Birchstreet Embeds Payments to Transform Hospitality

Phil Beck's journey into payments began in the mid-1990s as a banker at PNC Bank, where early exposure to treasury management sparked a lasting fascination. 

That initial interest has evolved into a career spanning over two decades across banking and technology.

Now, as Executive Vice President and General Manager at BirchStreet Pay, Beck is applying everything he has learned to transform how the hospitality industry handles payments. 

His path took him through the late-1990s internet boom, where he joined companies solving procurement and procure-to-pay challenges.

“I kept gravitating toward payments as an area that had innate interest for me as a former banker and finance person,” Beck explains. 

After nearly two decades in software, he pivoted to Capital One's commercial bank, leading the treasury function at a top-10 US bank.

That banking experience proved invaluable. Beck saw firsthand how large financial institutions solve payment problems at scale. 

When BirchStreet came calling, he recognised an opportunity to bring best practices from both worlds into a vertical that desperately needed modernisation.

BirchStreet is a market leader in procure-to-pay software-as-a-service for the hospitality industry. Founded over two decades ago, the company has built its reputation on helping hotels, restaurants and food service providers automate their procurement processes. Beck joined a year ago to lead the embedded payments strategy.