Power Appointments At TNS

Transaction Network Services (TNS) announced on October 11 that it is bolstering its expertise in global payments with two senior appointments. George Zirkel will join TNS as Senior Vice President and Head of Global Payments Strategy. John Tait will assume the position of Managing Director of TNS’ Payments Division for the Asia Pacific region. Zirkel will be based in Reston, Virginia and Tait will be based in Sydney, Australia.

Zirkel was the Chief Operating Officer of TabbedOut before joining TNS, a mobile payment app with CRM features for bars and restaurants. He also held senior positions at First Data, SurePay, FleetBoston Financial Corporation, and a board position with AIB Merchant Services. Tait was most recently an Executive Director at Indue, a financial services provider, and he has also held senior executive posts at First Data and at National Australia Bank. Both executives have over 20 years’ experience in payments.

Lisa Shipley, Executive Vice President and Managing Director of TNS said: “I’m excited that George and John have joined our growing business. Their broad experience will be an asset to TNS as we cement our market leading position and build on our success. It is an exciting time for the payments industry as eCommerce continues its rapid global expansion, alternative networks and payment adjacent products gain market share, and legacy network connectivity infrastructure services consolidate. TNS is in a strong position with its secure, scalable, global, yet easy to access network to support current services and accelerate innovation in the payments industry. Steering TNS through this critical time requires a team that has strong operational and strategic experience. I’m confident George and John will be significant contributors to ensuring that our clients have the products and services they need from TNS to be successful.”

Zirkel will steer the company’s Payments Division and align global product, sales, development and operational teams with the company vision.

Tait will lead TNS’ payments business across the Asia Pacific region, which includes operations in Australia, India, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan and Thailand. TNS also has operations in Indonesia, New Zealand and the Philippines.