Accourt Limited, a leading provider of consultancy services to the payments industry, announced today that the payment security expert Neira Jones has joined the company as a Partner.
During her more than 20 years in financial services, Neira has played a leading role in revolutionising payment security. As the Director of Payment Security and Fraud at Barclaycard, she was responsible for the security compliance and risk management of some 100,000 merchants and third parties, including promoting PCI DSS, as well as developing other innovative fraud offerings. With a mission to demystify information security she is a frequent speaker to a wide range of audiences, and in recent years has been the proud recipient of the Acquiring Personality of the Year 2013 Award from Merchant Payments Ecosystem and the SC Magazine Information Security Person of the Year Award 2012. She was inducted to the Infosecurity Europe 2011 Hall of Fame and voted one of the Top 10 Most Influential People in Information Security by SC Magazine and ISC2 in 2010. She was a member of the PCI Security Standards Council Board of Advisors and is a Chairman of the Cybercrime Advisory Board for the Centre for Strategic Cyberspace and Security Science, and also sits on various other advisory boards.
Commenting on her new role at Accourt, Neira said: "It is an honour and a privilege for me to join an organisation I have highly respected for such a long time. When I was first approached I was interested in assessing four key areas: the markets Accourt serves, its capabilities, its vision and the quality of the people I would be working with. I have been fortunate in getting to know many of my new colleagues over the past few weeks and their professionalism, competence, enthusiasm and welcome to me make me very proud to become part of the team. With the exciting backdrop of continuing innovation in the payments and risk industry, I look forward to contributing to making Accourt even more successful than it already is".
John Berns, Managing Partner at Accourt, welcomed Neira to the company: "We are delighted to be working with Neira. Her global experience and knowledge dge of information security, coupled with her retail payments background in the digital world, make her a perfect fit for Accourt. As the digital revolution gains momentum and traditional plastic products are complemented by electronic forms, our clients are seeking to exploit the digital channel whilst managing the sometimes still unknown risks. Neira is one of the few people with that rich mix of retail and payments experience and will be a valuable asset to Accourt and our clients."