One to One Interview: Megan Cook, Chief Accounting Officer at ShipMoney By Lacey Jones

In November 2025, Container Management Magazine published a one to one interview by Lacey Jones featuring Megan Cook, Chief Accounting Officer at ShipMoney.

In this interview, Megan shares her personal background, her early career in international banking, her first intense trip abroad, and her journey into the maritime industry. She also reflects on risk, leadership, and life outside work.

The interview is reproduced with permission from Container Management Magazine. You can read the original version in their e magazine here: https://container-mag.com/cm-november-2025/
 

Q: Where did you grow up?

A: I grew up in Grove, Oklahoma, which is a small rural community about an hour and a half from where I live now. I can trace my family roots here back to my great grandpar ents. It was a nice place to grow up. I actually grew up not even inside the small town but outside it in the middle of the woods.
 

Q: What was your early career like?

A: I considered doing psychology at Univer sity of Missouri. I actually looked into prison psychology, visited a maximum-security prison and then decided maybe I’m a little too soft hearted for that path, so I transferred to University of Oklahoma.

When you come from a small town, you’re not always aware of all the opportunities that are out there, but I discovered just how large the world is during the early part of my career when I spent 12 years working in African banking at the Visa processing company Global Technology Partners.

It’s perhaps funny as someone from Grove that my first trip out of the country was to Ghana. On that trip, I also went to Austria, London and Paris, all in one – just like, welcome to international travel, Megan! It was quite an experience.

My mum would tell me I picked the one career where perfection is standard, and that’s how I’ve been since a child, a little bit of a perfectionist. Everything always balances everything, so it’s in my makeup and, also, I would say I like to understand every aspect of risk. All good traits for my chosen career.
 

Q: How was your first trip out of the country?

A: It was eventful. Before I’d even made my way to the airport, there was a shortage of yellow fever vaccines because of an outbreak in Brazil and I needed to take a trial drug. I f lew from Tulsa, Atlanta, to Amsterdam and then a second flight from Amsterdam to Ghana, during which we had no Wi-Fi. The plane was not equipped, so I was cut off for hours

In that short period of time, my son needed to have emergency surgery, so I was just unaware the whole flight. My husband, thank goodness, he’s on it. He took care of it. I landed in Ghana, had some trouble coming through because a couple of my colleagues had issues – one forgot his yellow fever card, and the other was questioned because her passport was nearing expiry.

So, I’m standing there, alone, sweating profusely because it’s 150° with no AC in the airport. Everything doesn’t feel right, so I called home and found out about my son’s operation. That was just the beginning of my journey!

It was an intense trip. Since then, I know to plan a bit better and my son jokingly says he only has one appendix, so I don’t have to worry about that again!
 

Q: How did you get into maritime?

A: I’m lucky to have the mentor that I’ve had. I started with him about 20 years ago, after college, had a couple of jobs in between, then went into African card processing. These were divisions of his business. That entity was sold 12 years ago and, almost 13 years ago, Stuart Ostrow, co-founder and president of ShipMoney, met with, I call him the patriarch, Bob Merrick, and they birthed ShipMoney.

I remember the first time I met Stuart, the idea of it, just the excitement. I really have been around since the beginning as I did file the incorporation paperwork for the company.

 

Q: What do you like to do outside of work?

A: I’ve been married for over 21 years. We have two sons – one is in college, and then a 12-year-old. So, right now, probably my hobbies outside of work involve chasing the 12-year-old to whatever he’s doing. Otherwise, I’ll try a little bit of anything, really. I like to craft. I’m kind of an old soul. Last week I worked on making bingo prizes for the retirement home. But my husband is way more fun than I am – we recently went spoonbill fishing. I caught a fish that was as tall as I am, which is the sort of activity I would definitely not seek out on my own!

 

Q: What’s the most memorable experi ence your husband has talked you into?

A: He took me parasailing, and I was brave that day. I was thinking, yeah, I can do this. I’m afraid of heights. Before we go up, they tell me there are schools of black tipped sharks.

So, we go up, you’re sitting on the swing, and I do not feel like they fastened me in. I’m white knuckling, and telling my parents, who are on the boat, waving at us, taking my picture, while I’m saying please bring us back. They think I’m saying look at the sharks!

It was a good 10 minutes of just fear. Sometimes I agree to these things and then it’s too late. I will never forget that because they usually dip you in the water and I was like, do not dip us with sharks. I have bad luck. I will, for sure, come up without a leg.

Some of the experiences he’s talked me into have been very memorable – perhaps because of the mild terror or trauma! When it comes to paragliding over sharks, the good news is that I can say I’ve done it. I did it once, so I never have to do it again!

 

Editor’s note: This interview highlights the personal side of leadership in maritime finance and the importance of risk awareness in global operations.

This interview was originally published in Container Management Magazine, November 2025. Written by Lacey Jones. Reproduced with permission. Original article available at container-mag.com.