Payments veteran Jeff White joins Arkonyk as advisor
Former head of US acquiring at Mastercard and Acquirer Collaboration lead at Ethoca will help drive adoption of Descriptors.com among acquirers and ISOs.
CLEVELAND, November 2, 2026 — Arkonyk, the payments intelligence company, today announced that Jeff White has joined as an advisor. White, who led US acquiring at Mastercard and later led Acquirer Collaboration at Ethoca, will advise Arkonyk on its acquirer and ISO strategy for Descriptors.com, its merchant identity registry for billing descriptors.
White and Arkonyk founder and CEO Rick Lynch met when Lynch was at DisputeHelp, where Lynch backed the Acquirer Collaboration effort at a time when many resellers were reluctant to participate.
“I met Rick when he was at DisputeHelp and we were building Acquirer Collaboration. A lot of the market didn’t want to participate, but Rick embraced it. He knew he needed the acquirers, and he trusted me to lead those conversations with the relationships I had. When he told me where he was headed and that he wanted me involved because of what we did together, it wasn’t a hard decision. I rarely announce advisory roles. I’m proud of this one, not only because Rick is a dear friend, but because I believe in the mission Arkonyk is on,” said White.
“The industry has worked on descriptors for years from the middle of the ecosystem, and it’s a hard problem to solve from there. Acquirers, networks and issuers each see only a piece of the picture. Arkonyk goes back to the source, the merchant, who knows how they want to be known. Merchants hate chargebacks, and every percentage point that comes off is a real benefit to them,” White added.
“Jeff is a man of action. He knows payments and disputes inside and out, and most importantly, he understands the challenges, concerns and motivations of the acquiring industry,” said Rick Lynch, Founder and CEO of Arkonyk. “If we’re going to help this industry shift collectively toward a better way of doing things, having Jeff’s support and advocacy is step one. We’re fortunate to have him in our corner.”
About Jeff White
Jeff White is a payments executive and a senior advisor with MAPP Advisors. Over a 38-year career he held roles at Mastercard across three separate stints, including leading US acquiring, and worked on the acquirer and processor side of the business. He led Acquirer Collaboration at Ethoca and is the founder of Reclaim Lifestyles LLC, an exercise app for less active adults.
About Arkonyk
Arkonyk is a payments intelligence company on a mission to bring truth to payments. Its flagship product, Descriptors.com, tackles one of the most preventable causes of chargebacks: cardholders who don’t recognize the merchant name on their statement. Descriptors.com is a neutral data layer that maps every billing descriptor to a verified, enriched and authoritative merchant profile.
The platform gives acquirers and ISOs a live risk signal across their portfolios, including consumer search activity, volume, descriptor collisions, friction alerts and compliance issues. Arkonyk also offers a free utility, WhoBilled.me, powered by Descriptors.com, where cardholders can look up any charge. The company’s portfolio also includes FeeSuite, a payments reconciliation platform, and ARKITEKT, its payments advisory practice. Learn more at arkonyk.com or become an early adopter at descriptors.com.