Hypercom Corporation (NYSE: HYC) today announced the appointment of Jonatan Schmidt to the newly created position of Chief Scientist and Technology Officer.
Mr. Schmidt will focus on research and advanced engineering development activities, in particular the identification of new market opportunities globally, and the differentiation of future product and services offerings to provide added value to resellers, merchants and other end-users. He will be responsible, with Hypercom's product development, marketing and manufacturing teams, for translating these opportunities into new Hypercom products and services that will improve the company's ability to create a sustainable competitive advantage. He will report to William Keiper, CEO of Hypercom.
"Jonatan Schmidt is a seasoned global executive who has the rare talent of understanding where technology is moving and how it will impact the future of the payments and secure transaction processing industry, and communicating that knowledge to customers and prospective customers. He has broad and deep market and technical knowledge of our industry, including a strong understanding of architectures, design concepts, systems and platforms as well as the evolution of services," said Mr. Keiper. "As a key addition to our management team, I believe that Jonatan will make a unique contribution that will help set Hypercom apart from its competitors, and in so doing, advance the state of technology across the entire industry."
About Jonatan Schmidt
Jonatan Schmidt's career has been dedicated to an understanding of market dynamics as well as the technical underpinnings for systems that enable payment and other secure transactions of all types.
He has 16 years of experience in product and services development in point-of sale technology, including bank card, transaction processing, and POS and ATM equipment and services. Most recently, he served as Chief Strategy Officer and later Chief Technology Officer at SiVault Systems, where he designed and implemented transaction service architecture that enabled signature authentication and electronic check verification at merchant countertops, and electronic prescription verification and electronic insurance charges at retail pharmacies.
Mr. Schmidt previously served as Chief Technology Officer at One Network. There, in a joint venture with a division of Samsung Electronics, he designed the architecture for a new financial services offering for Independent Service Organizations and merchant processors. In another joint project with Hewlett Packard/VeriFone, he developed the architecture that led to an Integrated Payment Solution (IPS) platform deployed at various banks in the U.S. and Europe. He also helped create one of the first pre-paid reusable cards, managed the Smart Card OS development project for MasterCard, and participated in the development of several VeriFone payment terminals.
Prior to this, Mr. Schmidt was Vice President of Technical Business Development, Vacation Channel Corporation (eTravel). There, he oversaw the development of the structural architecture for a real-time reservation and information management system, helped design and implement the financial processing component of Lufthansa's reservation system, and partnered with Visa International to design the first electronic traveler's check product. In earlier positions with Partners International Ltd, a division of the Israeli Chamber of Commerce, he was responsible for the design and implementation of the first intra-banking Euroclear settlement solution for three Israeli banks and the first completely electronic solution for point-of-sale data access for IsraCard and Eurocard.
Mr. Schmidt is fluent in five languages. He holds a Master's Degree in Business Administration and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Financial Systems, both from Moscow University in the Russian Federation. He received an Undergraduate Degree in Market Psychology from Sorbonne University in Paris, and an Undergraduate Degree in Computer Science from Tel-Aviv University in Israel.
Mr. Schmidt also served in the Russian Air Force as a fighter pilot and command wing leader.
His appointment is effective immediately.