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to build next-generation capability, helping to ensure that MWAA honors industry veteran Juan Ortiz
technology never outpaces trust."
When Juan Ortiz interviewed for his first job in the
Post-pandemic competition fierce for gift cards bankcard business in 1998, he had no idea what credit card
processing was about. Fast forward to July 2021, and Ortiz
The gift card market experienced an uplift in 2020, was receiving an Industry Achievement Award during
especially during the holiday season, according to the Midwest Acquirers Association conference in Chicago.
Blackhawk Network's BrandedPay Holiday 2020 Report. The During an interview at the MWAA event, Ortiz recalled
survey of 1,500 U.S. shoppers, published in November how he and his wife struggled with an overwhelming
2020, found 66 percent of respondents had purchased gift amount of debt before he joined the industry.
cards in 2020; 72 percent planned to use them for holiday
spending. "I remember thinking, maybe if I get the job, we could get
a credit card," he said. Ortiz began his career in bankcard
"The convenience and flexibility that gift cards offer has as an account executive at Data Transfer Associates, a
always been appealing, but this year consumers plan to merchant services provider based in Des Plaines, Ill.
turn to gift cards to help deal with the uncertainty and
difficulty of shopping in 2020," Blackhawk researchers Within a few months, he was selling over 20 accounts a
wrote, adding that 2020 eGift sales were 74 percent higher month. Later that year, DTA was sold. John Rante and
than the previous year. Michel Francis is CEO at Reloadly, other key executives from the firm formed a new company,
an airtime provider that helps companies improve gift Online Data Corp., and hired Ortiz. There he helped to
card services and delivery. create and grow an ecommerce division, in addition to
recruiting and training sales reps. When Online Data
Citing data from Allied Market Research, which valued Corp. was sold, Ortiz joined Bluepay Inc. and was put in
the global gift card market at $619.25 billion in 2019, Francis charge of recruiting, training and motivating sales agents.
identified an industrywide need to improve gift card top-
ups, redemption and software developer support.