Michael Stephenson Email & Phone Number

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Toronto, Canada Area

Helping Treasure Financial with scaling, operational support and additional industry networking.

Toronto, Canada Area

At Buckzy Payments Inc., I am responsible for ensuring customers have a successful and pain-free implementation, as well as, a smooth on-boarding experience of Buckzy's products and services. Once a sales agreement is signed, my primary goal is to successfully implement our technology and secure maximum benefits and opportunities for customers as a they leverage Buckzy's next generation real-time, cross border, global payments ecosystem. This also involves:1) Developing and implementing a Customer Experience operational framework for smooth customer transitions from lead to account management2) Managing customer requirements through operational framework tracking and monitoring successful completion with technical and non-technical functional teams3) Translating compliance and regulatory procedures into actionable internal and external requirements and tasks4) Leading prioritization work with senior leadership to align against revenue targets and corporate objectives5) Driving new growth opportunities with existing customers to mutually expand revenues

Toronto, Canada Area

As the head of operations and partnerships for Canada, I was successful in negotiating and launching a partnership with Tender Retail and Verifone, two leading integrated point-of-sale service providers, providing ~70% of the Canadian integrated POS market. In addition, I oversaw Canada’s day-to-day operations, from managing four staff resources to developing and implementing an operational project management framework, which was formally adopted globally. More broadly, my focus covered: 1) Establishing, maintaining and growing strong relationships with Canadian payment industry partners 2) Negotiating partnership agreements to ensure desired outcomes are successfully obtained3) Creating and implementing an efficient and productive global operational framework 4) Liaising closely with internal cross functional teams – development, product management teams, and solution architects – to ensure delivery of product and project requirements5) Ensuring customer support plans are in place for seamless issues resolution

Toronto, Canada Area

I owned and drove product requirements and executed the go-to-market strategy for core products, as well as, integrated solutions. This spans multiple geographic regions and channels. Working closely with internal and external clients, I devise comprehensive solutions to address current and emerging opportunities, while anticipating future product innovations. Additionally, I serve as the conduit between the business and the development team, translating the business needs into actionable product requirements to be implemented. Some key responsibilities included: 1) Managing the entire product-line life cycle from strategic planning and business casing to oversight of tactical activities 2) Discovering, defining, assessing and documenting business needs and requirements, with business stakeholders, to be implemented by the development team3) Validating assumptions and prove validity of requirements with the Data Team 4) Capturing business workflows and manage defects and requirements prioritization5) Managing and coordinate delivery of releases; devise solutions for improving the product delivery lifecycle and operational process improvement

Toronto, Canada Area

As the Senior Product Consultant for Interac Association, I was part of a task force put together to plan, develop and deliver an interchange platform for Interac’s Flash Debit product. This was successfully launched on time and on budget in Q1 of 2016. My primary responsibilities were to: 1) Lead development to formalize required product policies and operating regulations into official member operating manual2) Conduct business process re-engineering to support product in-market business and operational activities – compliance, escalations, variance management, etc.3) Partner with internal stakeholders such as Project Management Office, Finance, Legal, Marketing, Operations, Security, Technology and Fraud to educate and train on new policies and procedures4) Work with Interac members to collect and incorporate policy, regulation and operating procedure feedback for evaluation and incorporation into program requirements5) Evaluate and manage risks to the product development timeline, costs, and benefits

Toronto, Canada Area

Sample of key accomplishments:1. Operated The Audio Recording Academy (TARA) Toronto campus a. Design, development and management of Toronto curriculums - Applied Audio Recording and Music Businessb. Maintained a +90% student graduation rate2. Established key partnership with EMI Music Publishing Canada a. Identified partnership opportunity and successfully executed partnership agreementb. Developed internship program for existing TARA students to work with EMI artists and songwriters3. Secret Sessions @ TARAa. Created live music event hosted and recorded in-studio by TARA studentsb. Developed a broadcasting partnership with AUX TV to film and present Secret Sessions - http://pages.aux.tv/secretsessions/nxne.html

Toronto, Canada Area

The Payment Innovation role within the TD Credit Card department had a broad scope. The primary focus was to research and evaluate all credit card payment opportunities which were not core products or services. During my time, a few key successes were: 1) The management and successful launch of credit cards within TD’s proprietary mobile payments program and UgoTM app, Canada’s first open mobile open wallet2) the development and implementation of TD’s first credit card Transaction Alerts program, which notified customers when unusual activities occurred on their account3) coordination of a tri-party RFP response to the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) payment infrastructure overhaul. This involved TD credit cards and TD Merchant Services, along with, a transit partner in Cubic Corporation.

Toronto, Canada Area

Primary focus was the program development and management to implement Visa payWave and the Canadian migration to chip technology. This included: 1) Developing program rollout strategies for all industry participants – merchants, banks and vendors2) Manage multi-million-dollar product and sales budget 3) Negotiate agreement with large Canadian retailers with early adopter incentives. Merchants included Second Cup, Subway, M&M Meat Shops, Petro Canada, McDonald’s, others4) Gain commitment and complete certification by major Canadian Merchant Acquirers and Issuers 5) Provide oversight to acquirers and issuers during implementation of market trial and national rollout

Toronto, Canada Area

Acted as program manager for serval notable initiatives including: 1) Launching the Starbucks Duetto Visa co-brand – first Canadian “two-in-one” loyalty and credit card2) Transforming the online application process which drove a 40% increase in approved cards in market and grew online card applications 30% year-over-year3) Serving as the business lead for the launch of the RBC Rewards program, RBC’s online rewards redemption portal

Business Administration

Education record

Education record