ETA Hall of Fame: Celebrating the Advocates and Innovators of the Electronic Payments Profession

By Josephine Rossi and Christine Umbrell

ETA Hall of Fame inductees, from left to right. Back: Ed Labry, Paul Garcia, Brandon Kaplan and Danielle Kaplan (accepting on behalf of Joe Kaplan). Front: Chuck Burtzloff, Diane Faro.

Eight visionaries within the electronic payments industry were honored as the inaugural class of ETA’s Hall of Fame in October. ETA established its Hall of Fame to recognize the achievements of professionals from all corners of the industry who have made significant and lasting contributions to the payments world. The inductees were honored at the ETA Hall of Fame Breakfast, presented by Visa, during ETA’s Strategic Leadership Forum in Dana Point, California.

These individuals—early pioneers of electronic payments and practicing professionals recognized as game changers—have all made important contributions to the industry and have helped drive positive change to the economy.

CHUCK BURTZLOFF

Hall of Fame inductee Chuck Burtzloff (center), Card Services International founder, is joined by ETA Hall of Fame selection committee member John Barrett (right) and ETA CEO Jason Oxman (left).

“Streamlined merchant boarding” and “omnichannel commerce” are common concepts for today’s payments professional, but for Chuck Burtzloff, these notions were top of mind more than 30 years ago when he launched what would become a legacy business and famous career in the industry.

Burtzloff started Cardservice International (CSI) in 1988 in his living room alongside his wife, Lisa, with the idea that an easier account-approval process, sales support, and quality risk management would bring more sales agents into the fold. That idea paid off. Within 10 years, Burtzloff had grown the company into one of the largest privately owned businesses in the industry, processing every type of electronic payment method at that time—including credit, debit, electronic benefits transfer, and electronic checks—for tens of thousands of merchants. By 2001, an industry trade publication reported CSI as servicing 200,000 merchants and 125 million transactions annually with the help of 800 employees and 2,500 sales agents nationwide.

With a reputation as having “one of the most sophisticated, state-of-the-art exception processing and loss prevention systems in the industry” and “best practices in meeting the needs of its non-face-to-face, internet, and traditional merchant clients,” CSI captured the interest of First Data, which acquired 50 percent ownership interest in CSI in 1997 and full ownership interest at the end of 2001, according to a First Data press release at that time.

“The combined strength of First Data and Cardservice will enable us to deliver specialized payment-processing solutions to a broader base of merchants,” said Pam Patsley, then president of First Data Merchant Services and senior executive vice president of First Data in the same release. “This acquisition augments First Data’s core strengths with Cardservice’s unique business model and specialty services such as sales support and risk management. That includes capitalizing on the highly successful Cardservice network of sales agents.”

“He was ahead of his time,” said John Barrett, president of NXGEN Payment Services, who served on the Hall of Fame Nominating Committee and who introduced Burtzloff during the breakfast event. Calling Burtzloff “a visionary who took advantage of a new technology [the internet],” Barrett credited him with the development of an online application process in the early 2000s that “basically opened up the e-commerce world to payments” and “clearly paved the way for the industry going forward.

“There are a lot of people in this room and in this industry who are alumni of Cardservice International, and a lot of people in this room would not be here, or not be as successful, in this industry if it were not for Chuck and for Cardservice International,” Barrett told the audience. “That program that he developed as a model—even today a lot of companies try to emulate and try to copy, to be as successful as Chuck.”

DIANE FARO

Hall of Fame inductee Diane Faro (center), CEO of JetPay, is joined by ETA Hall of Fame selection committee member Holli Targan (right) and ETA CEO Jason Oxman (left).

With more than 40 years in the financial services industry, Diane Faro, CEO of JetPay, has made a career out of strategically growing companies and compassionately leading people, and her work has touched nearly every aspect of the payments industry.

Like other inductees, Faro has witnessed great change over the years. She started her career in the 1970s at First Chicago Bank, where she was offered a position in the payments division. At that time, the business was “paper intensive,” she says. But over the years and with the electronification of payments and the advent of e-commerce came opportunities. Faro made early inroads with large Fortune 500 companies, such as Walmart and Starbucks, and she used her payments acumen to collaborate with them and implement electronic payments acceptance for their customers.

Those relationships became a pivotal part of Faro’s thriving career, which has spanned a number of organizations. For five years, Faro was CEO of Chase Merchant Services. Later, in 2002, she moved to First Data, where she was president of the Alliance Group for First Data Merchant Services and was responsible for annualized revenues in excess of $600 million on processing volumes of $350 billion. In 2005, she advanced to the role of president of Global Merchant Services when she oversaw more than $1 billion in annualized revenues at First Data. Prior to joining JetPay, Faro was president and partner of National Benefit Programs, which provides brand loyalty and discount programs for small- and medium-sized businesses. She also served on advisory boards for Visa and Mastercard and held board positions with Merchant Link and Front Stream Payments.

Beyond providing strategic direction for payments companies, Faro’s influence has affected industry nonprofits. She served as a board member for ETA for nine years, including her tenure as president in 2004-2005, when her decisions during that time are credited with setting the foundation for the organization’s growth.

Faro also is passionate about leadership development, with a special focus on mentoring and advising professional women, and she is a cofounder of Women Networking in Electronic Transactions.

“It’s a hard balance—life and work,” she says. “I was aggressive and wanted to grow my career, not just be working a ‘job’ … I always tell young women to prioritize what’s important to you. You need to be aggressive, yes, if you want to grow in your career, but especially today, you can balance both a lot better than you could decades ago.”

Faro also is profoundly grateful to the colleagues and mentors she’s had along the way. “I always believe we’re a team. We’re not an ‘I.’ I’ve had some great leaders in my career who helped me get to where I’m at today, and I’m thankful for them,” she explains.

“No one accomplishes everything that Diane has attained without significant business and interpersonal talent,” said Holli Targan, partner at Jaffe Raitt Heuer & Weiss and a member of the Hall of Fame Nominating Committee, when introducing Faro at the breakfast event. “But it’s really her personal touch that sets Diane apart from others. She has that unique ability to bring out the best in everyone around her, allowing them to shine and reach their full potential. Her influence on the many organizations she has worked with creates an enduring legacy on the payments industry.”

PAUL GARCIA

Hall of Fame inductee Paul Garcia (center), former CEO of Global Payments, Inc., is joined by current Global Payments CEO Jeff Sloan (right) and ETA CEO Jason Oxman (left).

Among Paul Garcia’s greatest contributions to the payments industry was his leadership during a time of unprecedented international growth. During his 12-year tenure at Global Payments Inc., Garcia spearheaded expansion that grew the company from a $300 million spinoff of National Data Corp. to a $2.5 billion global payments processing giant, with 3,700 employees in 26 countries.

The fast pace of growth at Global Payments stemmed from a recognition of “dramatic opportunities” outside of U.S. borders and an understanding that many financial institutions were not yet maximizing their potential. So, Garcia and his team focused on banks and expanded into Canada, Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, and beyond—ultimately building the company into a high-profile provider of electronic transaction processing services for merchants, ISOs, financial institutions, government agencies, and corporations.

In addition to seizing opportunities, Garcia has been able to see “the bigger picture” and become proactive when faced with change. When expanding overseas, for example, Garcia studied the cultural differences, adapted to language and time zone challenges, and hired local managers for Global’s international businesses. “The important thing is to hire good people” and give them objectives, he says.

Under Garcia’s leadership, Global Payments became a preeminent payments processing force. He presided over the company’s IPO and led a mergers-and-acquisitions foray into software markets that substantially changed the payments landscape. In 2017, an investment analyst called Garcia’s acquisition of APT in 2012 a “milestone event” in payments technology, embedding payments processors and merchant acquirers into their clients’ workflow through value-added resellers (VARs) and independent software providers (ISVs). He was named one of the “Best CEOs in America” five times by Institutional Investor magazine.

Before driving international growth at Global Payments, Garcia contributed to the success of several other payments companies. He says he “grew up with” payments as a teenager, hearing about the business from his father—one of the early innovators at American Express and Diner’s Club. After college, Garcia took a job at Citi and eventually held positions as CEO of NDC eCommerce, a division of National Data Corp.; president and CEO of Productivity Point International; group president of First Data Card Services; and CEO of National Bancard Corp.

Garcia believes the payments space is a “great business to be in,” citing several factors as reasons why this “fantastic” industry will continue to be successful: “There’s inherent growth and great cash flows, you get your money right away, and it’s almost all recurring revenue,” he says. Garcia acknowledges that growth through acquisition has become more challenging recently. “It used to be that prices were so good, you could expand easily. It’s gotten tougher now—so you really need to have a good plan in place to execute,” he says.

Adaptation will continue to be important in the payments business, predicts Garcia, who retired from Global Payments five years ago, leaving the company “in excellent hands with Jeff Sloan at the helm.” Garcia continues to have a “passive involvement” in the industry, while dedicating more time to his family. Looking to the future, he believes that “we’ll be paying for things differently” as new technologies propel the industry forward, and disruptors—for example, digital currencies—make their mark. “I’m not sure how people will be paying for things in the future,” he says, “but I know they will be paying for things,” so payments professionals who evolve will be best positioned to succeed.

DEE HOCK

Dee Hock, Founder and former CEO of Visa International.

As the creative mind behind the development of Visa, Dee Hock is a perfect candidate for an inaugural inductee into the ETA Hall of Fame. The founder and former CEO of Visa International, Hock is credited with creating the business that, since its founding 48 years ago, has grown into the largest system for the exchange of value in the world.

In the late 1960s, Hock was working as vice president at a licensee bank of Bank of America in Seattle. At that time, the credit card industry was in an early phase of disarray. Bank of America had just started licensing BankAmericard, and groups of banks had formed to issue MasterCharge. Other banks had started issuing their own cards with proprietary logos. With so many cards being issued under different names, the systems in place to exchange and verify transactions were chaotic.

Executives at Bank of America called a meeting to determine how to improve transaction systems and improve its brand. Hock—a frequent critic of hierarchical organizational structures—attended the meeting and suggested studying the issues in a more systematic manner; he was tapped to chair a committee to do just that.

The committee spent a week rethinking the system, ultimately agreeing to create an entirely different type of organization: a nonstock, for-profit membership corporation with ownership in the form of nontransferable rights of participation. In 1970, the BankAmericard system passed to a new entity, National Bankamericard Inc. (NBI), with Hock installed as president and CEO. He is credited as the architect of the modern payments infrastructure, having played a central role in organizing banking leaders around a common effort at facilitating global transactions. Under NBI, which changed its name to the simpler “Visa” in 1976, banks participated in a common clearinghouse operation and were encouraged to compete and innovate.

While the card brand grew quickly under his leadership, Hock resigned from Visa in 1984 at age 55. He has spent time since then developing new models of social and business organizations; he also founded the Chaordic Alliance, a group that develops and implements new concepts of organization. He was inducted into the Business Hall of Fame in 1991 and the Money magazine Hall of Fame in 1992. He has said he still spends time thinking about how to create a global governing force and a truly global currency.

During a recent interview with Visa CEO Al Kelly, published in Visa at 60: A Digital Odyssey, Hock recalled that his business decisions while working at Bank of America and Visa stemmed from his desire to get at the core meaning of all things—including money and credit. “I would ask myself questions like: Why do we call it a credit card? What exactly is a bank? What is money? What does the consumer really need?” he told Kelly. “It occurred to me that money was nothing but alphanumeric data. Well, that, and trust. And that one day currency would be held not in paper form, but in the form of arranged electrons and photons, and they would move around the world at the speed of light.” Hock’s early musings show what a true visionary he was—foreseeing the rapid transformation of the electronic payments industry.

JOE KAPLAN

Joe Kaplan, CEO of Paya.

“Trailblazer” is the word most commonly used to describe Joe Kaplan. A trendsetter in building sales channels, Kaplan was serving as CEO at Paya when he passed away unexpectedly in July. He was the first to create the agent or “merchant-level salesperson independent agent channel,” according to Greg Cohen, president of Paya. Kaplan was “a serial innovator in the payments business” and among the first to recognize the value of integrated payments and connected services bringing payment processing to software solutions, says Cohen. He saw endless opportunities to be different and create products and services that allowed companies to sell value instead of price.

Kaplan’s career in payments began a few years after graduating from the University of California–Los Angeles, when he took a sales job at Cardservice International while enrolled in law school. He found his true calling in payments, quit law school, and soon left Cardservice to co-found Superior Bankcard Services (SBS) with Tim Jochner in 1994. Kaplan embraced technology and grew SBS to become the 12th largest nonbank acquirer in the United States within a year. Kaplan and Jochner sold SBS in 1998, then launched a new payments company—Innovative Merchant Solutions, which was successful in its own right before being purchased by Intuit in 2003. Kaplan remained in a leadership position with Intuit for five years. In 2012, Kaplan was hired as CEO of Total Merchant Services, overseeing tremendous growth until the sale of the company to North American Bancard in 2017. In September 2017, Kaplan was brought in as CEO of Sage Payment Solutions by private equity firm GTCR. He led the company’s rebrand to Paya and was serving in that position at the time of his death.

Kaplan was “larger than life,” according to Cohen. He was “transparent, with no hidden agenda,” was generous in offering free advice, and created a culture of community at his companies. “He built teams through connections and implemented his famous ‘Meet 3’s,’ where each week employees were encouraged to meet three new people within the organization to build deeper relationships,” says Cohen. Kaplan was known to “blur the lines between work and family,” by bringing his family members to company and industry events—and bringing many of his work team into the fold he considered “family.”

A passionate volunteer, Kaplan gave back to the payments industry and mentored many of today’s payments leaders. He served on the ETA Board of Directors from 2000 to 2008 and as president from 2006 to 2007. He rejoined the ETA Board as an advisor in 2014. Kaplan also was an active member of several card network forums, including the Discover Acquirer’s Council. He was recognized with several awards during his career, including the ETA Distinguished Payments Professional and the 1998 Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards.

Kaplan was well-known for fostering relationships throughout the payments industry, with colleagues and competitors alike. “A guy who could build relationships like Joe, in a business that is so high-touch,” was a “perfect fit” for the payments industry, says Cohen. “If the payments industry could have a rock star in it, Joey would be it.”

Editor’s Note: To memorialize and honor his legacy, three payments companies—Paya, Global Payments, and North American Bancard—have joined forces in creating the Joe Kaplan Scholarship. The award will provide one exemplary leader from ETA’s membership registration to all ETA events, along with a comprehensive suite of education and mentorship opportunities in the payments industry.

ED LABRY

Hall of Fame inductee Ed Labry (center), founder of Concord EFS Inc. and longtime executive at First Data, is joined by JPMorgan Chase President of Merchant Services’ Corporate & Investment Bank President Kim Fitzsimmons (right) and ETA CEO Jason Oxman (left).

A champion of innovation and visionary leader, Ed Labry is a well-respected, life-long payments professional who has been part of the industry since the age of 16.

Those who know him best professionally describe him as an “unwavering leader,” a “generous colleague,” and a “lover of life,” whose 34-year career has been propelled by a strategic focus on success.

“Never, ever has the man ever heard ‘no,’” said Kim Fitzsimmons, president of Merchant Services Corporate and Investment Bank at JPMorgan Chase & Co., during her introduction of him at the Hall of Fame breakfast event. “He was always going to find a way, above, around, or through, to accomplish. He always led with integrity and dignity.”

Labry joined Concord EFS Inc., a high-growth processing company, in 1984 and is probably best known for his role as president of Concord when it was acquired by First Data in 2004. During his tenure at Concord, Labry was integral in the acceptance of credit and debit cards in the supermarket and quick-service restaurant industries. “You could not use your credit card in a supermarket in 1985. Now, over 80 percent of the payments in supermarkets are electronic,” he remarked during his acceptance speech.

Labry also led the movement for pay at the pump technology in 1993 and guided Concord through a series of strategic purchases, culminating with the acquisition of ETF operator Star Systems Inc. in 2000. At that time, Concord already owned the MAC network, which was processing 1.9 billion transactions, according to the LA Times. The move consolidated the PIN-based networks under the STAR Network brand name and accelerated ATM placement and acceptance of PIN-based debit at the point of sale. The transactions bridged the gap between retailers and banks, creating a lower cost of payment at the point of sale and generating new revenue for financial institutions. Under Labry’s leadership, STAR quickly became the largest PIN-based network in the United States. It remains the second largest ATM network in the country today.

After First Data’s acquisition of Concord, Labry took a number of leadership positions with the company. In 2006, he took the helm as president of First Data’s Retail and Alliance Services division. In 2011, he became president of its North American branch. In 2013, he served as interim CEO and was vice chairman when he left the company in 2014.

Labry attended the University of Alabama and graduated from Cumberland University. In 2002, Cumberland honored him with the Award of the Phoenix, the school’s highest honor. One year later, he was presented with an honorary doctorate for his role in helping develop and advance Cumberland’s business school and master’s degree program.

Labry has received various awards and honors in the payments industry, including the first-ever Distinguished Payments Professional of the Year Award by ETA in 2007.

Looking to the future, Labry sees industry growth potential in a number of technologies, including cryptocurrencies, international transfer systems, and B2B payments. “If you think about the industry and the antiquated payments with big companies and especially old companies, there’s this great opportunity to affiliate yourself with a bank and actually even give them rebates associated with B2B as it automates going forward,” he said.

FRANK MCNAMARA

Frank McNamara, Founder of Diners Club.

Considered by many to be the original credit card payments innovator, Frank McNamara conceived and executed an idea—Diners Club—that established the first credit card as a fixture of American consumer life. According to the well-known “First Supper” legend, McNamara, a New York businessman, was dining with clients in 1949 when he reached for cash to pay the check and realized that he had left his wallet in his other suit. “It was then that Frank imagined a simple, yet entirely new, idea—one charge card to be used to pay the bill at many restaurants,” explains Sheryl Yasger, vice president of brand marketing for Diners Club International.

In 1950, McNamara officially launched the first multipurpose charge card when he and his attorney, Ralph Schneider, founded Diners Club International with $1.5 million in initial capital, according to Paying With Plastic: The Digital Revolution in Buying and Borrowing. Soon after, Alfred Bloomingdale joined the venture. The company’s name came from serving a “club of diners,” with membership allowing patrons to settle their bills monthly.

Early on, McNamara convinced many restaurants in lower Manhattan to sign on to allow cardholders to use the Diners Club card at their establishments. As the first independent credit card company, McNamara’s organization brought everyday Americans access to credit in the form of a charge card that could be used at a network of merchants. Club members could charge for food and services at designated establishments and delay payment until the end of the month. Members initially paid $3 per year for the card’s service, along with a 7 percent interest rate for every charge, according to the blog “Frank McNamara and the Credit Card.” Within the first year, Diners Club grew to include 44,000 cardholders and was accepted at 400 restaurants, 200 rental car agencies, five florists, and 30 hotels, says Yasger.

While the idea behind Diners Club caught on quickly, with several companies launching similar cards, McNamara left the company in 1953 when he sold his part of the business to Schneider and Bloomingdale. He passed away four years later.

Diners Club continued to grow at a quick pace and was committed to many of the same principles first put forth by McNamara. By 1958, the organization had enlisted 19,000 businesses across 76 countries. The first plastic Diners Club card was introduced in 1960.

Today, the company continues to honor McNamara’s “spirit of pioneering thought and innovation,” says Yasger, by focusing on meeting the individual needs of both the cardholder and the merchant. Diners Club International was acquired by Citigroup in 1981 and by Discover Financial Services in April 2008, and it continues to offer personalized member services.

“Through his industriousness and business acumen, Frank took a pain point and created a meaningful solution,” says Yasger. “Frank’s insight became the genesis of modern purchasing power, and he forged an entirely new financial industry, while propelling many other industries along with it.”

DEBRA ROSSI

Debra Rossi, executive at First Data

Hailed as an innovator of e-commerce and payments leadership, Debra Rossi has forged a career in payments that almost wasn’t. A radio and television communications major in college, Rossi took a “temporary” job in a bank early in her career, and the rest, as they say, is history.

“I think what kept me with it is that [the profession] was constantly changing. And if you had the courage and fortitude, you could be part of that change,” she says.

That persevering attitude propelled Rossi into strategic leadership positions at Wells Fargo Merchant Services. During her tenure, she was among the first to recognize the convenience of electronic payments and was instrumental in launching the first U.S. POS debit and credit solution for a grocery store in 1988 and for Carl’s Jr. quick-service restaurant in 1989.

Several years later, Rossi again was at the forefront of the industry—this time helping entrepreneurs accept online payments. In 1995, she led Wells Fargo in becoming the first bank to process a secure credit card transaction on the internet for the California-based wine seller Virtual Vineyards. In 1998, she collaborated with eBay to create a joint venture called Billpoint, the original payments machine for eBay. Although eBay eventually bought out Wells Fargo’s stake in the company in 2002 and replaced it with PayPal, Rossi says the experience was just “one of many innovative opportunities” she was afforded over the years.

Rossi eventually left her post at Wells Fargo to become vice chair at First Data, but she continues to be inspired by the dynamic pace of the payments business. These days, she’s helping evolve First Data into a better payments solution/technology company. “We are working on a lot of innovation around security and payment ease, efficiency, and enabling businesses, ISVs, and aggregators to grow their businesses,” she explains.

Given the rapid change in today’s payments world, Rossi says becoming a subject matter expert, particularly in risk mitigation, is an imperative. “You have to know your stuff. … This business is not for the faint-hearted. It is complicated. It is tough,” she says.

She also advises young professionals to acquire the leadership skills necessary to build not only strong teams but also individual talent. “If you have the leadership qualities, and you develop those over time—nobody teaches you those—you can lead people to greater things.”

And she should know. Rossi has been the recipient of many leadership and outstanding service honors, both inside and outside of the payments profession. Among them is ETA’s highest honor, the Distinguished Payments Professional Award. From 2011 to 2013, she was included in a group of Wells Fargo executives named as a “Top Team” by American Banker. She also has served on ETA’s Board of Directors and was its president in 2015. In 2016, Rossi received the Women in Payments Distinguished Payments Professional achievement award.

Yet, it isn’t the accolades that Rossi finds the most gratifying aspect of her successful career; it’s the personal connections that she’s made along the way. “Putting my hand behind me and pulling the people—mostly women—ahead, and giving them an opportunity—that’s what I’m most proud of,” she says. Rossi looks forward to the future and watching her own daughter’s career in payments progress as she works to change the business “beyond that we both could have imagined.” TT

This article originally appeared in the Winter 2018 edition of Transaction Trends magazine. Click here to view the issue.