Newsmaker: Gelco Taps Talent For Tech Efforts

<B> Newsmaker: Gelco Taps Talent For Tech Efforts</B>

By Mary Ann McNulty

<I>Minneapolis</I> - Gelco Information Network president and CEO Neil Vill in April recruited new talent and charged them with leveraging the company's strengths in expense management with some of the latest technologies.

Former U.S. Bank marketer Ralph Bernstein was named director of marketing and product development while 15-year technology sales veteran Tom Venable was hired as vice president of sales and account management.

In his new position, Bernstein is charged with leveraging all Gelco products--from paper and phone input through PC and Web-enabled reporting--with the latest technology, be it XML or Java programming, or maybe even smart cards. Gelco has no specific plans on the latter, but Bernstein said, "everyone is in agreement that smart cards probably have a place in expense management."

At U.S. Bank, Bernstein was responsible for developing business and product development strategies for emerging products within the corporate payment industry, including the smart card pilot that the bank and Visa developed at the request of corporate customer Siemens Corp. in Santa Clara.

Over the past 15 years, he also researched new business opportunities for Electronic Data Systems' global travel area, managed marketing and industry relations for Air Travel Card, developed product branding strategies for USTravel, and managed marketing communications for Choice Hotels International.

Venable takes over for Chuck Buckner, who was promoted. Most recently, Venable served as sales and marketing vice president for Minneapolis-based Net Access Inc., where he was responsible for transitioning the business from a wide-area networking hardware reseller to an information security consulting firm. He also worked in the electronic messaging field, managing North American sales for Worldtalk Corp. and regional sales for Beyond Inc. He also sold Enable Software's productivity products to Fortune 500 customers.

"We realized a need to increase our capabilities in the areas of product development and technology," Buckner said. "The expertise, knowledge and talents these men possess will prove to be strong assets to Gelco as we further penetrate the travel expense industry.