MICHAEL J. BROWN co-founded Euronet in 1994 and has served as its chief executive officer ever since. He is also chairman of Euronet’s board of directors and the Company’s President. An accomplished entrepreneur with 30+ years of combined experience in the computer software and digital payments business, he is actively involved in the day-to-day operations of Euronet while overseeing the company’s business strategy, financial performance and the growth of the business across all markets.
Mr. Brown’s guidance has been instrumental in developing Euronet’s global cash/digital payments network and diverse products and services that provide Euronet with resiliency to changing market conditions and continual year-over-year growth in the global payments marketplace.
Following early successes in his career with Kansas City-area companies Informix and Visual Tools, Mr. Brown founded Euronet in 1994 in Budapest, Hungary, by installing the first independent, non-bank-owned ATM network in Central Europe. Beginning with 300 ATMs, Euronet’s ATM network now includes more than 53,000 ATMs in over 60 countries. In addition to cash access, the company’s ATM segment (Electronic Funds Transfer or EFT) provides advertising, ticket sales and other services on its ATMs, outsourcing of ATM services for financial institutions, payment processing and point of sale (POS) services, and value-added services such as dynamic currency conversion (DCC) and tax-free shopping for merchants.
After Euronet’s IPO in 1997, the first Central European company to go public on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange, Mr. Brown guided the company through several strategic acquisitions that grew its ATM network and capabilities and expanded its overall products and services.
In 2003, Euronet acquired UK-based epay, a leader in selling mobile phone top-ups using scratch-off cards. As the mobile phone market matured, epay’s services were moved from cards to Euronet’s ATMs and, eventually, a completely digital process that could be executed on one’s smartphone. Additional services, such as in-store and digital-based gift cards, were added to the epay portfolio. And now, the epay business segment has established itself as a global leader in branded payments (gift cards), mobile activations and numerous other daily transactions that connect brands with consumers in stores and online.
In Euronet’s second notable acquisition, the company diversified into the remittance payment market by acquiring Los Angeles-based Ria Money Transfer in 2007. Under Mr. Brown’s guidance, Ria has greatly expanded its cash pickup locations worldwide while, in recent years, moving aggressively into the digital payments space for remittance payments. Now, with a global network that includes approximately 540,000 cash pickup locations and connections to more than 5 billion digital wallet and bank accounts, Ria stands as the second-largest money remittance company in the world.
Mr. Brown also has spearheaded several technical initiatives across Euronet to establish the company as a leader in the evolving digital payments landscape. The company’s Ren payments platform, the same technology that powers Euronet’s global payment processing centers, is now available to financial institutions, central banks and fintechs who are building the next generation of payment networks, including mission-critical, real-time payments networks in India and Africa and large card-issuing projects in Latin America. Ria’s payment rails are also available to the same customers through Euronet’s Dandelion cross-border payments platform. With Dandelion, leading financial institutions can deliver and settle regulated real-time payments through a single API connection with businesses, other banks and the billions of Ria’s connected wallet and bank accounts in approximately 140 countries and territories.
From the first ATM in Hungary to now, Mr. Brown has grown Euronet to approximately 10,000 employees and 67 offices worldwide. He has also brought financial inclusion and convenience to businesses and consumers through a payments network spanning 200 countries and territories.
A lifelong Kansas Citian, Mr. Brown is an active supporter and past and present board member of many Kansas City-area charities. He received a Master of Science in molecular and cellular biology at the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 1997 and a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1979.
RICK L. WELLER was named chief financial officer for Euronet Worldwide in November 2002. He is in charge of the Company's financial operations including financial planning and analysis, acquisitions and treasury aspects of the business. Mr. Weller has more than 30 years of business and financial management experience.
Prior to joining Euronet, Mr. Weller held several operating and financial leadership positions with companies ranging from start-up businesses to large, multinational operations. He served as chief operating officer of ionex telecommunications, a competitive local exchange company. Prior to ionex, Mr. Weller served as chief financial officer of Intek Information, Inc., an information technology outsource service provider. His previous experience includes various management roles at Sprint including vice president, finance of Sprint Communications' consumer services long distance group; assistant vice president, finance for the company's business services long distance group; and as assistant vice president of Sprint's corporate-wide internal audit group. Prior to joining Sprint, Mr. Weller served as senior manager in the financial service industry practice of Price Waterhouse, an international public accounting firm. Mr. Weller is a certified public accountant and received his bachelor's degree from Central Missouri State University.
KEVIN J. CAPONECCHI joined Euronet in July 2007. Kevin is responsible for the strategic planning, operations and management of epay (Euronet's Prepaid segment) on a global basis and the software and Asia Pacific EFT businesses. In this role, he oversees the growth of the segments in addition to exploring new business opportunities and expansion into new markets.
Kevin has 17 years of domestic and international management experience with various GE businesses. Prior to joining Euronet, he served as president for GE Transportation's Global Signaling business. Under his leadership, the Signaling team posted double-digit growth and expanded the business into China, India and South America. During his long and successful stint at GE, Kevin worked in various management capacities within manufacturing, technology and marketing. He holds degrees in physics from Franklin and Marshall College and industrial engineering from Columbia University.
JUAN C. BIANCHI joined Euronet subsequent to the Company's acquisition of RIA Envia Inc., the third-largest global money transfer company in April 2007. As CEO of the money transfer segment, Mr. Bianchi oversees Euronet's money transfer operations worldwide. He is responsible for the financial and operational performance of the Segment in addition to driving the global strategy for the money transfer division. Prior to the acquisition, Mr. Bianchi served as the CEO of RIA and has spent his entire career at either RIA or AFEX Money Express, a money transfer company purchased by RIA's founders.
Mr. Bianchi has more than 15 years of experience in the money transfer industry. He began his career at AFEX in Chile in 1992 and in 1996, he moved to the U.S. to join AFEX USA's operations. While at AFEX USA, first as assistant manager and then as general manager, the company grew from processing 5,000 money transfer transactions per month to 300,000 per month. Subsequently, Mr. Bianchi became the chief operating officer of AFEX-RIA in 2003 and was instrumental in integrating the two companies. Mr. Bianchi studied business at the Universidad Andres Bello in Chile and completed the Executive Program in Management at UCLA's John E. Anderson School of Business.
NIKOS FOUNTAS joined Euronet subsequent to the Company's 2005 acquisition of Instreamline S.A. (now Euronet Card Services) in Greece. He was the founder of Card Business in ABC Professional Services, an affiliated Piraeus Bank company (the third largest private bank in Greece) and equity shareholder. Since October 2005, Mr. Fountas has served as managing director of the Company's Greece EFT subsidiary, responsible for Euronet's European card processing and cross-border acquiring operations.
In December 2014, Mr. Fountas was named CEO of the Company's EFT Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Division. He has direct P&L responsibility for the business and oversees the commercial sales initiatives including provision of ATM, POS and card related services to customers throughout Europe. In addition to day-to-day operations management, he is responsible for strategic planning, operations and management of Euronet's EFT Segment across EMEA. Prior to joining Euronet, Mr. Fountas spent over 20 years working in management and executive-level positions in the IT field for several companies, including IBM for 12 years. He has a degree in computer science (Honors) from York University in Canada and post graduate studies in business administration from Henley Management School and IBM Business Professional Institute.
DR. MARTIN L. BRÜCKNER was named Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for Euronet Worldwide in January 2014. As CTO, Martin is responsible for the development and coordination of new technologies across all Euronet divisions as well as all Corporate IT security initiatives.
Martin has more than 20 years of software development experience. He published his first software products (BBS systems) at age 15. Prior to joining Euronet Martin established his own IT Company called MLB Development GmbH, where he developed software systems for various European companies, including transact, a leading German prepaid processor and subsidiary of Euronet Worldwide. In 2007, the MLB team joined transact and Martin became responsible for software development and IT operations. In 2009, Martin was promoted to Chief Technology Officer of Euronet’s epay segment.
Martin received a Doctorate of Law from the University of Rostock and a law degree from the University of Bielefeld.