Before I begin “blogging”, let me introduce (or re-introduce as the case might be) myself to you out there in the Payments Industry.
After five years as Senior Director of Industry Relations and Strategy for PayPal, I am striking out on my own again and re-launching RPGC Group. Those of you who have known me for a while know that I founded RPGC Group following my tenure as the head of Global Payments at Amazon.com in 2002. I led RPGC through four thriving years, consulting for companies like Google, Symantec, PayPal, Cybersource, First Data, Visa International, American Greetings, Netgiro in Sweden, and Pago in Germany. In 2006, PayPal came courting and I put my consultancy business on the back burner for a while.
Why did I leave PayPal? PayPal is a great company and I thoroughly enjoyed working for them. But, to be honest, I grew a little restless. My aim is to bring my views and ideas on how to make remote and global payments more efficient and cost-effective to a larger audience. As before, RPGC Group will continue to focus on “remote payments” or payments where the consumer is not present such as e-commerce and mobile payments. I will also continue to help companies address their international payments needs so they can take advantage of expanded markets and suppliers. For a more detailed description of all services available, please check the RPGC website at rpgc.com.
I am thrilled to have my “RPGC hat” again, and I am sure that I will be bumping into many of you at conferences soon. I will be in Austin at the NACHA Payments Conference beginning April 3; if you see me around, stop me to say hello and tell me what you think about all of the interesting developments that are happening in payments at the moment.
Now, on to this blog…
Really, the question these days is not whether to blog, but why not? For me, the idea is a very exciting one. I am glad to have this format to share information and open up a dialogue on the payments issues facing companies today. With Durbin on the horizon, mobile payments gaining strength, the SEPA deadline controversies in Europe, as well as the many other pressing topics creating buzz in the payments industry right now, there is a lot to discuss!
Please come back to check our future postings and post your own views. Or, send me a private email. I would love to hear what you have to say.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
From one payment geek to another, best of luck!
Rene, all the best in this venture. There are in my mind so many pressing issues impacting payments at present and a real risk that technology capabilities will try to drive business models, without real consideration of underlying economics. If the truth were really out we would see many consumer not present payments propositions not making money at all for the stakeholders. This combined with a regulatory view that payments should be utility will be worrying for many industry incumbents. The industry is littered with cross-subsidisation models that analysts have often ignored or downplayed. This is especially now being seen in the huge Low Value Payments market. I believe we shall see enormous turmoil over the next decade and, hopefully, some innovative thinking as to how to have a realistic business case for low value e and m commerce payments
Congratulations Rene!
Its a challenging, fun business.
Glad you put this “hat” back on.
Janet