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William E. (Bill) Stewart
A graduate of the University of Colorado, Bill joined IBM’s manufacturing organization in Boulder, Colorado. He held positions in engineering, software development, finance, sales and marketing. Bill was Controller of the National Service Division and Assistant General Manager for IBM Asia/Pacific, based in Hong Kong. In 1989, Bill accepted the position of COO, Visa International, Asia/ Pacific, based in Tokyo. His team opened Visa offices in China, Korea, and Taiwan, accelerating card product acceptance throughout the region. Bill became COO of Visa USA in 1994, and subsequently CEO, E-Visa. He is a founding of Director of VITAL Processing Services, a joint venture with TSYS and also founded DPS, Visa USA’s debit processing service. He was instrumental in the formation of GPNet, the TSYS partnership with major Japanese banks supporting the acquiring industry.
Currently, Bill is a private consultant for Digital Payments, Inc. working with the team in supporting the global payments industry.
Armen Khachadourian
Armen Khachadourian is a senior executive with over 25 years strategic and hands-on business experience in the global payments systems and new business development. He is the founder and president of Digital Payments Inc. providing consulting services in prepaid and alternative electronic payment products and services. He is a seasoned senior global payments consultant offering unique skill set and perspective that has helped financial institutions maximize growth in today’s challenging marketplace.
Most recently, he was President of Tier bank in organization and Vice President for Tier Technologies tasked with managing card programs and establishing a new market for Tier. He developed the infrastructure to issue prepaid debit cards and positioned Tier to digitize state disbursements.
Prior to that, he was the global product manager for JPMChase Treasury services where he managed a cross functional team to integrate the prepaid card platform across the BankOne merger and Citicorp’s prepaid card acquisition. In addition he developed the legal and functional infrastructure in UK to issue and market € denominated prepaid and debit cards. The licensing provided the bank pass porting rights to expand Debit and Commercial cards across all 28 EU countries. As part of the long term strategic planning, potential acquisition targets were identified along with a self issuance and expansion tactics.
Prior to his tenure at JPMChase, he was Senior Vice President of Market Development & Acceptance for Visa U.S.A. During his tenure he recruited and managed a team to create a payment solution for the supermarket industry, facilitating the use of consumer activated in-lane acceptance of debit cards. As the key spokesperson for the payment industry, he collaborated with the National Grocer’s Association and the Food Marketing institute and increased Visa sales volume from $400 million in 1990 to $75 billion in 2003. In addition he expanded Visa sales and services to new and emerging markets, including business to business, recurring payment industries, government markets and Quick Service Restaurants. Excluding the supermarket industry, new markets accounted for $91 Billion in sales volume for fiscal year 2003. When he first joined Visa, he managed a team and developed the VisaNet ACH service. The private sector alternative to the Federal Reserve Bank.
Khachadourian is a leader and an expert in the issuance of credit, debit, and commercial cards, acquirer sales and operations, interchange strategy, structure, merchant acceptance, and association services. He is also an experienced manager of technology solutions including development of connectivity products for credit and debit cards, network policy and service levels, implementation of systems enhancements, and third-party processor contract negotiation and problem resolution.
Khachadourian earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics and a Master of Science degree in computer science from the San Jose State University in California. He authored the “Basics of Data Communications” textbook and lectured for 10 years in late seventies at College of San Mateo, CA. He was awarded an honorary teaching credential from State of California. Armen is a member of the United States National Masters team; he is an accomplished marathon runner and tri-athlete, having competed in seven Ironman competitions.
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