Marina Hodges Joins SKUx to Lead Merchant Expansion of the Company’s SKUPay® Item-Level Acceptance Technology
PETERSBURG, Fla., September 29, 2025—SKUx, a leader in item-level payments acceptance and digital payment innovation, today announced Marina Hodges has joined the company’s executive team in the role of EVP of Merchant and Payments. In this newly created leadership role, Marina will be responsible for guiding the collaboration and partnership management with leading merchants, consumer packaged goods companies, and other digital payment providers critical to today’s merchants.
“I am honored to play a leadership role to realize SKUx’s vision of item-level payment transformation for merchants while driving incremental revenue growth opportunities for CPG companies and other partners,” Hodges said. “SKUx’s commitment to creating a more intelligent and efficient payment ecosystem is truly inspiring. I look forward to leveraging my knowledge and experience to help us realize our full potential and deliver unprecedented value to our customers.”
Every day billions of dollars in benefits, payments, and promotions are slowed down and stymied by legacy rails trapped in yesterday’s technology. SKUx’s patented SKUPay® technology is powering much needed change, enabling faster acceptance of social programs (SNAP, WIC), corporate wellness programs, and other item-level payment offerings through one seamless implementation. The company recently certified integrations of its item-level acceptance capabilities into several leading point-of-sale systems poised to support a large majority of U.S. grocery and big box retailers. A trailblazer in innovation, the SKUx solution is the only market offering leveraging distributed ledger technology to track the issuance and redemption of payments, providing unparalleled transparency and auditability, with a platform architecture uniquely positioned to support emerging payment types such as stablecoins and other non-traditional tenders for merchants.
“SKUx is very proud to welcome a proven leader like Marina Hodges to our executive leadership team,” said Bobby Tinsley, CEO and co-founder at SKUx. “Her extensive retail and payments industry insights and relationships combined with her operational and execution prowess will open tremendous opportunities for SKUx.”
Marina Hodges Biography
Marina is a senior executive leader bringing diverse and extensive experience in merchant strategy and execution, with a proven track record of creating transformational new lines of business across all aspects of the broader payment, grocery, and big box retail ecosystem. She is joining SKUx after nearly seven years at Blackhawk Network where she led global product marketing focused on developing new products and services based on emerging market needs and trends. Prior to Blackhawk Network, Marina ran financial services at HEB Grocery Company and led global treasury programs and the global expansion of Walmart Financial Services, negotiating global commercial contracts and playing a pivotal role in the rollout and success of Walmart’s directed spend platform.
Marina is regularly called upon to speak or provide industry expertise, including in such forums as Women in Incentives, Women in Payments, the Incentives Gift Card Coalition, the FTC’s Stop Senior Scams Act Advisory Committee, and the Retail Gift Card Association, where she also served as a past Chair. She has been interviewed and quoted in numerous publications, including Forbes, US News & World Report, HR.com, Wise Marketer, and Customer Think.
About SKUx
SKUx is unlocking value with every transaction. With mobile phones, qr codes, virtual cards, and app-based payments now ubiquitous tools of commerce, SKUx is enabling brands to deliver personalized, seamless and impactful buying experiences that drive loyalty, financial inclusion and wellness over our network. The multi-patented SKUx platform is enabling the shift to trusted and universal item-level acceptance and engagement for consumers, merchants, brands, banks, payment networks and processors. For more information, visit skux.io
