2019 ETA Hall of Fame Inductees to be Honored at ETA’s Strategic Leadership Forum

Washington, D.C. – September 5, 2019 – The Electronic Transactions Association (ETA) today announced the 2019 inductees to the ETA Hall of Fame. The ETA Hall of Fame was developed to recognize the achievements of payments professionals from all corners of the industry who have made significant and lasting contributions.

“The five impressive inductees to the ETA Hall of Fame embody the spirit of bold leadership and innovation that defines the payments industry,” said Jodie Kelley, CEO, ETA, “We look forward to honoring their lasting contributions to the payments ecosystem at the upcoming Strategic Leadership Forum.”

The 2019 Hall of Fame inductees include:

  • Donna Embry has over 53 years of experience in the payments industry. Embry currently serves as SVP, Global Payments Strategy for Evolve Bank & Trust and as President of Embry Consulting, LLC. Across her career, she has held multiple leadership positions in the payments industry, including Chief Payments Officer for Payment Alliance International, EVP, Product and Marketing for Vital Processing, and Senior Vice President, Electronic Banking for PNC Bank. While at Vital in the 1990s, Embry led the team that developed and launched VirtualNet, the first network capable of processing ecommerce gateway transactions. Embry authored the first ETA publication, The Encyclopedia of Terminology for the Acquiring Industry, and developed and taught the inaugural introduction series of classes for ETA University. In 2016, she received ETA’s “Distinguished Payments Professional” award.
  • Mary Gerdts is founder, CEO and President of two companies in the payments industry, POST Integrations, Inc. and EboCom, LLC. Founded in 1991, POST Integrations provides credit card processing services exclusively to the hospitality industry, representing a pioneering force in the way hotels are served by the merchant acquiring industry. EboCom was founded in 2000 as a technology company providing full service back-office transaction processing, a venture that brought sophisticated automation and efficiency to back office processes. Gerdts has over 20 years of experience in the electronic transactions industry and has been an active member of ETA since 1991. She served on the ETA Board of Directors for 10 years and was ETA’s national president from 2002-2003.
  • Pam Joseph is Operating Partner with Advent International. Prior to working with Advent, she served as President and Chief Operating Officer of TSYS and served for 14 years as Vice Chairman of U.S. Bancorp’s payment services division. At U.S. Bancorp, Joseph had executive responsibility for all electronic payment products, a business worth $5 billion and responsible for 30 percent of the bank’s revenue. Joseph joined U.S. Bancorp in 2001 through the acquisition of Elavon, where she was President and COO. Joseph currently serves as a board director for Paychex, Transunion and Adyen.
  • Linda Perry is a payments executive with a career of impressive volunteer and executive leadership accomplishments and accolades. Perry retired after 17 years from Visa as Senior Vice President and Head of Acquirer and Processor Sales for the US. She established and developed the department that managed Visa’s relationships with its member-bank acquirers, third-party issuing and acquiring processors, software vendors, and independent sales organizations. Prior to her time at Visa, Perry was a VP at Citicorp in Chicago and held VP Positions at Michigan National Bank.
  • Tom Wimsett has over 35 years of payments industry experience as an executive, director and entrepreneur. His career began with National Processing Company in 1983. From 1998 to 2002 he served as NPC’s President & CEO. Under his leadership at NPC, the company pioneered industry practices like value-added services, interchange plus pricing, and chargeback automation. In 2003, Wimsett formed Iron Triangle Payment Systems. He served as Chairman and CEO until 2010 when the company was sold to Vantiv for over $620 million. Wimsett has actively served as a director or advisory board member of numerous payments industry organizations including MasterCard, ETA, Visa, Discover Card, and NACHA. Wimsett also previously served as member of the ETA Board of Directors.

The 2019 ETA Hall of Fame was selected by a nominating committee comprised of industry leaders and  also ETA Hall of Fame inductees, including:

  • John Barrett
  • Diane Faro
  • Paul Garcia
  • Robin Leidenthal
  • Tom Pojero
  • Rick Pylant
  • Debra Rossi
  • Holli Targan

ETA will honor the inductees at the ETA Hall of Fame Breakfast, presented by Visa, on Thursday, September 26 at the ETA Strategic Leadership Forum in Boca Raton, Florida. To register for the event, visit ETASLF.com.

About ETA

The Electronic Transactions Association (ETA) is the global trade association representing more than 500 payments and technology companies. ETA members make commerce possible by processing more than $21 trillion in purchases worldwide and deploying payments innovation to merchants and consumers.

Press Contact:

Laura Hubbard

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