Erik Howell, Partner, has 23 years of experience in payments and fintech as both an operating executive and as a trusted advisor. A subject matter expert in payments issuing, embedded finance, and banking, Erik has advised 20+ embedded finance providers and PSPs, 50+ retailers, 100+ issuers, and a number of financial investors globally on growth strategy, geographic and product expansion, go-to-market, operating model and partner selection, implementation, and mergers and acquisitions. Erik drives unique value for Flagship’s clients by combing cross-functional subject matter expertise, strategy, and hands-on implementation to produce practical, actionable recommendations.

Prior to co-founding Flagship, Erik was Head of Transactional Banking and Small Business at Moneta Money Bank, a publicly traded bank based in Prague, where he held P&L responsibility for cards, deposits, and the small business segment. While at Moneta, Erik developed and implemented payments and daily banking go-to-market strategy, including launching new products, launching new digital onboarding channels, significantly growing the bank’s retail deposit base, optimizing the credit card business, launching a merchant acquiring alliance, negotiating and implementing vendor partnerships, migrating the bank’s card processing platform, and growing the bank’s small business segment.

Prior to Moneta, Erik was a Principal at First Annapolis Consulting and Accenture, where he was a trusted advisor to over 100 payments and fintech clients across EMEA and North America. Erik received an MBA with distinction from the University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business and a BA in International Affairs with special honors from The George Washington University.