Mark S. Leibowitz — CEO
Mr. Leibowitz graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa where he received a Bachelor of Economic Science degree. Thereafter, in 1989, he completed a Master of Science degree in International Accounting and Finance at the London School of Economics and Political Science in London, England. Mr. Leibowitz then entered the USA and joined the First Boston Corporation in their Mergers and Acquisitions group. In 1994, after two years as CEO of an import-export company, Mr. Leibowitz began his experience in the merchant acquiring business by joining the National Bankcard Association, Inc., a San Diego based ISO, as its CFO. By 1996 Mr. Leibowitz became the CEO. NBA merged with USB in 2000 and Mr. Leibowitz was asked to be USB’s CFO. In 2002, Mr. Leibowitz founded Amazon Processing, LLC which has now become AppStar Financial.
Ingmarie Ericksson — CFO
Ms. Ericksson holds a B.A. in Finance from the Per Brahe University, Stockholm, Sweden. She has over 25 years of experience in financial positions within the merchant acquiring industry. In 1987 Ms. Ericksson joined POS Systems in Phoenix, AZ, one of the first merchant terminal deployment and third party customer service centers, as their CFO. In 1994 she joined VeriFone, Inc.'s VSS Division where, as Controller, she was responsible for overseeing the Accounting and Finance Departments. Ms. Ericksson was recruited to the National Bankcard Association and XtraCash ATM in 1995 as the CFO. She continued to work for XtraCash ATM as their CFO after the company was sold to CIBC in 2000. In 2002 she founded Amazon Processing which has now become AppStar Financial.
Shawn Coady — SVP MIS
Mr. Coady is the Senior Vice President of Management Information Systems for AppStar Financial. Since 2003, he has managed the company’s hardware, software, telecommunications systems, and facility maintenance and management. For AppStar Financial, he is also responsible for developing their custom CRM/ERP solution and third party software integrations. Prior to joining AppStar Financial, he worked for Global Payment Systems, formerly National Data Corporation (“NDC”) as a product manager of the organization’s front end processing switch and terminal software. He also worked for Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (“CIBC”) in their US banking initiative Amicus Bank and National Bankcard Association holding the positions of Manager of Merchant Services, Vice President of Operations and Vice President of Information Systems. In all, Mr. Coady has over 23 years of experience in financial, operational, and technical positions in the transaction processing industry as well as 10 years of related experience in audit, finance, and information systems in the hotel and hospitality industry.