JUDGING PANEL
- Wendy Atkins – Contactless Intelligence Editor [Head Judge]
- Mark Austin - Visa Europe
- Michel Barjansky – ex RATP
- John Berry – European Commission (Research & Innovative Transport Systems)
- Paul Chamberlain - Association of Convenience Stores
- Kevin Farquharson – Smart Card Networking Forum
- Hervé Pierre - SIMalliance
- Kristian T. Sørensen - Mobey Forum
- Samee Zafar – Edgar Dunn
Wendy Atkins [Head Judge]
Wendy Atkins is a journalist and commentator in the global business sector. She is contributing editor with fDi Magazine, The Banker and This is Africa (all published by the Financial Times) where she is in frequent contact with leaders in her specialist areas of emerging markets, technologies and investment.
She has been writing about the smart card, payments and associated industries for more than 10 years, and is an editor with Contactless Intelligence, where she is responsible for turning the latest contactless developments into interesting and insightful stories. She is also editor of Security Document World, where she is in constant contact with suppliers and end-users of government issued security documents.
She has authored White Papers and thought leadership documents for some of the major players in the smart cards, biometrics, mobile and financial industries.
Wendy has also been a member of the judging panel for the 2006, 2007 and 2008 SESAMES Awards at Cartes, Paris, and was a member of the judging panel for the 2011 GSMA global mobile awards.
Mark Austin
Mark is Head of Market Development, responsible for managing Visa Europe’s contactless product range and acceptance infrastructure across Europe. Prior to this position he was Head of Consumer Credit for Visa Europe.
Mark is an experienced payments professional who joined Visa in 2006 from Lloyds TSB where he spent three years as Head of Credit Card Marketing. Prior to joining Lloyds TSB, he undertook a number of senior roles at Royal Bank of Scotland Cards. Mark began his career at HSBC, where he worked in both the retail network and the Credit Card business.
Mark is an associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers and is also a member of both the Marketing Society and the Financial Services Forum.
Michel Barjansky
Michel is a graduate of Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales. He joined RATP (French transport operator) in 1973 holding a variety of different posts over the years. Since 1992 he has been associated with the “Projet Telebillettique”, at RATP. That project, based on the Calypso specification, is now rolled out under the name of “Navigo”.
In 1998 he joined the SIT department and took responsibility for the development of services based on contactless technology; active in research, standardization, final development and commercial deployment. From 2002 he was head of the “Business Development” entity, in charge of technology based new products and services, in the Innovative Customer Technologies of the Engineering Department. And in 2008 he was the “Innovation” Manager for the whole Engineering Department.
In October 2010 he retired, but remains associated with standardization and interoperability bodies for public transport and payment.
John Berry
John is the Principal Administrator, European Commission – Directorate General for Transport (DG MOVE). Since July 2011 he has worked in the field on ‘Research and Innovation’ with the brief of developing ‘roadmaps’ for the application of research that is essential to meet the future transport policy needs, as defined in the recent White Paper (which includes ‘Smart Ticketing’).
Until January 2004 he was DG TREN’s (changed to DG MOVE in 2010) technical expert on road vehicle engineering policy. This included the responsibility for the EU’s vehicle roadworthiness programme including its legislative development and for forming the policy line on vehicle safety and environmental issues.
Prior to his work in Brussels he was a “Head of Unit” in the UK’s Department of Transport (Feb. 84 to Sept. 89) and was responsible for energy conservation policy in road transport and hence developed an early appreciation of the CO2/global warming issue
John holds a BSc Hons. Mechanical Engineering and a BA Social Sciences from the Open University.
Paul Chamberlain
Self-proclaimed as the person that has visited the most stores in the UK and Europe, Paul has a keen eye for the best and the good in the convenience store market.
Having previously worked at Martin McColls and latterly in the magazine market managing National Account teams, Paul has a passion for small stores and believes that the personality and customer interaction that can only be found in smaller formats means that the convenience store market will continue to thrive.
As Commercial Director and a staunch believer in sharing thoughts, ideas and visions, the networking packages at ACS have attracted more and more suppliers and retailers to engage at a number of levels and has seen tremendous growth both in terms of numbers and quality. Through the creation of shared opportunities for learning, driving business and the occasional bit of fun, Paul believes that the relationships that are formed, flourish and cherished at ACS, makes the convenience sector unsurpassed buy any other.
Kevin Farquharson
Kevin is a highly experienced Programme Manager and Consultant in the uses and applications of smart media. He is particularly knowledgeable about payment applications, NFC technology, contactless cards, smart ticketing, resident cards and university card schemes. He has over 25 years wide-ranging experience successfully implementing and managing multi-million pound IT programmes and projects.
Kevin studied Engineering at Trinity Hall, Cambridge where he gained a Master’s degree. He is a Chartered Engineer and Member of the IET. He is Chair of the Smart Card Networking Forum for Local Government and a regular contributor to ITSO, Transport Card Forum and SCNF events.
Kevin is Managing Director of Smartran which he founded in 2003. He has gained his experience in Government, Transport, Local Authority, Oil & Gas, Finance, Utility and Technology sectors. He has helped his clients increase business revenues and reduce costs by £millions. Prior to Smartran, Kevin was a consulting manager for Accenture (Andersen Consulting) and originally began his career as a System Engineer for BT.
Hervé Pierre
Hervé Pierre has served as General Secretary of the SIMalliance since October 2006. Within this position Hervé supervises day-to-day management of the organisation. He reports to the Board and is strongly committed to enhancing and promoting the role of the secure element with telecom operators, application developers and handset manufacturers. He is also Director of SIMposium, the official event of the SIMalliance which brings together professionals from across the mobile services value chain.
From November 2003 to October 2006, Hervé was part time SIMalliance General Secretary as well as Director Strategic Program within Gemplus (now Gemalto) Telecom Business Unit. He joined Gemplus in May 2000 as Marketing 3G Manager. Hervé previously held roles at Alcatel, Datacom and Olivetti.
Kristian T. Sørensen
Kristian currently serves as Senior Manager for mobile payments and e-commerce for Nets. Prior to that, he was working with online and mobile financial services with Nykredit as well as being a member of the Danish Bankers’ Association’s mobile working group.
During this time, Kristian participated in designing and implementing the Danish national mobile payment solutions, Mobilpenge (mobile money), which was launched in 2011. Kristian has participated in Mobey Forum since 2010 and has been an active contributor to the production of Mobey Forum’s mobile wallet white papers. He was elected to the Board and Chairman of the Marketing Work group in 2012.
Samee Zafar
Samee is a director in the London office of Edgar, Dunn and Company, a global management consulting firm. Samee has advised some of the world’s largest financial organisations and mobile operators in North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. He focuses on advanced payments consulting advising banks, mobile operators, and payment service providers on internet and mobile commerce / payments.
He previously held leadership positions at PricewaterhouseCoopers and at Scient Consulting based in London and New York. He started his career with Visa International in London where he helped banks enhance their payment product profitability. Samee has published a number of articles in leading industry journals and is a regular speaker at industry events. He has co-authored a book “Developing and Managing a Successful Payment Cards Business” published by Gower Publications.
Samee completed his B Sc at the Government College in Lahore, Pakistan, is a chartered accountant, and was a Commonwealth Scholar at the City University in London where he obtained his MBA in Finance.
