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Stuart
A. Reis
President &
CEO
Stu is the President and Founder of The
Rye Group, LLC, a consulting company focusing
on the money transfer space, e-payments,
prepaid applications, consumer finance
and innovation. His responsibilities include
assembling and leading a team of experts
to deliver results for The Rye Group’s
clients. Stu is a general manager and senior
marketing executive with over 25 years
of progressive management experience. He
has built technology startups, internet
companies and leading financial services
companies and excels at creatively building
and launching successful new businesses
and products. Prior to the Rye Group, Stu
served as President & CEO of Incentivecity,
a Toronto based loyalty marketing technology
company. Earlier, he was the VP-Marketing
for mondus.com, a UK based B2B eProcurement
company, where he led the North American
launch of the business. Prior to mondus.com,
Stu spent ten years in the money transfer
space, first with Western Union and then
with MoneyGram: Senior Vice President/General
Manager – MoneyGram Payment Systems,
reporting to the CEO/Chairman; Vice President/General
Manager – Development for Western
Union, reporting to the President, where
he developed and launched over a dozen
new products including Quick Collect, now
a $600+ million business for Western Union,
PhoneCard, the first nationally available
branded prepaid calling card, and Western
Union Money Orders. Earlier, Stu served
as Vice President – Retail Marketing,
The Bank of New York, where he developed
and launched The 60 Minute Loan at a time
when it took Chemical Bank and Citi three
days to process a new loan application.
Stu graduated from New York University
and received his MBA from Iona College.
James
F. Calvano
General
Management,
Deal Structuring,
Corporate
Governance
Jim was former
Chairman & CEO
of MoneyGram
Payment Systems,
having served
in that capacity
from early
1996 until
the company
was sold to
the Viad Corporation
in July 1998.
During his
tenure at MoneyGram,
he was responsible
for bringing
the company
public and
then oversaw
its sale 18
months later.
Just prior
to that, he
served as an
EVP for Travelers
from 1993 to
1996. Earlier,
Jim was the
President & COO
of Western
Union; President & CEO
of Carlson
Companies;
President of
Commercial
Credit Corp
where he IPO’d
the company;
Vice Chairman
at American
Express Travel
Related Services
and President & CEO
of Avis.
Philippe Duleyrie
General Management; Consumer Marketing, New Product Development, Domestic and International
Philippe is a general management executive with classical marketing training who began his career in brand management at Procter & Gamble and Nabisco. He gained considerable experience in the payments and money transfer services industry; first, at Western Union as Director Business Development where he managed the money order business and launched several new bill payment and credit services. Then, at MoneyGram as VP Business Development and, subsequently, as SVP Marketing responsible for the strategic direction of the company’s core U.S. and Mexico money transfer services. Following MoneyGram’s sale to Viad Corp., he was named President - Consorcio Oriental, a financial and communication services retail operation focusing on the US-based Dominican community through 18 company-owned sites, 125 sub-agent locations. Following that, he served for 7 years as President - Americas at Polar, the leading high tech heart rate monitor manufacturer.
At The Rye Group, LLC, Philippe has led the firm’s due diligence project for a leading private equity firm that was considering a substantial investment in an online money transfer provider. Most recently, he led the engagement with a U.S.-based telecom seeking to leverage its extensive consumer base to enter the mobile payments/mobile money transfer space. Philippe holds a BA from New York University and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
James B. Shanahan
Co-Branding and Prepaid Expert
Jim is a recognized world wide expert
in credit card co-branding. After
working for American Express and JP Morgan
Chase, he began his career in co-branding
when he oversaw the co-branding revolution
as SVP of Marketing at MasterCard in the
late 1980’s. He helped develop MasterCard’s
winning co-branding strategy while setting
up and managing MasterCard’s first
co-branded credit card department and creating
co-branded programs with the NBA, NHL,
Major League Baseball and World Cup Soccer.
He then worked at MBNA America, the world’s
largest issuer of co-branded credit cards,
where he was responsible for expanding
the co-branding concept to other areas
of the credit card business. Jim continued
his work in co-branding with Business Dynamics,
a widely respected credit card consulting
firm that he co-founded and managed for
10 years. While at Business Dynamics he
helped develop co-branded credit card programs
for the National Football League, SBC Communications,
Nordstroms and The Smithsonian. He is the
author of Co-branded Credit Cards,
published by Find/SVP, What Co-branders
Are Looking for in a Bank Partner,
published by the American Banker, and has
been quoted extensively in the press on
the co-branded card industry.
Most recently, Jim has been applying his co-branding and consumer marketing expertise to the rapidly growing Prepaid Card industry after helping to launch one of the first branded Gift Cards with National City in 2000. Since then he has worked for several companies helping to develop new Prepaid Card products. Jim has worked on many different types of Prepaid Cards including Promotion Cards, Incentive Cards, Money Transfer Cards, Payroll Cards, and Gift Cards. He has also worked for infrastructure providers such as POSA processors and card processors. Jim's expertise in Prepaid Cards includes business strategy, new product development, marketing, operations and financial analysis.
Roberto
Ruiz
Hispanic
Marketing/Advertising,
Latin America
Markets Specialist,
International
Money Transfer
Roberto
is a former
partner of
The Vidal Partnership,
a Hispanic
marketing and
advertising
agency based
in New York
city that was
recognized
in 2002 as
the Multicultural
Agency of the
Year by Advertising
Age magazine
and the Association
of National
Advertisers.
While there,
he was involved
with the launch
of Citibank’s
internet-based
money transfer
product (c2it)
to the Hispanic
market. He
led the team
that designed
and implemented
the advertising
and promotions
for this product
across web
sites targeting
consumers from
Hispanic countries
including Mexico,
Colombia and
Central America.
Just prior
to his agency
work, Roberto
was the VP – International & Partner
Marketing for
Prodigy where
he was responsible
for positioning
Prodigy as
the first bilingual
ISP for the
U.S. Hispanic
market. Earlier,
Roberto was
the former
Director of
the U.S. Hispanic & Latin
America business
for MoneyGram
Payment Systems
where he held
P&L responsibility
for the $90
million U.S.
Hispanic/international
business unit.
Earlier, Roberto
was Manager
of Direct & Ethnic
Marketing for
MCI and Senior
Brand Manager
for Gillette
in Venezuela.
Roberto was
born and raised
in Venezuela.
Jeffrey
McConnell
Mergers, Restructuring, Prepaid applications,
On-line payments and FX/Treasury
Jeff is a twenty-five year veteran of the
payments and money transfer industry and
most recently served as President and CEO
of iKobo an internet money transfer company
that leverages a network branded VISA card
instead of agents. He was part of the original
American Express/First Data team that launched
MoneyGram in 1988. Jeff also worked at
Western Union in a variety of business
units including "Dinero in Minutos" Money
Transfer, EasyPay, Money Order and WUNIX
Check Cashing. He rejoined MoneyGram concurrent
with the Public Offering and played a key
role in managing Domestic Money Transfer,
Phone Card, Business Development and acquired/ran
the Money Order business.
In addition, Jeff has also served as
CFO/Controller for various divisions
of American Express and held senior management
positions at PRG Schultz, Empire Insurance
and Integon Insurance. He earned his
MBA from the University of Colorado and
BA from the University of Florida. He
was a member of Florida Blue Key, Gold
Key, Omicron Delta Kappa, and listed
in "Who's Who in American
Colleges and Universities".
Bob
Calvano
Agent
Network Management
Bob is the
former Regional
Vice President
of Sales for
MoneyGram Payment
Systems, where
he recruited
and trained
the sales organization
which managed
the MoneyGram
network of
retail agents.
Among his organization’s
many successes,
was the six
year contract
they established
with the Harris
Teeter Corporation,
a six state
grocery chain.
Bob has a rich
background
in sales and
sales management
with the Olivetti
Corporation,
Texas Instruments,
Buxton leather
goods and American
Tourister.
Thomas
B. Hill
Supply
Chain Management,
Operations,
Telecommunications
Tom
has fifteen
years experience
with the two
leading companies
in the Money
Transfer market.
His particular
areas of expertise
include general
operations
and supply
chain management.
Tom’s
responsibilities
included managing
a supply chain
for retail
agents globally
and 120 domestic
sales representatives.
Responsibilities
included such
areas as global
telecommunications,
procurement,
technical help
desk, a fulfillment
warehouse,
corporate real
estate, call
center technology
and facility
management.
All agent location
POS/POP material,
checks and
technology
equipment were
installed,
maintained
and fulfilled
from systems
and facilities
maintained
by Tom. The
call center
facility, its
voice technology
and global
data network
servicing the
agent network
was designed
and managed
as well by
Tom.
Daniel R. Forkell, CPA
Mergers and Acquisitions
Dan was Vice President of Mergers and Acquisitions for Western Union International where he successfully sourced, structured and negotiated acquisitions in Europe, Latin America, Asia/Pacific, Africa and the United States.
While there, he formulated the strategy for acquiring international and domestic companies that were integral to Western Union’s plan for growth and profitability. Dan has extensive knowledge of, and experience in dealing with, the ethnic players in the money transfer space. He sourced, researched and evaluated potential acquisition candidates, including market segmentation and analysis, competitive evaluation, and investigation of risk factors and synergies. He initiated contact with the principals, prepared the business cases, presented to senior management, conducted negotiations, coordinated due diligence, and developed the transition and integration plans.
Dan also spent six years with IBM where he headed up the mergers and acquisitions group for the IBM Consulting Group.
Dan is a Certified Public Accountant and spent ten years in public accounting.
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