Works, Inc. announced the appointment of Jerry Lester to the position of president, chief executive officer and member of the company’s board of directors. In his new role, Lester will leverage his 30+ years of experience in the banking, financial services and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) industries to help Works expand its relationships with banking institutions and payment providers in order to increase adoption of the Works electronic payment management solution. Lester succeeds company founder, Bo Holland, who will continue to serve as Works’ chief product strategist and take on a new role as vice president of Product and Marketing. In this position, Holland will oversee strategic product direction and all marketing related activities for the company. In addition, Holland will continue to serve on the company’s board of directors.
Lester most recently served as president, Financial Institutions & Networks Division, for publicly traded eFunds Corporation, a $500 million financial services organization that provides transaction processing and risk management capabilities. In this position, Lester oversaw eFunds’ product management, sales, marketing and P&L for Risk, Collections, Wholesale Banking and EFT processing in North America. He also headed up Business Development for the Americas and was a member of the executive leadership team during his tenure at eFunds. Before joining eFunds in 1998, Lester worked for more than 30 years in the EFT industry for banks and third-party processors, including Michigan National Bank, Bank of Arizona, Fourth Financial and M&I Data Services (now named Metavante).
“Jerry Lester has over 30 years of experience in the financial services market and a proven track record for building strong customer relationships and revenue streams for both public and private companies,” said Bo Holland. “His domain expertise will prove instrumental in helping to propel Works to its next stage of growth. I look forward to working closely with Jerry and the rest of the management team as we continue to build on the early success we’ve delivered with the Works electronic payment management solution.”
“Works has developed an innovative and industry changing payment solution that is helping large companies save millions of dollars a year by moving manual and costly payment processes to electronic form,” said Jerry Lester. “In the past six months the company has won nearly $1B in payment volume commitments for its banking partners. Works’ technology, partners, experienced staff, seasoned management team and strong board of directors are the right building blocks needed for us to emerge as the leading provider of electronic payment solutions for businesses of all sizes.”
“We are pleased to have someone with Jerry’s breadth of experience and proven track record in the financial services and banking industries join the Works management team,” said Martin Neath, chairman of the board for Works. “After developing its flagship product, Procisa, during the last 18 months, Works is poised to leverage its exclusive relationship with Visa to dominate the electronic payments space. I’m confident that Jerry’s skills, experience, industry relationships and expertise will prove invaluable in helping Works achieve this goal.”
About Works ()
Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Works provides software solutions that help large companies minimize the number of checks they issue, reduce the expense of costly manual back-office reconciliation processes and settle payment transactions electronically through the use of commercial credit cards. The Works Procisa electronic payment management solution is built on the global VISA payment system and is delivered to customers through an exclusive partnership with Visa U.S.A. and its member financial institutions.
