AP TECHNOLOGY CHANNELS THE WILD WEST AT MOBILE PAYMENTS CONFERENCE 2016

PayPal’s Jim Ciortan, Business Insider’s Evan Bakker, and Country Music’s Rick Monroe Join AP Technology Onstage; Vinding Helps Lead Blockchain Track

​CHICAGO—August 29, 2016—  Enterprises looking to hit the mother lode will be heading to Chicago this week for the retail-focused Mobile Payments Conference 2016. Tuesday, August 30 will include the highly anticipated panel titled, “Mobile Payments and Data in The Wild West: There’s Gold in Them Thar Bills!” Mobile payment experts Richard Love and Greg Wilfahrt from AP Technology will be joined onstage by special guests Jim Ciortan from payment powerhouse PayPal, along with BI Intelligence analyst, Evan Bakker, and Country Music star, Rick Monroe.

Calling themselves “The Pay Gang,” Tuesday’s mobile payment panel will use an entertaining Wild West theme to encourage retailers and other businesses to pan for new revenue pay dirt by utilizing mobile payments effectively, especially data gathered through transactions, while minimizing theft and fraud risks from the “bad guys.” Today’s state of mobile payments in many ways mirrors the early days of The Wild West, with pioneers seeking to strike gold, as modern era outlaws threaten on-device transactions that could turn bustling businesses into ghost towns.
 
“Attendees to this session are going to see mobile transaction trends, as well as strategies and forecasts that are useful for any business,” said Marla Ellerman, Executive Director of Mobile Payments Conference 2016. “Nearly the entire spectrum of the mobile payment ecosystem is represented in this panel. That, coupled with the entertaining theme should make this a great event.”
 
Mobile Payments and Data in The Wild West: There’s Gold in Them Thar Bills! will feature insights from payment innovators that are impacting the future of mobile transactions, today:
 

• Richard Love is CEO and founder of AP Technology. A pioneer in the field of payments for nearly 30 years, Love is the holder of several patents, and his company’s software processes more than $30 billion annually for AP Technology customers. Love was instrumental in defining his company’s cloud-based and mobile-rich payment platform, called APeChecks (pronounced ape-checks). APeChecks powers AP Technology’s latest pioneering payment product for businesses— SecureCheck Cloud 9.

 

• Jim Ciortan is Head of Strategic Global Retail Sales for PayPal, leading their retail business development and sales team. Jim’s mission: Positioning PayPal to transform how merchants view PayPal as “New Money,” enabling them to transact more seamlessly and attract more customers across PayPal’s global network. Jim previously served at Citi Retail Services where his team expanded the company’s consumer credit and payment services with $10 billion of new receivables over a 5-year span. 

 

• Singer/songwriter Rick Monroe is one of Country Music’s most prolific ambassadors, performing at venues around the world. Monroe is a passionate first-adopter of technologies, and on the MPC stage he will share how mobile transactions are forever changing the music industry, while better-connecting retailers to their audiences. Hits that include, “Fires Out” and “Midnight Rider” make Rick Monroe a frequent resident on Billboard’s music chart.

 

• Evan Bakker is Senior Research Analyst for BI Intelligence, the research service from Business Insider that covers mobile, digital media, payments, and other technology sectors. Bakker’s analysis of mobile payments and ecommerce can be read in news outlets nationally. Previously, Bakker served as an analyst in the banking and credit card industries.

 

• Greg Wilfahrt is Chief Mobility and Marketing Officer at AP Technology.  Immersed in mobile technology for nearly 20 years, he will moderate the mobile payment panel at MPC. Greg Wilfahrt co-founded several companies, including a mobile community that achieved mobile payment integration with wireless carriers in 180+ countries. Last year, Wilfahrt co-authored The Mobile Payments Bill of Rights with Richard Love. Wilfahrt’s commentaries on mobility, payments, marketing, social media and technology have appeared on/in CNBC Europe, FOX News, NY Times, Forbes, Businessweek, and more news outlets.

 
“Mobile payments are becoming a preferred, secure method of transacting,” said AP Technology CEO Richard Love. “Retailers and consumers are excited but cautious about these new mobile methods of payment. In Old West terms, they are planning on following the advice to “Go mobile, young man,” but they want and need to know someone is riding shotgun to protect their gold (payments and data).”
 
Also speaking at MPC 2016 will be AP Technology’s CTO, Mikael Vinding. Vinding and other industry leaders will be educating conference attendees on the latest blockchain developments.
 
At last year’s Mobile Payments Conference, AP Technology unveiled a “Mobile Payments Bill of Rights,” co-authored by Love and Wilfahrt. Wilfahrt traveled to Washington, D.C. and presented the Bill of Rights to members of Congress on Capitol Hill as a “best practices” document that is designed to help businesses adopt mobile payment standards that promote growth, confidence and accountability in wireless transactions.