ETA Honors Payments Leaders with 2018 Star Awards

WASHINGTON, April 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Electronic Transactions Association (ETA) announced the winners of the 2018 Star Awards at the Visa President's Dinner and Star Awards Gala at TRANSACT, the premier payments technology event. The Star Awards honors individuals and companies that have made a significant difference in the payments industry through innovation, business practices, or contributions to the association.

"The ETA Star Awards are the highest honor in our industry," said Jason Oxman, CEO of ETA.  "TRANSACT is the annual gathering of the payments industry, and the Visa President's Dinner and Star Awards Gala gives us a chance to recognize and honor those who have given the most to help our industry grow.  Congratulations to our winners who have dedicated themselves to the success of the industry."

The ETA Awards and Recognition Committee, a panel of industry executives, narrowed down nominations to a group of finalists, ultimately voting on a winner in each category. Winners were named in the following categories at the Star Awards Gala: Distinguished Payments Professional, Business Partner of the Year, Committee Volunteer of the Year, ISO/Merchant Sales Organization of the Year, Pay it Forward, and Technology Innovation.

2018 ETA Star Award Winners

Distinguished Payments Professional, Henry Helgeson
Henry Helgeson, President, Integrated Solutions for TSYS, was announced as the Distinguished Payments Professional. The award recognizes a significant leader within the industry, who is an acknowledged trend-setter, role model, and positive contributor to its efficacy and image.

Helgeson revolutionized the POS landscape and brought smart, scalable solutions to small businesses. Through his founding of Merchant Warehouse, creation of the Genius platform and company name change to Cayan, to the recent acquisition by TSYS, he is a pioneer of the payments industry. As a long-standing and active supporter of ETA, Helgeson has chaired many committees over the years and was instrumental in the development, creation, and establishment of ETA's Retail Technology Committee.   He is a humble, gracious leader and a true partner to ETA.

Business Partner of the Year, Mastercard
Mastercard was announced as the Business Partner of the Year for their exceptional level of support to further the goals and objectives of ETA.  

Mastercard is driving the evolution of smart commerce globally by providing commerce solutions anywhere, anyhow and anytime. Mastercard is a tremendous supporter of ETA and a prominent exhibitor at TRANSACT.  Mastercard  sponsored scholarships for 50 startups and software companies to attend this year's event. Additionally, MasterCard employees are active participants on several ETA committees and councils.

Committee Volunteer of the Year, David Leppek, Transaction Services
David Leppek was announced as the ETA Committee Volunteer of the Year for his dedication to the Payment Sales & Strategy Committee.

Leppek served on the committee for many years – starting off as a member and moving up to chair in 2017. Even though his leadership tenure is over, Leppeck takes an active and enthusiastic role in the Payment Sales & Strategy and Technology committees and penned a great deal of thought leadership pieces as a resource for the entire ETA community.

ISO/Merchant Sales Organization of the Year,  iPayment, Inc. 
iPayment, Inc was announced as ISO/Merchant Sales as a recognition for their actions to move the payments industry forward and meeting industry challenges with demonstrated results.

iPayment is a long-time member, contributor and supporter of ETA. The company operates both direct and indirect sales channels and is a well-respected provider and partner for hundreds of agents, sub-ISOs and software developers specializing in the SMB sector. iPayment staff are engaged in ETA committees and programs that further promote education in the payments industry. With more than 137,000 merchant customers as well as annual processing volumes of over $28 billion in 2017, iPayment is an established leader in the U.S. based payment processing industry.

Pay It Forward, FIS
FIS was announced as the winner of the Pay It Forward award for their community service efforts to improve their community.

FIS encourages a culture of giving back – to their clients, to their communities and to their employees – around the world. In 2017, FIS employees packed more than 5,000 pounds of food at the St. Petersburg Free Clinic in Florida, removed invasive species from the Mategnin Nature Reserve in Switzerland, donated backpacks to the SOS Rescuing our Children Association in Mexico, and packed 63,000 meals at Feed My Starving Children in Minnesota. Over the past six years, FIS and its employees donated nearly $2 million to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to help aid in the research of pediatric and young adult cancer.

Technology Innovation, IRIS CRM
IRIS CRM was recognized for their technology that provides for creative solutions that promotes customer usability, increase profitability, or otherwise enable significant advances for the industry. 

IRIS CRM is a cloud-based application that helps companies in the payment industry close more deals, receive valuable analytics, and access payment networks through their own white-labeled portal. Clients use IRIS CRM to manage merchants from the time they are leads, through merchant onboarding to various acquirers, transaction and dispute reporting, maintenance and making residual payments via their own portal.

Payment industry features of IRIS CRM include residual calculations for a growing list of over 50 different processor reports, merchant onboarding, maintenance of accounts and fast residual calculations for all of the major acquirers.

TRANSACT, April 17-19, 2018, brings together all parts of the payments ecosystem – from ISOs/VARs to ISVs and large financial institutions to technology companies, to meet, see what's new, and learn what it takes to grow. Through extensive networking events, education and a robust exhibit hall filled with more than 200 companies, attendees will learn about groundbreaking technology, security trends and policies affecting the industry.

For media inquiries, contact Laura Hubbard at 202.677.7406 or [email protected].

About ETA

The Electronic Transactions Association (ETA) is the global trade association representing more than 500 payments and technology companies. ETA members make commerce possible by processing more than $6 trillion in purchases in the U.S. and deploying payments innovation to merchants and consumers.

SOURCE Electronic Transaction Association (ETA)