bizSanDiego the business of san diego county

Keven Lake Named New CEO and President of Futura(R) Card Services

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

By

CARLSBAD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Futura^® Card Services, one of the largest and fastest growing brands in the stored value card marketplace, today announced that Keven Lake has been named CEO and president, reporting to the board of directors of Stored Value Cards, Inc., Futura’s parent company. He replaces Vicente Mota.

“Stored value cards provide consumers a secure, convenient alternative to carrying cash and are rapidly becoming the next phase of consumer card technology, along with credit and debit cards,” said board member Carlos Kang. “This is a market that offers great upside opportunity, and Keven brings the right combination of experience in retail, financial services and information technology to grow the Futura brand. The board has complete confidence in his ability to shorten the product development cycle, accelerate time to market, and improve operational efficiencies in our inventory management, field operations and customer support systems and programs.”

Lake has spent much of his career in the business to consumer space, executing retail, ecommerce and supply chain initiatives for several Fortune 500 companies. Backed by more than a decade of sales and executive management experience in developing and implementing successful sales and marketing strategies in the retail, industrial and financial services sectors, he has held executive management positions with various divisions of IBM Global Services and US Internetworking. While at IBM, he was responsible for managing relationships and developing strategies with companies such as The Home Depot, General Motors, GMAC and The Coca-Cola Company. While leading US Internetworking’s ecommerce division – now a part of AT&T – he worked closely with Bank of America and other large retail financial and insurance companies to improve customer acquisition programs in both the direct and online sales channels.

“I share the board’s excitement about the stored value card marketplace and the opportunity to establish the suite of Futura Prepaid MasterCard^® debit card products as industry leaders,” Lake said. “I look forward to working with our ISO channel partners, distributors and retailers to expand our market presence, as well as introducing innovative branded and private label programs for the enterprise, including new reloadable general spend debit cards, gift cards and wage disbursement cards.”

About Futura^® Card Services

Futura is one of the largest and fastest growing brands in the stored value marketplace. Futura markets, distributes and services a suite of prepaid MasterCard^® debit card products that includes reloadable general spend debit cards, gift cards and wage disbursement cards. The company leverages synergies between consumers, merchants and ISOs to offer a diverse lineup of financial tools. No other card brand in the world is more widely recognized than MasterCard, and the Futura Prepaid MasterCard Debit Card can be used to make purchases anywhere MasterCard is accepted. Futura’s unique distribution model delivers the lowest cost, highest margin prepaid debit card solutions to the retail channel as well as innovative branded and private label programs for the enterprise. For more information, please visit www.futuracards.com.

Source: BUSINESS WIRE