PULSE® Leadership

Meet the leadership of PULSE Network

Jennifer Schroeder

Jennifer Schroeder

 

President and Chief Operating Officer

Jennifer Schroeder is President and Chief Operating Officer of PULSE®. She leads all aspects of the PULSE Network business, including Discover® Debit issuer sales and product support. Jennifer is also responsible for evaluating debit growth opportunities, and for chairing the PULSE Issuer Advisory Council.

 

Prior to being named President and COO in March 2026, Jennifer successfully led the conversion of Capital One’s debit card portfolio from its previous card-brand network to Discover Network and PULSE. She joined PULSE in 2013 as Executive Vice President of Operations, managing the company’s operations department, including processor services, production support, implementation, certification, compliance, and fraud operations. She was named Executive Vice President of Product Management in 2020, leading product management, pricing, and merchant and acquirer sales, as well as the Project Management Office.

 

Prior to joining PULSE, Jennifer worked for 20 years at Discover Financial Services where she started in 1993. She progressed through increasingly senior leadership roles in support of both platforms and customers. Her experience covers complex implementations, key outsourcing deals, and playing a vital role in key negotiations.

 

Jennifer has a B.S. degree in business management from the University of Wisconsin and an M.B.A. from Texas A&M University.

Srissa Dharampal

Srissa Dharampal

 

Executive Vice President – Business Technology

Srissa Dharampal is Executive Vice President of Business Technology for PULSE, leading the technology architecture, engineering, and operations functions. In this capacity, he supports the business-growth strategy by delivering solutions and capabilities for customers. He is laser-focused on the resilience and reliability of PULSE platforms and provides leadership vision and oversight to simplify and modernize the technology stack.

 

Srissa joined Discover in 2017 as a Senior Engineering Associate and has since stepped into multiple leadership roles to shape the Discover Network and Diners Club International reliability engineering and operations divisions. As a Senior Director, he made a significant impact by helping to establish the Site Reliability Engineering function for the global payment network and led platform modernization, resilience, and quality-engineering efforts that helped drive greater business value and enhance the customer experience.

 

Before joining Discover, Srissa worked at Goldman Sachs leading critical initiatives for the Enterprise Development and Runtime Engineering Practices division to help transform the software engineering practices. His focus was to standardize and enhance the software-delivery process by enabling tooling and automation to achieve higher quality, stability, and speed to market for the Private Wealth Management, Investment Banking, and Electronic Trading divisions. 

 

Srissa has a Master’s in management information systems from Illinois Institute of Technology and a BE in electronics and communication from Bangalore Institute of Technology.

John Eikenburg

John Eikenburg

 

Senior Counsel

John Eikenburg is Senior Counsel for PULSE. Since joining PULSE in 2005, John’s responsibility has been addressing matters relating to Discover Network, PULSE Network, and Diners Club International.

 

Prior to joining PULSE, John practiced mergers and acquisitions, securities, and general corporate law at Winstead PC.

 

John earned his Bachelor of Arts in history from Bowdoin College and his J.D. from Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law. Away from work, John helps to organize the annual Houston Bar Association Law Week John J. Eikenburg Fun Run, honoring his late father and benefitting The Center for Pursuit.

Jim Lerdal

Jim Lerdal

 

Executive Vice President – Operations

Jim Lerdal is Executive Vice President of Operations for PULSE. In this capacity, Jim is responsible for customer servicing of processors, issuers, and merchants directly connected to the PULSE Network and oversees network health and technical implementations. He manages the fraud and data analytics teams and directs testing, certification, and dispute processing. He is also responsible for maintaining operational compliance and navigating complex regulatory requirements.

 

Jim joined PULSE in 2016 as Vice President of Fraud Operations. In this role, he led the enhancement of the DebitProtect® fraud-detection service, and the implementation of a robust anomaly-detection program. Before joining PULSE, Jim was Senior Vice President of Operations and Compliance at PreCash, where he led a team of 30 responsible for compliance, operations, fraud management, and legal functions.

 

Jim has a B.S. degree in business from the University of Minnesota and an M.B.A. from Southern Methodist University.

Craig Llorens

Craig Llorens

 

Senior Vice President – Finance

Craig Llorens is Senior Vice President of Finance for PULSE. He has served in this role since 2019, acting as a strategic advisor to PULSE leadership while growing the Finance department’s capabilities to provide insightful and actionable reporting and analysis. His team of Finance associates supports the organization with budgeting, financial reporting, and analysis, along with deal structure and pricing support.

 

Craig originally joined PULSE as Senior Manager, Forecasting and Planning in 2006 and has since taken on increasing levels of responsibility in Finance, supporting both PULSE and Discover Network. In that time, he has grown both the scope and quality of financial reporting, planning, and analysis.

 

Prior to joining PULSE, Craig accumulated 11 years of experience working as an auditor and Certified Public Accountant for PwC in Texas and Singapore, before transitioning to various financial planning and analysis roles in private and public companies. Craig has a B.S. in accounting from Trinity University.

Steve Sievert

Steve Sievert

 

Executive Vice President – Marketing and Brand Management

Steve Sievert is Executive Vice President of Marketing and Brand Management at PULSE, where he has spent nearly two decades contributing to the network’s growth, and guiding market positioning and client-engagement strategy within the debit and payments ecosystem.

 

In his role, Steve leads PULSE brand strategy, content and thought-leadership platforms, go-to-market support for Sales, and integrated marketing programs designed to help financial institutions succeed in an increasingly competitive and complex debit landscape. His work focuses on aligning market insight, storytelling, and personalization to drive measurable business impact for PULSE and its clients.

 

Earlier in his career, Steve worked across newspapers, television, radio, and digital media as a journalist and broadcaster, developing a strong foundation in content creation, audience engagement, and narrative-driven communication. Prior to joining PULSE, he led corporate communications and investor relations for companies in the biotechnology and healthcare industries.

 

Steve has a B.A. in journalism from the University of South Carolina and a Master's in integrated marketing communications from Medill at Northwestern University.

Mike Urquizu

Mike Urquizu

 

Executive Vice President – Sales and Account Management

Mike Urquizu serves as Executive Vice President of Sales and Account Management for PULSE. He is responsible for leading the issuer-side sales, account management, and business development teams. This includes sales strategy, revenue growth, expense management, and collaborating across the executive leadership team to set and achieve PULSE’s strategic goals.

 

Mike joined PULSE in 2001 as a Sales Executive based in Chicago. As the Sales department expanded, he was promoted to Vice President of Sales, managing the Sales and Account Management teams. In 2009, Mike moved his family to Houston to work in PULSE’s headquarters and continued to take on additional responsibilities until being named to his current role.

 

Prior to joining PULSE, Mike held sales executive roles in Business Process Management and Consumer Network Services at EDS. Prior to EDS, Mike worked for First National Bank of Chicago as a financial analyst. He has a B.S degree in finance from Northern Illinois University.

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