Board Members

Paul Rasori – SPVA Chairman

VeriFone, Senior Vice President, Global Marketing
Email: Paul.Rasori@spva.org

Paul Rasori currently serves as VeriFone’s Senior Vice President of Marketing. He has global responsibility for all Financial Payment Systems marketing efforts and oversees the global product management, global marketing programs and all local demand generation marketing functions across North and South America, EMEA and Asia Pacific regions. Mr. Rasori is a twenty-year veteran of the electronic payments industry, having held positions in product development, product management, marketing and sales management. In more than ten years with VeriFone, Mr. Rasori has led the introduction of the industry's most comprehensive and successful portfolio of payment solutions that span many different vertical markets, including financial retail, multi-lane, unattended, hospitality and wireless vertical segments. This includes most recently the Vx Solutions product family, which was awarded Frost and Sullivan’s "Product-Line Strategy Leadership Award" for 2005.

Mr. Rasori has a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts.

Christopher Coonen – SPVA Vice Chairman /
Chief Technical Officer

Ingenico, EVP, Global Solutions, Sales & Marketing
Email: Christopher.Coonen@spva.org

With diplomas from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and an MBA from Kellogg-Northwestern University, Christopher Coonen has more than 20 years’ experience in strategy and managing profit and loss centers in the payments, new technologies and market entry/disruption.

Presently, Mr. Coonen serves as the Executive Vice-President Global Solutions, Sales and Marketing at Ingénico. Prior to that, Mr. Coonen  recently served as Vice-President and General Manager of PayPal Continental Europe. He also served as the General Manager of PayPal France, Director of Global New Products at Western Union International, Director e-Recruitment at Trader.com, Manager at A.T. Kearney (a management consultant firm), Commercial Director of DHL Russia, and consultant at Heidrick & Struggles International.

Andy Chau – SPVA General Member Director

PAX Technology, Ltd., President & CEO
Email: Andy.Chau@spva.org

Mr. Chau has over 15 years of industry experience. Prior to joining PAX, Mr. Chau co-founded and served as the CTO for SoundPOS which was acquired by a private investment firm in 2010.

Prior to SoundPOS, Mr. Chau was the Vice President of technology at Hypercom, a provider of electronic payment solutions and services.  Previously, Mr. Chau co-founded TPI Software in 2001 and served as the CTO until TPI Software was acquired by Hypercom in 2006.

Mr. Chau holds a Master Degree in Information Technology from the Harvard University, a Master Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and a Bachelor Degree in Computer Science from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Robert Carr – SPVA Associate Member Director

Heartland Payment Systems, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Email: Robert.Carr@spva.org

As Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Heartland Payment Systems, Bob Carr is responsible for the strategic direction and growth of the company. Bob co-founded Heartland Payment Systems with Heartland Bank in 1997, quickly building the foundation for an end-to-end credit, debit and prepaid card processing engine. Under his guidance, Heartland has climbed the rankings from #62 to #5 in the nation and #9 in the world; from 25 to 3,100 employees; from 2,500 to 250,000 business locations and from a portfolio of $0.4 billion in bankcard volume to more than $80 billion. Today, Heartland processes more than four billion payment transactions annually.

Over the years, Bob has written numerous articles educating industry associates on business issues, including the inner workings of the payments processing industry, encouraging his peers to join him in adopting policies that treat merchants and fellow businesses equitably. He also spearheaded The Merchant Bill of Rights ― a revolutionary public advocacy initiative to promote fair card processing practices on behalf of all business owners. Currently, he is leading an industry collaboration movement to thwart cyber criminals ― and help protect business owners, consumers, processors and financial institutions. He has been active in the formation of the Payments Processing Information Sharing Council and was named chair of its steering committee in November 2009. Bob has also been a driving force in the development of “E3™,” Heartland’s end-to-end encryption technology that is designed to protect cardholder data at rest and in motion throughout the lifecycle of card transactions.

Bob started his career as an instructor at Parkland College. At the age of 22, he was elected President of the college faculty and named Director of the Computer Center. A year later, he was hired by the Bank of Illinois to establish a new profit center providing computer services to small businesses. In 1972, Bob started a software and consulting firm for small and mid-sized businesses, providing the first integrated accounting system offered on microcomputers.

In 2003, Bob was awarded the bankcard industry’s first Lifetime Achievement Award. Ernst and Young named him Entrepreneur of the Year in 2004 and again in 2007. On August 11, 2005, he rang the bell on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange to celebrate Heartland’s IPO, which was 21 times oversubscribed, breaking PayPal’s previous industry record of 12 times oversubscribed. In 2006, Bob earned the Walter Aikman Entrepreneur Award. In 2007, he received the “Best Executive” honor by American Business Awards and later was named the Technology CEO of the Year by the Eastern Technology Alliance. In 2008, Heartland was named the “Best Service Company to Sell For” by Selling Power magazine. In 2009, Bob was awarded the Beta Gamma Sigma Medallion Award for Entrepreneurship.

Bob received his Master of Science degree in computer science and Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from the University of Illinois (Champaign-Urbana). He also received an honorary PhD from Lewis University. 

Bob resides in Princeton, NJ where he and his wife, Jill, received the New Jersey Historic Preservation Award for renovating Woodrow Wilson’s home. He also currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the Historic Society of Princeton; the Seton Hall Business School Board of Advisors; and the Board of the Woodrow Wilson House in Washington, DC.

Bob and Jill formed their own personal foundation, the Give Something Back Foundation, which provides scholarships to deserving college students, recognizes teaching excellence and donates to various charitable organizations.