked in various Risk & Technology roles for HSBC, Standard Chartered and Salomon Brothers based in London.

Simeon Fishman is the Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer for The Clearing House.  In this role, Mr. Fishman is responsible for the oversight of the Company's identification, measurement, and management of its risks such that it operates prudently and within its risk appetite.

Mr. Fishman joined The Clearing House in 2020 as Senior Vice President, Head of Enterprise Risk Management, and was elevated to his current Chief Risk Officer position in March 2022. 

Mr. Fishman has more than 20 years of experience in risk management at top tier financial institutions, including sell-side, buy-side, and FinTech firms.  Prior to joining The Clearing House, he has held various senior risk management positions at JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and AQR Capital Management, in which he was responsible for establishing risk management frameworks, and building out risk assessment, control, and risk analytics initiatives.

Mr. Fishman holds a B.Sc. in Physics and an M.Sc. in Information Technology both from the University of London in England, and holds certification as a Financial Risk Manager with the Global Association of Risk Professionals.

Dave Fortney is Executive Vice President, Product Development and Management for The Clearing House. In this capacity, Mr. Fortney is responsible for defining strategy, identifying synergistic opportunities and overseeing the development of new products for the company. Currently, Mr. Fortney is leading The Clearing House’s initiative to develop, pilot and launch a secure digital payments tokenization system.

Mr. Fortney has deep expertise in conceptualizing and growing innovative e-Finance ventures for financial institutions, financial technology providers and emerging payments companies. Prior to joining The Clearing House, Mr. Fortney held executive roles at Metavante Corporation, including President and General Manager of the organization’s ePayment Solutions Division and Chief Technology Officer. Previously, he served as EVP and CTO of Paytrust, an online bill management company and as Senior Vice President of Payments and Access Strategy for Bank of America, where he was recognized by former CEO Hugh McColl with the “Crystal Hand Grenade” Award for contributions to the bank’s pioneering e-commerce and electronic payments initiatives.

Mr. Fortney has served on a variety of industry associations, including a term as Chairman of the eFinancial Enablers Council and a Board Member of The Milwaukee Institute and The Electronic Funds Transfer Association (EFTA).

A Morehead Scholar at the University of North Carolina, Mr. Fortney graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and earned a Master’s degree in Operations Research from Stanford University.

Stephanie Heller is Executive Vice President and General Counsel of The Clearing House providing legal advice to the senior management team with respect to the company’s operations and long-term strategy and overseeing its advocacy efforts.

Prior to joining The Clearing House, Ms. Heller was a senior vice president and deputy general counsel in the Legal Group of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. During her tenure at the New York Fed, which spanned nearly 27 years, she provided legal support to the operations areas of the Bank, including funds and securities transfer services, cash and currency distribution and fiscal agency services, as well as providing legal support to the Bank on technology and procurement matters. Ms. Heller is a member of the American Bar Association’s Business Law Section.  Ms. Heller chaired the Business Law Section’s Uniform Commercial Code Committee from August 2003 to August 2006 and then served on the Section council until 2010.  Ms. Heller is a member of the American Law Institute.  She currently is a member of the Permanent Editorial Board of the UCC.  She formerly served as a member of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, Uniform State Laws Committee.

Ms. Heller was for several years on the adjunct faculty of Brooklyn Law School where she taught commercial paper and payments systems. Ms. Heller served as the American Bar Association adviser to the 2002 UCC Articles 3/4/4A drafting committee which was established under the auspices of the Uniform Law Commission and the American Law Institute. She was one of the reporters to the American Bar Association Task Force on Stored Value Products. She co-authored "The ABC’s of the UCC: Article 4A Funds Transfers” (ABA 1997; revised 2006; third edition 2014). She has also published numerous articles concerning legal aspects of funds transfers, check collection and e-commerce and lectures on payment law topics.

Ms. Heller earned her law degree from New York University in 1991 after earning a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from Stanford University.

Russ Waterhouse is Executive Vice President of Product Development and Strategy at The Clearing House. In this role, Mr. Waterhouse oversees the evolution of The Clearing House’s core payments products (RTP^® network, CHIPS^®, ACH and check image exchange) and leads its innovation efforts to support the next generation of safe, reliable and efficient payment systems for banks and their customers. Current priorities include the development and implementation of tokenization in payments and a real-time retail payments system.

Mr. Waterhouse combines expertise in technology, product development, financial services and corporate management, garnered from more than 25 years of experience with diverse U.S. and Canadian organizations.  Prior to joining The Clearing House, Mr. Waterhouse was the President of Computershare Ltd. North America, President and Chief Executive Officer of Computershare Trust Company of Canada.  He spent 10 years with Mellon Financial Corporation, holding several key roles, including: Group Vice President of ChaseMellon Shareholder Services, Chief Operating Officer of the R.M. Trust Company of Canada, Chief Financial Officer of Mellon Investor Services and Chief Financial Officer of The R.M. Trust Company of Canada.