Leadership

Mark Spurgeon

Mark Spurgeon was appointed President of Planet Consulting in December 2005. Spurgeon has been a key member of the Planet executive team, recently serving as the Vice President of Solution Sales. Spurgeon joined Planet in 1998 after a 10-year career with ACI Worldwide. His experience began in the technical programming arena and has complemented this over the last 12 years with customer relations, project management, marketing, and sales engagements. Spurgeon adds an array of international customer relations and project management experience through his seven years of experience with ACI Worldwide's international clients. Spurgeon holds a Master's degree in Business Administration.

Mike Wofford

Mike Wofford is the current President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board at Planet Group, Inc. Mr. Wofford began his business career with First Data Resources (FDR) in 1980. He joined Applied Communications, Inc. (ACI) in 1983. In 1987, he moved to ACI International and was promoted to Director of International Project Implementations. In 1990, Mr. Wofford started U.S. Software, Inc. (USSI). In 1994, USSI was successfully reunited with ACI which was taken public in 1995 as Transaction Systems Architects, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSAI) Mr. Wofford left TSAI in 1996 to co-found plaNet2000 Software, Inc.; a premier Internet technology provider for the financial services industry.

In 2006, Planet management completed a successful buy-back of the company from CSG Systems, forming Planet Group, Inc. Under Mike Wofford’s leadership, Planet now has more than 200 employees, and has acquired 12 companies. Today, Planet Group, Inc. has grown to provide a variety of solutions, including IT consulting, software products, hosted services, secure customer communication management and business process management.

John Morey

As Chief Financial Officer and SVP of Operations, John Morey is responsible for directing all of the company's financial and accounting transactions, treasury functions and operations. Since joining the company in 1997, Mr. Morey has been instrumental in Planet's acquisitions and internal growth. Mr. Morey brings more than 20 years of financial and operational management experience, 18 of which are in the information technology industry. Prior to joining Planet, Mr. Morey served as Vice President of Finance and Administration at USSI. He has been a CPA since 1979, and began his career at Deloitte and Touche.

Kent Landholm

Kent Landholm was appointed Chief Technology Officer at Planet Group in March, of 2006. Mr. Landholm has over 15 years of experience in the information technology and electronic payments industries. He is responsible for the strategic technology direction of Planet Group and its subsidiaries. Prior to this appointment, Mr. Landholm served as the Director of Professional Services, where he managed internal project teams and outsourced project engagements. Prior to joining Planet, Mr. Landholm spent the majority of his career with ACI and USSI. While at ACI, Mr. Landholm served numerous roles from managing systems development teams to managing a team of engineers and analysts responsible for performance reviews on customer systems. Mr. Landholm was the primary architect for the design and development of a front-end communications server that facilitated a wide array of communications protocols and message formats.

Merri Wees

As Vice President of Human Resources at Planet Group Inc. Merri Wees oversees employee relations, compensation and benefits. Ms. Wees joined the company in 1997. She has over 20 years of experience in employee and leadership development, and has played an integral part in numerous acquisitions throughout the company's history. Prior to joining Planet, she was a vital member of the human resources staff at ACI . Ms. Wees is an active member of the Human Resources Association of the Midlands, as well as the Society for Human Resources Management.

Dan Heimann

Dan Heimann brings over 25 years of IT, marketing and strategic planning experience for payments and transaction processing within the retail and banking industries. He has been a speaker at various conferences on strategy and trends in the payments industry, including the Canadian Payments Association, the Bank Administration Institute (BAI), Singapore Payments Association, Europay Association, the South American Smart-Card Forum and the European Secure Electronic Transactions (eCommerce shop and buy) forum. Mr. Heimann also worked in various marketing and strategic planning roles while at ACI Worldwide. He has worked with major card associations like VISA, MasterCard, American Express and Europay, as well as terminal manufacturers like Veriphone, Hypercom and NCR. He has also served on various payment industry councils, working directly with banks, payment networks and payment processors on five continents regarding their payment processing strategy and vision. Mr. Heimann joined Planet Group in October of 2006. In late 2007, he was appointed Vice President of Marketing & Communications, where his marketing, communications and strategic payment processing experience and expertise will be leveraged across all divisions of Planet Group.


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