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The Future of Financial Services: Skills Every Leader Needs in the Next Five Years
July 14, 2026
ZOOM Online | 2PM EST
Set Yourself Up for Success
Speakers: Mary Jo Terry | Rebekah Luebcke
The Industry Is Changing Faster Than Ever
Five years ago, most organizations weren’t talking about AI, automation, embedded finance, or digital customer experiences the way they are today. The pace of change has accelerated dramatically.
- What is the biggest shift you’ve seen in our industry over the last five years?
- Which trends do you think leaders are underestimating?
- What changes are coming that people aren’t preparing for?
- If someone wants to remain valuable over the next decade, where should they invest their time today?
AI Isn’t Replacing Leaders—It’s Changing Leadership
AI is becoming part of nearly every function, from marketing and underwriting to compliance and customer service. The differentiator won’t be whether leaders use AI, but how they use it.
- How are you personally using AI today?
- Where has AI made the biggest impact on your team?
- What work should never be delegated to AI?
- How do leaders encourage innovation without creating fear among employees?
- What’s one AI tool every professional should experiment with?
The Human Skills Becoming More Valuable
As technology advances, human skills become even more valuable.
- Which soft skills have become more important than technical skills?
- What communication mistakes do you see young professionals making?
- How do leaders build trust in remote and hybrid environments?
- What separates high performers from everyone else today?
- Has emotional intelligence become more important than it was five years ago?
Adaptability Is the New Competitive Advantage
Careers are increasingly built by continuously learning, pivoting, and reinventing.
- Tell us about a time you had to completely pivot professionally.
- How do you personally stay ahead of industry changes?
- What habits help you remain adaptable?
- How do you encourage your teams to embrace change instead of resisting it?
- What’s something you intentionally learned recently that wasn’t required for your job?
Advice for Future Leaders
The future belongs to professionals who remain curious, adaptable, and committed to continuous growth. Leadership is no longer defined by experience alone, but by the willingness to learn, collaborate, and lead through change.
- What advice would you give someone entering financial services today?
- What skill will be most valuable five years from now?
- What’s one leadership lesson you wish you had learned earlier?
- How should professionals think about networking differently today?
- If you could tell every attendee to start doing one thing tomorrow, what would it be?
The Industry Is Changing Faster Than Ever
Five years ago, most organizations weren’t talking about AI, automation, embedded finance, or digital customer experiences the way they are today. The pace of change has accelerated dramatically.
AI Isn’t Replacing Leaders—It’s Changing Leadership
AI is becoming part of nearly every function, from marketing and underwriting to compliance and customer service. The differentiator won’t be whether leaders use AI, but how they use it.
The Human Skills Becoming More Valuable
As technology advances, human skills become even more valuable.
Adaptability Is the New Competitive Advantage
Careers are increasingly built by continuously learning, pivoting, and reinventing.
Advice for Future Leaders
The future belongs to professionals who remain curious, adaptable, and committed to continuous growth. Leadership is no longer defined by experience alone, but by the willingness to learn, collaborate, and lead through change.
About Mary Jo Terry
Mary Jo currently serves as the Chief Operating Officer and Managing Partner of Alt Lending, LLC and has been a leader in the consumer lending industry since 1993. With more than 30 years of executive and strategic management experience, she has held executive leadership roles with national consumer lending and loan servicing organizations, overseeing operations, loan origination, servicing, refinancing, and high-performing operational teams.
Prior to joining Alt Lending, LLC, Mary Jo was a founding partner of Yrefy, LLC, where she served from 2017 through 2023. During her tenure, Yrefy became a national consumer lending company specializing in refinancing private education loans. She played a key role in the company’s operational strategy and nationwide expansion while helping consumers improve their financial position through customized lending solutions.
Earlier in her career, Mary Jo founded and owned The Student Loan Processors, a consumer education lending company that grew to nearly $1 billion in annual loan originations before being acquired by National Lending Associates. She was also a key stakeholder in a three-year initiative to develop a federal financial aid management software platform, which was subsequently acquired by Oracle.
Mary Jo earned her bachelor’s degree from Ottawa University and continues to leverage her extensive experience to lead organizations through growth, operational excellence, and innovation within the consumer lending industry.
About Rebekah Luebcke
Rebekah Luebcke serves as Chief Operating Officer of Invenio Financial, where she oversees operational strategy, inventory management, vendor performance, and operational support functions across the organization. Ms. Luebcke brings more than 20 years of experience in receivables management, financial services operations, and compliance collaboration, including operations leadership roles with two prominent debt buyers and prior leadership experience in payments processing and revenue cycle management. Throughout her career, she has led initiatives focused on operational optimization, collection vendor oversight, litigation network management, performance strategy, change management, and regulatory readiness. Within the industry, Ms. Luebcke currently serves as Chair of the (RMAI) Industry Research Working Group and is a member of various other committees and working groups. She previously served on the Fintech Legal Working Group, contributing to the development of RMAI’s fintech asset class requirements adopted in 2022 and related industry resource papers addressing fintech receivables and chain of title considerations. Ms. Luebcke holds a Master of Music Education and Bachelor of Arts in Music from The University of Mississippi, is an RMAI Certified Receivables Compliance Professional (CRCP), and was recognized with the 2022 RMAI President’s Award and the 2025 Women in Consumer Finance Visionary Leadership Award.
