Leadership: Laura Gibson-Lamothe

Laura Gibson-Lamothe, Executive Director, Georgia Fintech Academy

Tom Oder wrote Georgia’s Fintech Evolution for the March 2025 issue of Georgia Trend’s Business section. 

Georgia Fintech Academy is is a talent development initiative for any student to learn more about fintech (financial technology) and interact with fintech employers.

He interviewed Laura Gibson-Lamothe for the feature: 

Why is this your dream job?

It aligns with my passion for giving back and working with the next generation. I have been doing that outside of my roles in the industry – as a volunteer or in my capacity serving on various boards. Now it’s my main priority, my main focus, so, I have put all of my energy into this. I am highly motivated to help students navigate their pathways into the industry.

Tell me about the importance of importance of the Fintech Academy to the Fintech industry in Georgia.

It’s vast, with the number of fintech companies exceeding 260. Given the volume of payment processing that takes place here in Georgia, those resources and opportunities are plentiful. Aligning it with the academic excellence that we have in Georgia has been the mission and goal for the academy, bridging the gap between industry and academia. Providing students the education, training, access and exposure and helping them gain job opportunities in the industry is the end goal. Being able to facilitate that here has been amazing to experience.

Seeing students take advantage of resources to find opportunities for economic development, wealth and financial success has been amazing to witness.  

How many graduates stay in Georgia?

As far as the alumni that we remain close with, a lot of them are staying here in Georgia because the opportunities are so vast. 

How have you moved the academy forward since you’ve been Executive Director? 

We’ve been optimizing opportunities for students to gain industry exposure. Through a partnership with the ICBA, Independent Community Bankers Association, faculty members and TAG Fintech Society leaders helped provide students experiential learning opportunities.

We provide students with external exposure, to grow and increase our industry relationships and partnerships. Year after year since I’ve joined, we’ve cultivated internships and job opportunities. It’s a lot of legwork from a talent development and acquisition strategy perspective. We work with our partners to identify roles and opportunities and bring them to our students. Our career fairs are what we call “immersion experiences” where students go to the office. We’re getting innovative and creative with the ways that we’re helping students find jobs. 

Tell me about your vision for the future of the academy.

The vision for the academy is to continue to expand our engagement across the university system.

We’re working within the USG and their colleges and institutions, marketing and promoting the opportunities and salary potential in fintech so that students come into the program from their respective universities. It’s an investment we make to drive engagement.

The curriculum is our bread and butter, but we also have a weekly speaker series each semester and virtual career fairs. These provide accessibility across the entire university system so students can connect and participate from Columbus and Savannah to Central Atlanta. We also have a co-hosted student podcast that we try to do at least twice a month where students get to engage with leaders and ask questions pertaining to emerging trends and relevant industry topics. We do a lot of things that all continue to scale as we continue to grow.

One thing I’m excited about is incubating innovative ideas. Early-stage conversations with passionate students about solutions in the fintech and payments industries have led to student pitches where they received scholarship dollars for presenting to industry leaders. These innovations help plant the seed for entrepreneurship. 

You’re based at Georgia State, but the academy itself, is that sort of a broad-based term where students all across the system are taking fintech courses? 

Yes. I like to say, “curriculum as a service.”

We’re unique in the fact that we’re headquartered at Georgia State. We’re a University System of Georgia initiative, and underneath that umbrella, we have created access to curriculum across the university system so universities can, through a cooperative agreement, tap into the Georgia Fintech Academy’s offerings. 

When fintech started, I think the focus was payment processing, but has fintech expanded into other areas? 

When we first started out, we did fintech foundation courses, and payments and banking were another focus. We developed our data science, machine learning and cybersecurity offerings, and we continue to expand across several disciplinary areas. At this point, we even have some courses that are focused on emerging trends like blockchain and other use cases of artificial intelligence.

We now have about 42 courses that are considered underneath the Georgia Fintech Academy umbrella that are either offered online or on campus. 

Laura Gibson-Lamothe was named one of the GEORGIA 500 for 2024. Read her profile here in the 2024 edition of GEORGIA 500 – The State’s Most Influential Leaders. 

Read Next: Georgia’s Fintech Evolution, March 2025