Page 10 - Pay Magazine s2014

pay awards
Industry AchIevement
The individual who made the most signi cant contribution to the success of the prepaid or emerging payments industry during the past year or over many years.
winner
Stefan Happ
Executive Vice President and General Manager of Global Prepaid and Alternative Payments, American Express
A would-be astronaut from a small village in Germany’s Black Forest never made it to the moon, but Stefan Happ has rocketed to the top of the prepaid industry.
Happ relaunched American Express Serve in 2013, from a digital wallet and loyalty platform into a fully reloadable prepaid account, setting new standards for transparency with fee charts to enable comparison
Why? Happ isn’t afraid of taking risks, especially when he feels he’s doing right by the customer. That philosophy has served him well during nearly 20 years at American Express. He credits the com-
pany’s “unwavering commitment to do right by merchants and consumers all of the time” as a big reason for his long tenure.
“When I was o ered a job leading the iconic [paper-based] Travelers Cheque business in 1997, people warned me not to take it,” Happ recalls. He was
undaunted and the move eventually led him to New York, where he became a pioneer in a new category— gift cards. He spearheaded solutions we now take for granted, like split-tender transactions and open-loop cards at retail, but one decision shocked the industry.
“We removed all post-purchase fees from our gift cards. Critics said it would never work because we were cutting about 50 percent of the revenue,” he recalls. It was a bold risk, but consumers loved it. Sales soared and competitors eventually followed Amex’s lead.
Worth the Risk
Several years and millions of gift card sales later, Happ led the company into new territory again—this time reaching the nancially underserved. The shift was big for a brand with a history of catering to the a uent, but it continues to have support from CEO Ken Chenault on down.
shopping. He also worked closely with retailers and distributors to build the largest free cash reload network in the U.S.
“We’re only just scratching the surface of what’s possible,” Happ says. “The opportunity is immense.”
The journey hasn’t been without bumps. When the company lost some key credit card partners
in 2015, major reorganization followed and early media reports suggested the prepaid business was on the chopping block. Happ dismisses those claims, but he also acknowledges that not everything has worked. After two years of preparation, Amex pulled the plug on what was quickly becoming a complex and costly Mexican expansion of Serve. “We won’t pursue what doesn’t work, but we remain completely committed
to Serve and Bluebird.”
That commitment led to three new Serve products, including an industry- rst card with 1 percent cash back on all purchases. “People say cash back won’t work for this segment, but underserved consumers want to enjoy the same bene ts as credit customers,” says Happ. “We are proud to be di erent.”
It helps that Bluebird and Serve have a mobile- rst design to connect with on-the-go consumers. (Read about the Pay Award-winning Serve app on page 26). Happ’s three daughters are Serve users and aren’t shy about giving dad advice, although they’re more inclined to ask for reloads, he laughs.
Wherever Happ’s career takes him—he and his wife have lived in Russia, England, Scotland and the U.S.—chances are he won’t shy away from making bold moves.
“I’m really proud of being a small part of a company that’s had the guts to undertake this transform- ative journey.”
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