PULSE® Leadership

Meet the leadership of PULSE Network

Dave Schneider

Dave Schneider

 

President

David Schneider is President of PULSE, a Discover Financial Services company headquartered in Houston, Texas. He also serves as a Senior Vice President of Discover and is a member of Discover's Management Committee. He is responsible for managing PULSE and for evaluating debit growth opportunities.

 

Before joining PULSE in September 2000, David was a partner in the Houston law office of Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P., practicing in the Corporation, Banking and Business Department.

 

David has a B.A. in economics, summa cum laude, from Tulane University and a J.D., magna cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center.

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.

Randall Hardy

Randall Hardy

 

Executive Vice President – Business Technology

Randall D. Hardy serves as Executive Vice President of Business Technology for PULSE. He was a leader in the inception of the Enterprise Payments Platform project and multiple initiatives impacting PULSE settlement, Discover Debit and Apple Pay enablement. In addition, Randall is a Lean Champion and a founder of the Black Organizational Leadership at Discover (BOLD) Employee Resource Group in Houston.

 

Randall has over 29 years of experience in payments. He joined Discover in 2011 as Senior Manager, Settlement & Disputes, and progressed to managing Debit Systems and Payment Services Architecture. In 2014, Randall was promoted to Director and to Executive Vice President in 2016. 

 

Prior to working at Discover, Randall held positions at NYCE Payments Network, a division of Fidelity Information Services, for over 15 years.

Jim Lerdal

Jim Lerdal

 

Executive Vice President – Operations

Jim Lerdal is Executive Vice President of Operations for PULSE.

 

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, leading the company’s financial reporting, planning and analysis teams. Since joining PULSE as Senior Manager of Forecasting & Planning in 2006, Craig has taken on increasing levels of responsibility in Finance, supporting both PULSE and Discover Payment Services. In that time, Craig has enhanced both the scope and quality of financial reporting, planning and analysis.

 

Prior to joining PULSE, Craig accumulated 11 years of experience working first 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.

Jennifer Schroeder

Jennifer Schroeder

 

Executive Vice President – Product Management

Jennifer Schroeder is Executive Vice President of Product Management for PULSE. She leads the product management and pricing teams, as well as the Project Management Office.

 

Jennifer joined PULSE in 2013 as Executive Vice President of Operations. In this role, she managed the company's operations department, including processor services, production support, implementation, certification, compliance and fraud operations. Prior to joining PULSE, Jennifer worked for 20 years at Discover Financial Services managing operational and compliance relationships with merchants, acquirers, issuers and key vendors.

 

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

Steve Sievert

Steve Sievert

 

Executive Vice President – Marketing and Brand Management

Steve Sievert is Executive Vice President of Marketing and Brand Management for PULSE. Since joining PULSE in 2007, Steve has leveraged the full breadth of marketing and communications channels to help the company grow and strengthen relationships with core stakeholders. He brings a unique blend of strategic, creative and quantitative abilities to his work, utilizing current and emerging methods and technologies, including content strategy, engagement marketing and data analytics.

 

Under Steve's leadership, PULSE was recognized by the American Marketing Association Houston chapter as the 2013 Marketer of the Year in Financial Services for its consultative approach to providing comprehensive marketing services to issuers.

 

In addition to his team's leading-edge work in monitoring and enhancing customer experience, and advancing PULSE's inbound and outbound marketing strategies, Steve also oversees the network's professional development and training programs.

 

Steve has more than 25 years of experience in marketing and communications, working for publicly traded and private companies. He serves on the board of directors of the Independent Bankers Association of Texas Education Foundation and previously served on the board of directors of the Houston chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. 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.

 

Mike joined PULSE in 2001 as a member of the PULSE Sales team responsible for direct sales in the Midwest U.S. As the Sales department expanded, he took on additional responsibility as PULSE's Vice President of Sales, managing the Direct Sales team. In 2009, Mike moved his family to Houston to work in PULSE's headquarters and today is a Discover Vice President and member of the PULSE executive team responsible for PULSE's Sales, Account Management, Business Development and Sales Operations/Analytics activities.

 

Mike started his career with several positions in the banking industry, including 6 years at First Chicago (now Chase Bank), where he worked in Investment Operations and as a financial analyst for the company's credit card division. Moving into the payments business in 1995, Mike joined EDS as a sales executive in Consumer Network Services selling bank processing solutions to community and large banks and ATM/POS networks throughout the Midwest. Developing relationships in banking and payments organizations is ultimately what fueled a career in debit/payments. Mike holds a degree in Finance from Northern Illinois University.

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