Board of Advisors
John Grund
John Grund currently co-manages the Card Issuing practice at First Annapolis where he helps banks, retailers, manufacturers, affinity groups, and other partners develop, execute, and implement payment product strategies. John specializes in the formation and growth of financial services partnerships. His product knowledge includes general-purpose, co-brand, private label cards, prepaid products, closed-end loans, loyalty programs, and emerging payment products. He supports clients in the areas of strategic planning, partnership formation, mergers and acquisitions, financial planning and analysis, sourcing evaluations, and marketing strategy development.
Recent clients include many of the most prominent retailers, manufacturers, and banks. John has extensive experience in the formation of card-based partnerships ranging from the industry's largest outsourcing arrangements to new program launches. Representative projects include advising Federated Department Stores, Belk, The Bon-Ton, Boscov's, Circuit City and J.C. Penney Company in their respective outsourcing decisions. He has also advised specialty finance companies, insurance providers, and affinity groups in the start-up and renewal of their card partnerships. John has also assisted clients in the evaluation of international expansion efforts, joint venture opportunities, new product development, and acquisition/divestiture initiatives.
Previously, John worked at General Electric Company in its credit card business, GE Consumer Finance. John is a frequent speaker and presenter at industry conferences, executive forums, and client conferences. He also authors articles and conducts surveys for major publications and client newsletters.
John received his M.B.A. from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration and his B.S., Summa Cum Laude, in finance and economics from the University of Maryland.
Walter Menezes
Walter is a senior executive with 30+ years of experience in banking, including unit and business group leadership and management of lending, operations, credit, international and collections. He has demonstrated consistent success in turn-around assignments, consolidations, development and implementation of new strategies, executive recruitment, and introduction of superior analytics.
Most recently, Walter worked at HSBC, a Global Bank with $2.5 trillion in assets, where he held a variety of senior management roles, including President and CEO of the US Credit Card business managing $50 billion in assets and 7000+ people. As Group Executive at HSBC, in addition to managing the US card business, Walter also managed their global cards business ($87 billion including the $50 billion US business) and their $11 billion Auto finance business.
Prior to HSBC, Walter spent 18 years with Wells Fargo Bank in senior restructuring and turnaround positions in Mortgage Servicing, Latin America, Asia Pacific and International Operations. In Mortgage servicing he acquired $20 billion in serving rights and reduced 1/3 in costs. In Latin America he divested $2 billion in assets and closed 5 offices improving profitability by $400 million. In Asia Pacific he refocused the business to meet US customers trade finance needs and increasing payments products profitability by 30%.
Walter has an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley.
Richard Marcus
Mr. Marcus was associated with Neiman Marcus for 30 years, servings as the company’s Chief Executive from 1979 to 1988. When he left Neiman Marcus in late 1988, Mr. Marcus began to advise and assist small companies seeking to leverage the emergence ecommerce technologies and the Internet. In 1989 he became a director of XcelleNet, a leading provider of remote systems management software which was subsequently sold to Sterling Commerce. In 1994, Mr. Marcus co-founded an online shopping site and helped develop one of the early and most successful ISPs in Dallas, OnRamp Technologies.
Over the past 12 years he has taken active advisory or board roles with GiftCertificates.com, Novo, 7thOnline, Tactica Technologies and Newgistics.
Mr. Marcus has served on the board of directors of three public retail companies: Land’s End, Michaels Stores and Zale Corporation where he was a Chairman of the Board until November 2007.
Since 1996, he has been a senior advisor to Peter J. Solomon, an investment banking company with many clients in the retail and consumer products markets. He currently serves on the boards of My Wines Direct, 7Billion People, Qbel Foods and First Insight.
Mr. Marcus is a graduate of Harvard College and the Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program and lives with his wife in Austin.
Brett Hurt
Brett is the Founder and CEO of Bazaarvoice, where he is responsible for guiding the company's strategy and overseeing day-to-day operations. Brett is a seasoned executive, widely recognized throughout the online industry for turning groundbreaking ideas into leading businesses.
Brett founded Coremetrics in February 1999 after spending 10 years developing Internet-based software. Prior to Coremetrics, Brett was the founder and CEO of Hurt Technology Consulting and BodyMatrix, an online retailer of sports nutrition products, which he sold. Before that, he was a consultant at Deloitte Consulting and Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). Brett has more than 15 years of Internet programming experience and has developed multiple software applications, including Internet marketing analysis solutions, eCommerce platforms, Web-based classroom management applications, virtual communities, multiplayer online games, and Bulletin Board System (BBS) software. He started programming when he was seven years old, launched a BBS on a 110-baud modem when he was ten, and created one of the first Internet-based multiplayer games in 1990.
Brett is currently serving his third term on the Board of Directors of Shop.org, the leading non-profit industry association for retailers online and a division of the National Retail Federation, the largest trade organization for retailers. He also serves as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Wharton School and served as a Board of Advisors member to the non-profit Web Analytics Association. Brett actively advises several early-stage technology companies. He is an inventor (US Patent #7,050,989) and a regular speaker at various industry events and universities.
Brett holds an MBA in High-Tech Entrepreneurship from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BBA in Management Information Systems from the University of Texas at Austin.
Michael E. Marcus
Michael E. Marcus is the founder of Marcus Partners, LLC, a financial services and e-business advisory firm. His firm advises senior management on issues related to strategy, business development (partnerships and M&A), product development, risk management, and marketing.
Michael spent seven years with HSBC/Household’s domestic credit card business in a variety of senior management positions. As Chief Credit Officer and Managing Director – New Ventures, he was responsible for all aspects of risk management, portfolio analytics, collections analytics, customer information management, strategic planning, and new business development (partner development and M&A). As Chief Marketing Officer, he was responsible for all cardholder marketing activities, and managed all of the business’ P&L’s. Finally, in his business development role, he negotiated numerous credit card issuing partnerships, and led the purchase of Renaissance Holdings (sub-prime credit card issuer) and Metris (near prime credit card issuer) by HSBC/Household.
Prior to HSBC/Household, Michael spent twelve years at The Boston Consulting Group. He was a Partner in the firm’s Financial Services Practice and worked in BCG’s Chicago and London offices.
Michael has an MBA in Finance from the University Of Chicago Graduate School Of Business, and a BA with Honors in Political Science from Grinnell College.
Jerry Rightmer
Jerry Rightmer is President and Chief Technology Officer of Starmount in Austin, TX. Rightmer oversees Starmount’s product vision and technology strategy. He provides strategic guidance to Starmount’s product management and R&D teams, while maintaining a focus on customer-centric technologies for a variety of segments. He brings almost 20 years of experience in envisioning, designing, and developing retail technology solutions. During Rightmer’s tenure in retail system development, he has worked with a number of department store, mass merchant, specialty, and e-commerce retailers. Rightmer served as the Vice President of Retail Application Strategy for Oracle where he led the business process, enterprise architecture and integration strategy for Oracle Retail. Prior to Oracle, Rightmer was the Senior Vice President, Chief Technology Officer and co-Founder of 360Commerce. Jerry is a member of the Association of Retail Standards (ARTS) Board of Directors and currently serves as the Chairperson of the ARTS Business Process Committee.
Rightmer earned his Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Texas and a Master of Science in Finance from Texas Tech University.
Diane E. Breidenstein
Diane Breidenstein is a management consultant and facilitator with over 25 years of business experience. Her career includes holding senior level positions with HCA, a fortune 100 company, as well as co-founding and selling a successful start-up. She is currently managing partner for Austin based Intergistic Solutions.
Diane has worked with senior level executives and managers in a variety of industries, including technology, financial services, energy, and healthcare. As an executive consultant, she helps leaders accelerate their skill development, build high performing teams, and increase organizational capacity. She has expertise in conducting organizational assessments and assisting with organizational design.
Her business background and experience in leading executive teams enables her to make the consulting process practical and outcome focused. Diane combines her business experience with her passion for helping leaders improve individual and company performance and success. Her approach balances the needs of the client with the realities of the company’s culture, expectations, and marketplace.
Clients include Dell Inc., Dell Financial Services, ExxonMobil, HCA, Inc., American Express, Winternals Software, Public Strategies, Inc., and St. Edwards University.
Diane received her MHA from Duke University, Fuqua School of Business. She is certified in a number of coaching, business planning and assessment tools.
Vince Raneri
Vince is the Founder and CEO of VR Consulting Services known for providing private label credit card services to Retailers. Prior to VR Consulting Services, Vince was the SVP Director of Business Development at Wells Fargo Financial Services . Before Wells Fargo, Vince was recruited by Citi Retail Financial Services for a start-up Private Label Credit Card Program and built that opportunity from its infancy to a $6B portfolio. He also served as the Assistant Director of Consumer Finance Division at Manufacturer’s Hanover Financial Services.
Vince graduated from Penn State University.
Kevin Hegarty
Kevin Hegarty currently serves as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of The University of Texas at Austin, a position he has held since October 2001.
From 1997 until September 2001, Kevin served as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Dell Financial Services and Vice President and Corporate Controller of Dell, Inc. He also held positions of Senior Vice President and Comptroller of Associates First Capital; Controller and Senior Group Financial Manager of Trammell Crow Company; as well as an auditor with PricewaterhouseCoopers.
He is a member of the Texas Certified Public Accountants, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, The Texas Exes Board, Entorian Inc. Board, and the Austin Chamber of Commerce Executive Board.
Kevin (BBA ’77, MPA ’79) is a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business.
