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Our People
MAIN Consultants is a multi-layered organisation. The directors at the heart of the business ensure that only the most qualified and experienced people are introduced to our clients. MAIN
Consultant's strength is our unique mix of specialised knowledge, practical card industry know-how and consulting expertise.
We recruit people with superior card industry credentials and proven team-working abilities. As such, they carry the knowledge and credibility that only experience can provide: equally
comfortable operating at board level, or at the detailed operational level, working closely with your staff. These people are committed to our beliefs and goals, and share in the success of the business.
In addition to this very versatile group of people, we have a number of core associates who are exclusively contracted to us to work on projects and assignments requiring specialist subject knowledge. These associates
share the same high professional standards in keeping with all of us at MAIN Consultants. MAIN also offers delivery capability made up of a pool of high quality
people ranging in skills from junior programmers to senior systems analyst / designers.
The next few pages show some sample profiles of our key people. This represents a small selection of our total resource.
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Steve Hilling
Managing Partner
Steve Hilling has over 25 years experience in IT, of which 16 years have been in Payments Systems. He is a past senior manager of Visa International in Europe, Middle East and Africa, with responsibility for
Member Services and VisaNet implementation. He then went on to develop and lead the Card Payments Consultancy practice for DMR Inc., the leading Canadian Consultancy. During this time he designed and managed the development
of a number of major card and merchant programmes in the UK and the Middle East, as well as developing the IT strategy for the Europay card scheme.
From 1991, he was responsible for Sema Group's Card Payments business in Europe, Middle East and Africa, firstly as Director and, later, as Managing Director. The turnover of Sema's Payments Systems business was some
£29 million, with staff of over 300. In 1995, he took additional responsibility for the Sema Financial Services practice in the UK. In 1997 he founded Main Consultants.
Tim Lewis
Principal Consultant
Tim Lewis has over 25 years senior executive with experience in the Financial Services, Retailing and Distribution industries.
Tim has unrivalled experience in managing and planning Payment Card operations gained through his position as Director of Operations, Signet Ltd. In addition, he has in depth expertise in running and advising IT and
Operationally intensive service companies.
He was also Chief Information Officer for the Dairy Farm Group, one of Asia's largest Supermarket Groups. During this period he was responsible for IT strategy ranging from Tills to Mainframes.
He is a proven change agent with hands-on experience of major business and cultural transformation projects, in a number of different countries.
Alan Goslar
Principal Consultant
Prior to taking early retirement in 2002, Alan Goslar was Executive Vice President, Visa International, with responsibility for the management of all products for the CEMEA (Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East
and Africa) Region, an area covering 92 countries. In this position he was responsible for the integration of new technology into the existing products, the development of new products and new delivery channels, and
the provision of support for the entire product range, to ensure the achievement of the Region's business plans. He steered the development of Verified By Visa, and all associated liability and dispute resolution regulation.
Alan was initially recruited by Visa International in 1984 to set-up and manage the delivery systems development department, with responsibility for technology development, systems development, and international standards
activities. Having established this area, he was made responsible for the initial implementation and management of the systems, software, and network infrastructure in the creation of Visa's processing centre in London.
Before joining Visa International, Alan spent some 17 years in a variety of positions in the Standard Bank of South Africa. These included managerial positions in Branch Banking, Card Division, Corporate Banking, Electronic
Banking, and Information Technology. |
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Adam Hardiman
Principal Consultant
Adam Hardiman has nearly 25 years experience in IT. He joined MAIN Consultants after 13 years of running his own Consultancy practice in the UK and Germany. During that time he performed major consultancy projects for
such diverse organisations such as the SEMA Group, Visa International, the UK Department of Trade & Industry, and the German State Railways.
For MAIN Consultants he has led a number of strategic projects including a Feasibility Study for the Third Party Processing of Payment Cards on behalf a national Banks' Association, a Study of the Relative Merits of
Chip Cards and On-line Networks for Europay International.
Adam has applied his extensive experience to develop a number of financial models that can be used for payment systems monitoring, marketing, investment and development purposes. These models incorporate industry standard
benchmarks.
In his spare time, he is a Director and Company Secretary for MAIN Consultants.
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Reg Casey
Principal Consultant
Reg Casey has 35 years' experience in commercial banking. He held bank-wide responsibility for the management of a major international commercial bank, comprising 79,000 staff in 2,800 locations spread over 69 countries.
As General Manager, he directly controlled 1,000 staff. Responsible for all computerised and communications systems, with a budget of £180m per year, also controlled all property and premises (budget £200m
per year). Responsible for all operations, training, and development of Card Payment and Revolving Credit systems.
He has considerable experience in the design and development of inter- and intra- bank- payment systems for commercial banks and 6 years on central bank payment systems. Furthermore, he has 30 years' experience in
the application of Information Technology in the banking industry, specialising in the computerisation of Loans, Mortgages, Corporate Lending and Payment systems.
Reg has 30 years' experience of international procurement of IT systems, hardware and software for computerisation of banking systems, including, waiting bidding, documents, bid evaluation, contract negotiation and
administration. He is also experienced in designing the application of high-technology communications systems, including Satellite, to the banking industry.
He also has a highly relevant 6 years' experience of advising the Central Bank of the Russian Federation on the design and computerisation of a new payment system, including all aspects of procurement, bid evaluation
and contracting.
Chris Hawcroft
Principal Consultant
Chris Hawcroft is a very experienced practical businessman. He applies his experience in two focussed yet related specialities. The first is business performance improvement through operational planning, organisation
development and project direction and management. His training and experience encompass the use of techniques include work measurement, simulation, modelling, value analysis, coaching, team building, and facilitation.
His second is Business Development through Sales and Market Development. This is focussed on business-to-business markets and principally with the Financial, Services and IT sectors. His training and experience encompass
the use of techniques including market research, strategy development, marketing, product management, sales management, contract management, customer care, and negotiating.
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Sean Lyons
Principal Consultant
Sean Lyons joined MAIN Consultants in 1997 after a career working for the Bank of Ireland.
During his 30 years there he has led or been a key player in major projects for the bank which include the migration of paper based ledger systems to computerised accounts, the opening of ATMs at multiple branches,
launching American Express, MasterCard and Visa Gold Cards for the bank, setting up Credit Card Issuing for Building Societies, Electronic Banking Systems and the upgrading of Credit Card Processing Systems. This was
in addition to his day-to-day duties as Centre Manager.
He has been a member of the UK MasterCard Operations Committee, Visa Working Groups on Business Cards and the Bank's Cross Border Payment Group. Since joining MAIN Consultants, Sean has undertaken a number of consultancy
projects and has prepared feasibility studies for banks in Eastern Europe and Russia.
Most recently, Sean was an important member of a team to achieve Duality for a very large European financial organisation. He is currently part of the MAIN Consultants Supplier Selection Team.
Mike Stephens
Principal Consultant
Mike Stephens is a Senior International Project Manager with a track record of delivering challenging programmes against aggressive deadlines and significantly under budget.
He has worked on both large and small projects with large and small teams. In addition to his Credit Card Systems expertise he has managed projects in Financial Services, Banking, Oil, Retail, FMCG and Utilities.
His projects have taken place in different countries with different cultures, and have included managing major suppliers such as: IBM, EDS, Compaq, Integris etc.
During his recent assignment at BNP Paribas, he reported to the Head of Global Market Technology and was responsible for setting policy and co-ordinating 51 projects in London and Paris. The applications involved Front,
Middle and Back Office across the full range of functions - Equities, Derivatives, Bonds, Swaps, Repos, Options, ALM etc. He was also responsible for providing information retrieval facilities to satisfy Legal, Regulatory
and Tax obligations for nominated systems over a seven-year period following decommissioning. Because of the sensitivity of challenges by external authorities, the normal corporate standard project management processes
were enhanced with some Prince elements.
Carl Smith
Principal Consultant
Carl is a strategically focussed Manager with extensive experience and widely recognised success in Operations and Customer Service. He has a proven track record in delivering cost savings and innovative solutions
alongside operational excellence based principally upon his experience gained setting up and running Europe's Largest ever Card Processing facility.
He has a passion for Quality Customer service that is achieved by means of his highly self-motivated and inspirational leadership style.
Has had responsibility for up to 1200 staff in working 24x7 in multi- locations, full P+L accountability and facilities responsibility.
Gudfinnur Kristjansson
Principal Consultant
Gudfinnur Kristjansson is an expert in card management and card processing systems with hands on experience running card management and card processing centres both from a technical and business perspective
Gudfinnur was key member for the Euronet Worldwide Inc. processing center in Budapest Hungary supporting their transaction processing, card issuing and card acquiring services for all major card brands (VISA, MasterCard,
AMEX, Diners, JCB, LINK) in addition to local card brands in 10 different countries.
He was consultant to the largest bank in the Czech Republic advising them on the establishment of their card issuing and acquiring processing business.
He has over 15 years experience in the payment card industry related to card issuing and acquiring related to the principal card networks in the market
He has over 20 years experience in the IT industry regarding development, implementation and operation.
David Leopard
Senior Consultant
David Leopard is a professional and customer focused Project Manager / Business Analyst with over 10 years experience in the credit card industry of which 8 years were spent with Visa.
David is dedicated to excellence in client service in the areas of project management, training, business support and the use of leading edge technology. He is a proactive problem solver with excellent communication
and team skills, able to work across cultural and geographic boundaries.
He is an expert on the Clearing and Settlement of Visa transactions for Visa including BASE II processing, Edit Package, National Net Settlement Services (NNSS), Interchange Reimbursement Fees (IRF), Domestic and National
Bilateral Fees and Optional Issuer Fees (OIF). He also managed the strategic regional rollout of the VisaNet Settlement Service (VSS) and helped establish and then managed the Base II VisaNet Support function when
the CEMEA region was created.
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