2009– Current ***** Group (www.*****group.com) Chicago, IL
CEO – ***** Group is a corporate development boutique serving as a trusted advisor to C-level executives and investors in financial services. Clients include: American Express, Capital One, Dun and Bradstreet, Discover, MasterCard, JP Morgan Chase, Providian, Sears, Texas Pacific Group (TPG) Visa, as well as smaller entrepreneurial companies such as ReputationDefender and Prepaid Solutions. Specific engagements include:


• Led a global market sizing study of prepaid debit and mobile payments for a major payment network. Identified and prioritized most attractive product and market opportunities. Have been engaged to follow-up the market sizing with country specific plans to initiate and grow the transaction volume and market share by winning key bank and processing partnership commitments.
• Due diligence for private equity funds for acquisitions in the payment industry. Led post merger teams in operations, risk management and marketing. Specific engagements include support of Navigation Capital Partners acquisition of Prepaid Solutions from West Suburban Bank.
• Assisted the leading reputation management company, Redwood City based ReputationDefender successfully raise a Series B round of funding from Bessemer Ventures and Kleiner Perkins.
• Development of a customer data and contact strategy for a leading loyalty and reward business. Identified and implemented improvements in call center telecom and web technology to enable those new data analytic tools and processes.
• Business plan development and implementation support for a pre paid card program for the underbanked including credit product. Developed call center and transaction processing platform.

2005 – 2009 Global Card Solutions Chicago, IL
CEO and Investor- A marketer of prepaid debit cards. Re-launched business, redirecting market focus to the under-banked Hispanic market. Reconfigured product features, added reward and loyalty component, distribution and operations. Established transaction processing and multi-lingual call center infrastructure and operations. Led sale of company to private investor group.

1998 – 2005 nekema (Kemper) Chicago, IL
CEO and Investor of nekema unit - Founded nekema, a joint venture of Kemper, IBM and Madison Consulting. Provided online small business insurance services.
Negotiated key partner relationships with industry associations, agents and financial institutions. Established call center operations to support online and telemarketing sales and service functions. Achieved $20 million in revenue and profitability prior to sale to Atlantic Mutual. Led post merger management initiatives in marketing and sales.

***** Visa International Foster City, CA
***** SVP – Emerging Markets and Technology Identified and invested in emerging financial services and technologies Managed investment in ***** Marketplace, a joint venture combining ***** search capabilities with Visa’s payment transaction security. Worked with emerging alternative payment systems to develop online payment services, secured card programs, business development programs and marketing strategies. Led partnership with Thomas Cook developing a global call center to support international Visa cardholder customer service.
***** SVP – Global Consumer Credit Products Responsible for worldwide strategy, product development, product positioning and transaction growth. Designed and executed global Visa co-branding program for retail, travel, telecom and technology industries that enabled Visa to gain dominant co-brand share versus MasterCard and American Express. Successfully launched over two dozen programs with a focus on the Asia Pacific and Latin America regions. Worked with regional teams to support post-launch operations.

***** Ameritech Chicago, IL
VP – General Manager Credit Card Services
Lead Ameritech executive for this Ameritech and Household joint venture. Established Ameritech Complete Card Brand, first use of Ameritech consumer branding. Applied customer lifetime value analysis to marketing programs, profitably growing receivables to $500 million. Implemented new call center that leveraged and integrated operations of Amertitech telecom customer service with Household credit services to improve inbound and outbound telemarketing effectiveness and customer service performance. Grew product line to include T&E card, purchasing card and secured card products.
***** General Electric Capital Stamford, CT/Cincinnati, OH
***** Vice Chairman and Chief Marketing Officer – Monogram Bank USA
Developed and implemented a “private label” strategy. Grew assets to $1.3 billion. Successfully directed six bankcard portfolio acquisitions. Led post acquisition management to assure we achieved targeted expense savings and revenue gains. Led implementation of digital document imaging technology to improve call center productivity. Supported extension of private label retail credit card programs into the Asia Pacific and Latin America regions. Extended product line to include GE employee, secured and purchasing card products.
***** Strategic Account Manager – The Monogram Bank
Launched The Monogram Bank, a venture of GE Capital focused on bankcard products. Directed growth from de novo programs to portfolio and reward program acquisitions, achieving $400 Million in profitable growth. Re-negotiated processor contract reduced unit costs by 35%.
***** Neiman-Marcus Dallas, TX
***** Director of Credit
Consolidated four regional credit service and call centers into a single national center, within 120 days. Introduced new call management technology and credit authorization models that improved management control and customer service while reducing operating expenses by 25% and credit losses by 10%.
***** Director of Credit Marketing
Supported generation of $100 million in credit card sales. Grew credit card base from 2 Million to 2.5 Million.

***** Harvard Graduate School of Business Boston, MA
Master in Business Administration. Harvard University National Fellow.
***** Harvard College Cambridge, MA
Bachelor of Arts Economics cum laude. Harvard College National Scholar. Boydon Scholar. Earned degree in three years.

Current
Board Member Harvard Club of Chicago, Fund Agent Harvard Business School

Previous
MasterCard USA and Visa International Marketing Boards, Visa USA Market Research Board. Board Member Music of the Baroque.

CEO and CMO for business units of Fortune 100 financial services companies. CEO and founder of two successful start-up companies. Lead role in over a dozen merger and acquisition transactions. Extensive post merger and acquisition management, turnaround, new product and emerging market experience. Multiple successful implementations of new technologies to improve infrastructure and product performance with a focus on call center operations, direct marketing and transaction processing.

KEY SKILLS
C-level executive with extensive payments and marketing experience who thrives on the challenges of a new markets, technologies, products and businesses.
• Successful P&L and M&A experience. Have led due diligence and post merger and acquisition management teams for over a dozen mergers and acquisitions in financial services.
• Led over twenty infrastructure improvement projects for financial services companies with a focus on call centers and transaction processing operations and technology platforms.
• Experience with new products and marketing technologies that are changing an industry.
• Ability to build teams and identify industry partners to work with to advance the business from plan to profitable operations.
• Strong analytic skills that enable my teams to quickly identify weaknesses in a business strategy or business plan execution and make the necessary adjustments to tactics or resources.
• Outstanding communication skills with board members, investors and C-level executives as well as peers and team members.




KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Leading businesses and programs from concept to successful operation.

• At Visa International I identified and invested in emerging payment and support services, including online marketing and call center technologies. I also led international co-branded card program development, successfully launching over two dozen major programs in the Asia Pacific and Latin America regions, leveraging Visa and member bank marketing and call center capabilities.
• At GE I launched a credit card venture, growing it to $1.3 billion in assets and over $200 million in revenue, growth was driven by acquisition of multiple co-branded card loyalty and reward programs, and aggressive direct marketing and telemarketing campaigns.
• For TPG a leading global private equity firm I led the credit and call center operations due diligence for their successful acquisition of Nissin Leasing a Shanghai based equipment leasing company serving the SME market in China
• For a joint venture of Household International and Ameritech I led the Complete Card a co-branded card loyalty program growing the business from concept to over $500 million in assets and $100 million in revenue. Successfully integrated Household bankcard call center support with Ameritech telecommunications call center services.
• As CEO of Global Card Solutions I successfully relaunched this prepaid MasterCard business, developing new distribution, reconfiguring the core product and adding a comprehensive reward and loyalty program. Negotiated and implemented multi-lingual call center relationship to support business customer service needs.
• For Kemper Insurance I co-founded an online insurance marketplace with investment from IBM, Kemper and Madison Consulting Group. Designed and implemented multi-channel customer and partner support center, integrating telephone and online platforms.
• For the Center for Financial Service Innovation, a non-profit organization, I worked with leadership to identify, develop, and invest in innovative financial services and required call center support for the underbanked market.