News from the Wire

Consumer and retail executive joins Pay By Touch

Monday, September 25, 2006 — 13:27:10 (EDT)

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 25 -- Pay By Touch, the leader in integrated biometric authentication, personalized marketing and payment solutions, today announced that John Costello, former Executive Vice President of Merchandising and Marketing for The Home Depot, has joined the company as President, Consumer and Retail. Costello will report directly to John Rogers, Founder, Chairman and CEO, and will take a seat on Pay By Touch's Board of Directors.%%N%%NCostello brings more than 25 years of general management, retail and technology leadership to Pay By Touch. In his new role, he will work closely with John Rogers and John Morris, Pay By Touch's President and COO, to lead the company's biometric authentication and payment services, while also spearheading its new personalized marketing and online services lines of business.%%N%%N"Pay By Touch is bringing the power, the privacy and the security of biometrics to everyday life," said John Costello, President, Consumer and Retail, Pay By Touch. "I look forward to working with John Rogers, John Morris and our world class senior management team to address the full extent of that opportunity. Together, we will bring truly personalized marketing and unprecedented ease, speed and convenience to consumers everywhere."%%N%%NCostello joins a dynamic leadership team that features a unique combination of entrepreneurs and proven veterans from the retail, franchise, financial services, heath care and loyalty marketing industries. John Rogers has more than 15 years of experience as a visionary, entrepreneur and manager. Prior to founding Pay By Touch in 2002, he was founder and CEO of eBizWorld.com. John Morris brings more than 23 years of experience in general management and retail technologies from IBM.%%N%%NPay By Touch's management team has in-depth experience working with such industry leaders as VISA, MasterCard, Bank of America, First Data Corporation, Concord EFS, McDonalds, Accenture, Siebel Systems and more to bring innovative ideas, products and services to life.%%N%%N"As a world-class executive with deep retail expertise, John Costello brings proven leadership skills and unparalleled industry knowledge to Pay By Touch," said John Rogers, Pay By Touch's Founder, Chairman and CEO. "We are thrilled to have him on board, underscoring our ability to attract seasoned management as well as our commitment to serving merchants and consumers alike."%%N%%NJohn Costello is a well-known and highly respected senior executive. The first half of his career was spent in classic management jobs, with the second half devoted to helping companies manage through high change environments, from start-ups like MVP.com to $80 billion companies like the Home Depot.%%N%%NAs part of this, Costello has been involved in some of the most visible business turnarounds and been associated with some of the most successful marketing campaigns including "Come See The Softer Side of Sears" and "You Can Do It. We Can Help." at The Home Depot.%%N%%NHe was most recently Executive Vice President of Merchandising and Marketing for The Home Depot, where he held responsibilities for the company's merchandising, marketing, advertising, and visual and store merchandising, public affairs, eCommerce and global sourcing, including the Company's sourcing offices in China and Mexico. Costello joined The Home Depot in November 2002 as Executive Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer, and was promoted to assume responsibility for merchandising and global sourcing in August 2003. He led a major transformation of the merchandising, marketing, eCommerce and sourcing operations, and worked with the senior leadership team on long-term growth strategies.%%N%%NCostello joined The Home Depot from Yahoo! where he served as Chief Global Marketing Officer. At Yahoo!, he worked with the CEO and senior leadership team on many of the strategies that are driving Yahoo's growth today. Prior to Yahoo!, Mr. Costello was President and CEO of MVP.com, the Internet sporting goods and outdoor retailer, which he founded with John Elway, Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky. He also served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Nielsen Marketing Research, USA, where he led a major restructuring of Nielsen's product line, customer service model and technology platform.%%N%%NCostello served as Senior Executive Vice President of Sears from 1993 to 1998, and was a key member of the team that revitalized Sears with the "Softer Side of Sears" marketing campaign and increased focus on Sears' proprietary brands. He was an early leader of multi-channel retailing, and launched Sears.com and Sears' specialty catalog business to replace the "Big Book". He served as a member of Sears' Executive Committee and on the Board of Directors of Sears Canada.%%N%%NCostello began his career at Procter & Gamble, where he held a number of senior marketing and brand management positions. He also served as Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Pepsi-Cola, USA. A frequent speaker on industry trends, Costello was named one of the 30 Most Influential People in Marketing by Advertising Age, one of the Top 10 Merchants by DSN Retailing Today and was elected to the Retail Marketing Hall of Fame in 1997. He is a past director of The Quaker Oats Company (NYSE) and The Bombay Company (NYSE), and the Direct Marketing Association, and a current director of the American Film Institute (AFI), the Steppenwolf Theatre, and the Georgia Aquarium. Costello is also a director and past chairman of both The Ad Council and the Association of National Advertisers, and chaired the selection committee for the 2006 inductees into the Advertising Hall of Fame.%%N%%NAbout Pay By Touch%%N%%NPay By Touch (www.paybytouch.com) is wowing the world one touch at a time as the leader in biometric authentication, personalized marketing and payment solutions. To date, the company's patented biometric services enable three million shoppers to quickly and securely access personal accounts using a finger scan to identify themselves, make purchases, earn rewards and cash checks at 2,400 locations nationwide. It also provides robust payment processing solutions for ACH (electronic checking), card-present and card-not- present debit and credit transactions for 138,000 retail clients and manages personalized rewards programs for 130 million opt-in consumer profiles. Founded in 2002 and headquartered in San Francisco, Pay By Touch employs 700 professionals and holds 50 patents worldwide on secure, convenient and cost- effective transaction solutions.%%N%%NSource: Company press release

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Source: Company press release.