James L. Plappert, CEO
Mr. Plappert has spent over 20 years in the payment systems and merchant bank card industry. Mr. Plappert was Executive Vice President and equity investor, of First American Payment Systems of Fort Worth, TX, one of the nation’s premier merchant and Independent Sales Organization processors. Mr. Plappert managed the company’s merger and acquisition activities.
Prior to First American Payment Systems Mr. Plappert held the position of Vice Chairman and Board of Director of 1 st National Processing Inc., Las Vegas, NV. At 1 st National Mr. Plappert oversaw all aspects of the company and repositioned the company for eventual sale. Prior to 1 st National Mr. Plappert served as SVP for National Processing Company (NPC) of Louisville, KY, the 2 nd largest payment processor in the world, where he managed NPC’s Indirect Sales business lines including ISO/MSP acquisitions, Prior to NPC, Mr. Plappert served as SVP of Financial Alliance Processing Services Inc., Louisville, KY, one of the nation's most successful processors for merchant sales organizations. Mr. Plappert joined Financial Alliance in 1992 four months after the company’s founding. Mr. Plappert was responsible for the company’s ISO/MSP, Financial Institution, and in-house Telemarketing sales channels and ISO/MSP residual income acquisitions. An a executive officer and equity owner of the company Mr. Plappert helped orchestrate the eventual sale of Financial Alliance to NPC in October of 1997.
Mr. Plappert is currently President Emeritus of the Electronic Transactions Association (ETA), the nation's leading merchant sales and acquiring association. He served as President of the ETA from March of 2001 to July 2002. Mr. Plappert has served on the ETA’s board over ten years and has held the positions of President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary and Director. In addition, he serves on the boards Industry Relations and Executive committees. |
Rick Edelen, President
Mr. Edelen has over 22 years of experience in the credit card and merchant processing business.
Mr. Edelen is keenly aware of all aspects of an ISO company’s operations and how to design sales programs which will be attractive and easily implemented. Mr. Edelen managed direct sales offices in Florida , Maryland , Kentucky and Virginia where he had experience dealing with merchants directly. Mr. Edelen’s experience and expertise in recruiting, training and motivating sales reps and dealing directly with merchants is essential for training new ISO organizations to market ACH services. Mr. Edelen is experienced in working with multiple ISO relationships, financial institutions, processing banks and independent processors. |
Julie Sauer, VP Operations and Finance
Ms. Sauer is a corporate accountant that has worked in all aspects of business accounting. Most recently Ms. Sauer was the Accounting Manager for Dreyer’s and Edy’s Grand Ice Creams’ machine division based in Louisville, KY. She oversaw all of the accounting for the manufacturing company and played an integral role in the consolidation of the accounting records to the corporate office in Oakland, CA. Prior to that, Ms Sauer was the CFO and Treasurer for Wimsatt Brothers, Inc., a privately held wholesale building material company headquartered in Louisville, KY. She managed the accounting for the company through their expansion into multiple states. The company was successfully sold and merged with another company. She also has several years of teaching experience of all levels, mainly in the business and accounting fields.
Ms. Sauer received her bachelor of Art’s degree from St. Louis University and her accounting degree from University of Louisville .
|
Bill Smither, Director Business Development
Mr. Smither began his career in the industry with National Processing Company in 1984. He was a member of their National Accounts Sales Division where he gained much experience working with regional and national accounts. His career path lead him to PNC/Citizens Fidelity Bank where he was instrumental in developing a bank card processing system for merchant banks. He was owner of Prime Industries, Inc. for ten years where he developed a successful national distribution network. Most recently he served as General Manager for a major wholesale building materials company headquartered in Louisville , KY. He had overall P & L responsibility.
Mr. Smither obtained a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Louisville .
|
