Name: David D. Stone
Title: Co-founder and CEO
Company: CashStar, Inc.
What I’m working on now… Holiday readiness for our retailers and driving adoption for eGift Cards for the 200+ brands we have.
My crowning achievement is… There are several, therefore difficult to choose one, but my top three are:
1. Founding and creating CashStar – The Digital Gifting and Incentive Company – and defining and establishing a whole new prepaid category: Digital Gifting. With 200+ top retail brands (e.g. Starbucks, Best Buy, The Home Depot, Gap), CashStar is the market leader in the space.
2. Creating the American Express Gift Cheque in 1986, the second universal prepaid product after the Travelers Check
3. Being the father of five wonderful, successful children
Industry Association Awards… Mass High Tech All-Star; Paybefore.com Prepaid’s Top 5 Entrepreneur; Prepaid Award for Best Prepaid Gift Program; Paybefore Award for Best Corporate-Funded Prepaid Incentive, Reward, Rebate or Loyalty Program; Incentive Marketing Association Circle of Excellence Award for Best Consumer Promotion Program; RIS News Fusion Award for Cross-Channel Innovation; TechMaine Gazelle Company of the Year Award; Best Places to Work in Maine
Education… Masters degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, including graduate studies at MIT and Harvard Business School
When I’m not working, I like to… Cycle, ski, enjoy good food with a diverse group of friends and engage in meaningful conversations, and do fun activities with my family
My favorite payment factor is… The digital gift card, of course!
I think the next big thing in payments is… Digital prepaid
Cash is… Antiquated
Checks are… Cumbersome, but most importantly, plastic payments will become passé
NFC is/will… In the U.S., NFC is still much ado about nothing and will take many years for mass adoption
P2P is/will… Gift cards are perhaps the largest and most addressable form of person-to-person payments
My mentor is… Steve Jobs. What I’ve learned from him is that elegant, intuitive design is critical to success.
Bio: David has more than 20 years of executive management experience in Fortune 500 and emerging growth technology companies, with a strong emphasis on innovative payment systems and loyalty solutions. Recently named a Prepaid Top 5 Entrepreneur, he has served as a senior executive in several financial services firms, including American Express, where he pioneered the first universal prepaid product, the American Express Gift Cheque, which quickly grew to sales in excess of $300M. Just prior to CashStar, he worked with Intel Capital’s Mobile Commerce team in identifying new applications for mobile and digital couponing.
David holds a Masters Degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, including graduate studies at MIT and Harvard Business School. He is a frequent speaker at industry trade shows, including Prepaid Expo USA 2011; IMA 11th Annual Executive Summit; Gift Card, Gift Voucher and Reloadable Card Summit; the Motivation Show and the 2010 Shop.org Annual Summit.
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