Herel will lead Bling Nation's overall sales, implementation and business development efforts to financial institutions and businesses in the company's East region. He brings more than 20 years of consulting and senior financial leadership experience to the company's management staff.

"We are seeing strong adoption of our mobile payments service at the point of sale in Western U.S. communities where we have partnered with local financial institutions, because consumers find it convenient as well as faster and more secure than cash, checks, or plastic," said Meyer Malka, founder, co-CEO and director of Bling Nation. "The addition of Charles to the team will enable us to more quickly expand Bling Nation mobile payments service across Eastern communities."

In his most recent position, Herel was vice president of Brussels, Belgium-based FRS Global, where he was responsible for orchestrating a major re-branding and re-launch initiative as well as the definition and launch of the company's flagship risk and regulatory compliance products.

Prior to FRS Global, Herel was senior director of Corporate Development at Atlanta-based S1 Corp., and also worked at Santa Clara, Calif.-based Edify Corp. as senior product marketing manager and director of Business Development.

Herel holds a bachelor of science degree in Computer Science and Mathematics from State University of New York at Plattsburgh and a MBA in High Technology Management from Northeastern University.

"Bling Nation's mobile payments service presents a tremendous opportunity for everyone in a community to benefit - from consumers who get a fun, fast and secure way to make everyday purchases with tap-and-pay functionality; to businesses looking to lower their costs and drive sales with customer loyalty; to financial institutions seeking to differentiate themselves," said Herel. "I look forward to "blinging" Bling Nation mobile payments to progressive communities on the East coast."