ayment industry veteran and acquisition specialist Stephen D. Kane has joined First American Payment Systems, L.P. Kane will serve as Senior Executive Vice President of Business Development, overseeing mergers and acquisitions for the company. Kane was also appointed to First American's Board of Directors.

Kane has extensive experience in the area of mergers and acquisitions. In the past 15 years of his career, he has completed more than 140 of them. He most recently served as Chairman and CEO of iShopSecure, Inc. (now Verid, Inc.), which he sold to C/max Capital, a private equity firm. He still serves on Verid's Board of Directors.

Kane began his career at American General Life Insurance Company, where he worked for 15 years. In 1984, he joined a group of executives who completed a leveraged buyout of an American General subsidiary and co-founded Endata. Kane sold Endata to First Financial Management Corp. (FFMC) in 1987, which was sold to First Data Corp in 1995.

Parent company of NaBanco, FFMC became one of the largest merchant acquirers; the company owned TeleCheck, Western Union and MicroBilt. While at FFMC, Kane served in positions of increasing responsibility and ultimately became Vice Chairman and Chief Administrative Officer.

After his tenure at FFMC, Kane founded Stephen D. Kane Enterprises, L.L.C., a consulting firm specializing in mergers and acquisitions. In 1999, he founded International Payment Services, L.L.C. ("IPS") with GTCR Golder Rauner L.L.C. and acquired NPC's Check Service Division to form International Check Services, which was later sold to TeleCheck.

Kane has served on the boards of FFMC, PMT Services and NOVA Corp.

He has a B.S from the University of Alabama and a Doctor of Jurisprudence from the University of Alabama School of Law. He currently serves on the University of Alabama Law School Foundation Board of Directors.