hree more industry experts recently joined The Green Sheet Advisory Board, a cross-section of industry representatives that makes significant contributions to the breadth and depth of both The Green Sheet and GSQ. The Green Sheet staff compiles questions posed to us by our readership, and approximately every six weeks we send a selection of these questions to the Advisory Board. Their responses are used to develop articles for our publications.

The newest Advisory Board members:

• Penny Baker, President/CEO, National Bankcard Systems, Inc.
• Wayne Damron, Senior Vice President of Sales, Lynk Systems
• Doug McNary, Executive in charge of third-party sales channel, First Data Merchant Services

Advisory Board members agree to give some of their time to serve our readership, the payment processing industry's Merchant Level Salesperson (MLS). We truly appreciate their willingness to help strengthen our industry by supporting our publications with their industry knowledge and insight. Here is a brief introduction to these new members:

Penny Baker founded National Bankcard Systems, Inc. in 1997. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, the company was ranked 27th on Inc. magazine's 2002 list of America's 500 fastest-growing private businesses.

According to the Austin Business Journal (Vol. 22, No. 34, November 2002), "With $220,000 in revenue in 1997, National Bankcard Systems ratcheted sales up to $5.39 million in 2000 and $9.47 million in 2001. Revenue is projected to hit $12 million this year [2002]."

Penny has attributed the rapid growth of the company to his yellow pages advertising in 50 markets at one time. In true entrepreneurial spirit, he isn't averse to a certain amount of risk.

Wayne Damron has more than 20 years of sales and marketing management experience in the financial services/bankcard processing industry. He began his career as a Marketing Officer with The First National Bank of Commerce and went on to become a Senior Sales Executive for Envoy Corp. Damron also served as Vice President, Sales Manager for First American National Bank, where he managed a considerable merchant program. As Vice President, National Sales Manager of CFC Financial Services in Louisville, he managed the company's national sales efforts.

Immediately before joining Lynk, he was Senior Vice President of Sales and Support for MagCard Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of First USA Merchant Services. Damron currently heads up all indirect sales agendas for Lynk, including the LynkPartner program, which has more than 400 banks and associations as referral partners.

Before that, as Vice President of Regional Sales, he led Lynk's sales team to record levels of new sales. During this time, he developed a turn-key agent bank program and grew the direct sales force to 33 times its original size, making it one of the largest direct-sales forces within the acquiring industry.

When asked why he wanted to be a member of the Advisory Board, Wayne responded, "I hope that my 20-plus years being in the industry would qualify me to at least have an opinion on the many issues facing our industry today. It is a most trying time for acquirers and for ISOs in particular. The dynamics of how we do business are changing, and we are faced with adaptation or stagnation. I would like to think that as good as this industry has been to me, it is my duty and honor to give something back."

Damron would like to see The Green Sheet become "the driving force for establishing high ethics that all ISOs [MLS's] should follow." He continued, "There are various organizations that seem to be trying to do something in this regard but none that I give a really good chance of making a difference. Unfortunately, education is not the sole solution. Enforcement of the current rules and regulations would be a great enhancement."

(An "Industry Leaders" profile of Wayne appears in this issue.)

Doug McNary is the executive in charge of First Data Merchant Services third-party sales channel, comprised of Cardservice International, TASQ Technologies and First Data Merchant Processing (FDMP) Omaha.

Doug's leadership, business development and strategic expertise drive the First Data third-party sales channel to offer clients a full spectrum of relationship programs. Doug leads the third-party sales channel as it meets the needs of clients, agents and merchants.

Before assuming leadership of the third-party sales channel in 2002, Doug led the Strategic Business Development group of First Data Corp., which focused on mergers and acquisitions, partnerships, joint ventures, new products, product enhancements and other revenue-building models.

Before October 2000, Doug was President of Western Union North America, where he was responsible for all sales, agent management, marketing, customer service and business-development functions for Western Union's consumer money transfer, money order and electronic benefits transfer businesses in the United States, Mexico and Canada. He joined First Data in 1985, and before that he worked for Xerox Corp. in Omaha.

McNary chose to join the Green Sheet Advisory Board because "it is a great opportunity to collaborate with my peers, improve education among [MLS's] and independent contactors and to establish and position industry standards and ethical practices.

"As an industry, we need to improve the way ISOs and agents [MLS's] work and in the process enhance our professionalism and integrity, and I would welcome the opportunity to contribute to that effort."

When asked what the Green Sheet can do differently to better serve the ISO/MLS community, he said that, "The Green Sheet has been a great foundation for growth and legitimacy in this industry. Its continued commitment to inform and educate professionals at every level in this industry about our strengths, challenges and opportunities would serve us well.

"I would like to be part of the board's effort to communicate to our industry specifically, practically and effectively."

We welcome each of these executives to the Advisory Board and look forward to their contributions in the months to come.