Heartland Payment Systems
Company: Heartland Payment Systems, Princeton NJ
Company Description: Heartland Payment Systems, Inc. (NYSE: HPY) provides credit and debit card, payroll and related processing services to merchants throughout the United States. HPS provides services to over 140,000 merchants with 1,500 sales and servicing representatives and more than 800 employees in operations, information technology, marketing, administration and management positions.
Nomination Category: Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Executive
Nomination Title: Robert O Carr, CEO
1. Tell the story about what this nominee achieved in the past year (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:
Over the years Robert O. Carr has demonstrated excellence and extraordinary
success in such areas as innovation, financial performance, and personal
commitment to his employees and businesses across the country.
Mr. Carr has built a company with over 140,000 U.S merchants and processes over $40 billion in credit and debit card transactions. Mr. Carr founded the company in 1997, when it was started with a $1-million investment. On the heels of its initial public offering in August, 2005, Heartland's revenues swelled by 38%, to $902 million, for the year through March. Profits hit $20.8 million in the period, with a return on equity of 21.1%. One of the secrets to Heartland's hard-charging growth is a dedicated and motivated sales organization, which increased to over 1200 in 2006.
In 2006 Mr. Carr introduced major initiative to help owners of small and mid-sized businesses manage the cost and complexity of credit and debit card acceptance. "The Merchant Bill of Rights" is proposed as an industry standard to providing Main Street merchants with the same competitive edge enjoyed by major retailers with sophisticated internal purchasing organizations.
Mr. Carr has started this company out of his basement and today at a compound
annual rate of more than 30% to become the sixth largest merchant processor in
the United States and fifteenth largest merchant processor in the world.
2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:
http://www.snl.com/irweblinkx/news.aspx?iid=4094417
http://www.snl.com/irweblinkx/file.aspx?IID=4094417&FID=3748678
http://www.snl.com/irweblinkx/file.aspx?IID=4094417&FID=3494850
http://www.snl.com/irweblinkx/file.aspx?IID=4094417&FID=3479504
3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the nominee:
Robert O. Carr has served as Chairman of our board of directors and as our CEO since our inception in October 2000. Mr. Carr had been Chairman of the Members' Committee and CEO of our predecessor, Heartland Payment System (HPS) LLC, from March 1997 to October 2000 when the merger of HPS into our company became effective. Mr. Carr co-founded HPS with Heartland Bank in March 1997. Mr. Carr joined HPS after selling his interest in Credit Card Software Systems, Inc., an Independent Sales Organization he founded in 1987, specializing in the travel and entertainment industry. Mr. Carr received a B.S. and M.S. in mathematics and computer science from the University of Illinois.