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volume 9 • fall 2016
“Ihave a high threshold for pain if I’m learning something,” says Robert (Bob) Skiba, who leads
the government a airs division for Atlanta-based payments technology company InComm. That mentality —and his voracious appetite for reading everything he can on a new subject—has served Skiba well in his career, during which he has taken on challenging tasks like helping to shutter the iconic Sears Catalog and launching the Gap’s rst gift card.
For the past three years, he’s been immersing himself in all things big data as well as some hefty regula- tory initiatives, including 870 pages of the CFPB’s proposed rule on prepaid accounts. But Skiba got his start in retail long before gift cards became the No. 1 preferred holiday gift and smartphones changed the way we shop. Working full time at a men’s clothing store the entire time he went to college, and then going into business with his brother and launching their own men’s clothing shop established his retail roots. The experience served as a spring- board to stints at Lord & Taylor, Saks Fifth Avenue, Barneys, Sears, the Gap and Home Depot.
Birth of a Category
It was at the Gap where Skiba’s career would pivot toward pay- ments. He was tasked with eliminat- ing the ine cient and fraud-prone manual reconciliation of the retail chain’s gift certi cates. He never expected the plastic gift card would transform retail by going well be- yond those initial goals, increasing
foot tra c and spend and becoming a mainstay for retailers.
“We came at it for entirely di erent reasons, but gift cards grew the company and helped us dramatically increase sales and pro ts across products,” he says. It was the be- ginning of something big for the industry—and marked a career shift for Skiba, who would go on to join gift card program manager Stored Value Solutions and later InComm.
It was in prepaid that Skiba became active in government relations, serving on the Network Branded Prepaid Card Association Board,
on which he is currently serving his second stint as chairman.
Skiba credits his years in retail and mentors—including Arthur Martinez (Sears), Carol Tome (Home Depot) and Mickey Drexler (Gap)—with re- inforcing the most important lesson of his career: Execution is critical.
“Consumers have a very low tol- erance for mistakes,” Skiba says. “You’ve got to execute. Those that don’t aren’t in business anymore.”
Flawless execution can be even more daunting as retailers struggle
the Best idea in payments
“Plastic gift and prepaid cards will be with us for a long time to come, but the whole idea of tap-and-go, not necessarily NFC, but the ability to walk up and tap your phone or other wearable to pay. That’s the future.”
to keep up with the digital demands of connected consumers. That’s where InComm comes in, according to Skiba. “We’re a tech enabler,” he says. “Retailers tell us what they want to do, and we work on a solu- tion that’s frictionless and e ective.”
InComm’s technology is integrated at more than 500,000 retail loca- tions globally, but Skiba’s role is making sure policymakers at every level understand how vastly di er- ent prepaid products work, from digital content to GPR cards. The success and complexity of the in- dustry has given rise to a host of misconceptions about consumer protections, fraud and money- laundering risk. Skiba believes the industry must be proactive rather than reactive when negative press or potentially crippling laws surface. Overregulation breeds the “Law of Unintended Consequences,” which cause the sti ing of creativity, innova- tion and product enhancements.
“We should be at the wheel trying to develop the narrative rather than being a victim of misinforma- tion,” he says. “It’s critical to be active and meet with legislators and regulators.”
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rOBerT SKIBA
executive Vice President, regulatory and Government Affairs, InComm