Linda S. Perry

Executive Consultant

Acquirer and merchant processor assessment and acceptance strategy

Linda S. Perry is an Executive Consultant with GVGroup and advises merchants, processors and new acceptance and acquiring companies. Her assignments have included assisting large merchants with processing strategies, helping new acceptance entities with compliance and cost reduction, setting strategy and building a processing platform for a large value added reseller and providing payments expertise and consulting services to private equity and investment portfolio managers. Other projects included a year-long assignment as an advisor to PESystems, a company with patented technology for analyzing interchange and lowering cost for merchants. She retired in April 2009 after 17 years at Visa, Inc. For a substantial part of her career there she served as Senior Vice President and Head of Acquirer and Processor Sales for the US. In that role she established and developed the department that managed Visa’s relationships with its member-bank acquirers, third-party issuing and acquiring processors, software vendors, and independent sales organizations. She also developed a widely read industry newsletter, organized the US Acquirer Council, established an annual global executive forum in Paris, and she introduced many new products to the acquiring and processing market. In July 2010, Linda received the “Lifetime Achievement Award” from the Midwest Acquirers Association.  In addition to these achievements, Ms. Perry served as a member of The Electronic Transaction Association’s Board of Directors for the past 13 years. Upon retiring from the Board, she was honored for her contributions to the ETA at their April 2009 annual meeting. During her career at Visa she was recognized by Transaction World Magazine as the 2007 “Mover and Shaker” (an award determined by a vote of her peers in the industry) and in 2008 was featured as an “Industry Leader” by The Greensheet, another industry publication. She is a founder of W.net and continues to serve on its Board of Directors.  Prior to her most recent position Ms. Perry was VP and Regional Manager of Member Relations at Visa. Before joining Visa, Ms. Perry was a VP at Citicorp in Chicago and held VP Positions at Michigan National Bank.  She graduated ‘With Distinction’ with a B. A. from the University of Michigan.