Council Chair
Elizabeth Robertson, CCM
Senior Manager
First Annapolis Consulting, Inc.

Beth Robertson is a senior manager at First Annapolis Consulting, Inc. advising leading financial institutions, processors, non-bank financial service providers, and corporations on major initiatives such overall business strategy, product positioning, and market entry for new products and businesses. With nearly 25 years of experience in the financial services industry, Beth has significant expertise in electronic bill and invoice presentment and payment services, remittance transfer and walk-in payment services, the ACH network, fraud detection and risk management, and emerging Internet payment and funds transfer services. Beth currently serves as the Chair of NACHA's Council for Electronic Billing and Payment.

Prior to joining First Annapolis, Beth was the line of business director for Banking and Payments at TowerGroup, responsible for oversight of consulting engagements with a banking or payments services focus. Beth also previously served as a research director in the Global Payments practice at TowerGroup, where she focused on online and alternative payment services and applications for both the wholesale and retail markets. Prior to TowerGroup, Beth held positions with PSI Global, where she was vice president and manager of the Billing and Payments research practice and also held the position of consulting director, managing projects emphasizing product and strategic planning. Her further experience includes roles at Exxon Company USA, Trans Data Corporation, and Maryland National Bank.

Beth has delivered numerous executive presentations for clients and at major financial services industry conferences and has been quoted in many news services and journals, including The Wall Street Journal, CBS Marketwatch, National Public Radio, American Banker, CNN.com, and Banking Strategies magazine.

Beth received an M.B.A. from the University of Maryland - Salisbury and holds a B.A. degree in Economics and Business Administration from McDaniel College. She is a permanently certified cash manager (CCM), receiving that accolade from the Association of Financial Professionals in 1986.

Council Vice Chair
Chris Huppert, Wells Fargo

Christopher Huppert is a Senior Vice President in the Wholesale Internet and Treasury Solutions Group of Wells Fargo.  He has responsibility for Wells Fargo's electronic payments product team that supports ACH, wire transfer, and WellsTax services for our commercial and corporate customers.  Huppert has over 20 years of payments experience.

Huppert joined Wells Fargo in August, 1996 as senior product manager for national strategies in the Electronic Commerce Group. He led the roll-out of WellsOne, Wells Fargo's interstate depository and disbursement account for Commercial customers. He also had responsibility in his previous Wells Fargo positions for information reporting products, purchasing card, and cashletter services.

Huppert's previous work experience includes positions with Bank of America,  TRW Financial Systems, and Crocker National Bank.

Huppert is the Business-to-Business co-chair of NACHA's Council for Electronic Billing and Payment, a board member for the Western Payments Association, and an active participant in the development of new ACH Services.

Immediate Past Chair
Mike Taipale, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland

Mike Taipale is Manager, Electronic Payments Product Development for the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.   Mike's responsibilities include the development of electronic payment products and services and supporting the efforts of corporations, government agencies, financial institutions and consumers in adopting electronic payments.  He has been the Project Manager for an Automated Clearing House Direct Payment program involving more than 50 utilities/billers and 200 financial institutions in Ohio and Pennsylvania.  This partnership of 15 years has generated more than 2 million authorizations from consumers to pay their bills by ACH debits.

Mike works with industry stakehholders to expand the adoption of electronic transactions through collaborative industry projects.  For example, the projects include the EBIDS and Automated Enrollment initiatives.  The Electronic Billing Information Delivery Service (EBIDS) project will define the requirements and benefits for using the ACH as a delivery channel for summary electronic bills.  EBIDS also recommends ACH credits as the preferred payment option. Automated Enrollment is designed to allow consumers to change banking information for electronic transactions in an automated fashion through their financial institution.

For the last four years, Mike served as Chairman of NACHA's Council for Electronic Billing and Payment (CEBP).  Under the CEBP, Mike continues to work collaboratively with industry stakeholders to develop solutions that will enhance and drive adoption of electronic transactions and to keep the Federal Reserve engaged in developing initiatives. He is also a regular conference presenter and speaker for both local and national programs.

Mike joined the Federal Reserve Bank in 1988 serving as a Marketing Analyst, Market Research Analyst.  Prior to joining the Fed, Mike was with Leaseway Transportation Corporation as a Senior Marketing Analyst and Manager of Training and Development.'

He holds a BA in Mathematics, a Masters in Anthropology, and an MBA.   He resides in Bath, Ohio, with his wife, Elizabeth.

B2B Co-Chair
Valjean Sanchez
Senior Vice President, Manager
Union Bank of California

Manager, Electronic Payments, Commercial Cash Management including:

• Manage 4 Senior Product Managers;
• Services include:  Remote Deposit Capture, ACH, Electronic Receivables, EDI, Bill Concentration, Payables Outsource and interface with other transaction and reporting services
• Help set and implement Payment Strategy for Union Bank;
• Support all related Compliance and Risk activities;
• Manage Services to the goals set within the bank including revenue, profitability, and customer and transaction volumes.
• Speaker at various conferences

Her Product Management Group has and still participates in various Councils throughout the years including EDI, ECC, and the Internet Council.  Valjean served most recently on the Corporate Payment Council's Steering Committee.

B2B Co-Chair
Pete Lambert
Product Support Manager
RBC Centura Bank

Pete Lambert is the Collections Line Product Manager for RBC Centura’s Treasury Services. In this role, Lambert has overall responsibility for RBC Centura’s Collection Line of Treasury Products including ACH services, EDI, Remote Deposit Capture and other services. He also has responsibility for product development and enhancement initiatives within the Collections Line of Business.

Lambert is a member of the steering committee for the NACHA Council for Electronic Billing and Payments (CEBP) and serves as B2B Co-Chair of the Council. He is also a member of the NACHA Electronic Check Council (ECC) and the Technology Committee of the National Association of Credit Management (NACM). Lambert has been a frequent speaker at national industry conferences.

Prior to joining RBC Centura, Lambert served as Senior Product Manager for ACH at CheckFree Corporation and as Vice President and Solutions Product Manager for National City Corporation’s Global Trade and Treasury Services and as Vice President and Corporate Collections Specialist for Wachovia Treasury Services. Previously, Lambert organized and managed corporate credit departments, served as a senior factoring credit officer, provided secured lending and developed products and strategies for corporate collections, receivables and accounts payables management.

Lambert received a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln.

B2C Co-Chair
Melissa Bernardino
Director, Product Development
Transactis, Inc.

Melissa Bernardino is the Director of Product Development for Transactis, Inc., an EBPP services provider. She is responsible for the design and development of electronic billing and payment solutions, specifically focusing on an eMail-based bill delivery system that allows consumers to securely view and pay their bills from within an email.

Prior to joining Transactis she was the Senior Manager – Remittance Operations for AT&T Southeast. During her 12 year tenure there, she held positions in Credit, Collections, Billing, and Remittance, focusing on Strategic Planning & Analysis, Process Improvements, and Project Management. Melissa also worked for 6 years with Equifax in their Credit and Collections divisions.

She has an M.S. in Operations Research from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a B.A. in Mathematics from Transylvania University.

B2C Co-Chair
Jane Wallace, Wallace Consulting

Jane S. Wallace has maintained continuous membership in the Council for Electronic Billing and Payment (CEBP) starting in 1996.  She has held a number of positions on the Council Steering Committee -- ranging from the CEBP Vice Chair, Member-at-Large, and most recently as the B2C Committee Co-Chair.  She has served two terms on the NACHA Board of Directors and actively participated in various NACHA councils and committees providing strategic product and business vision for the payments industry over the past twenty-five years.

Jane brings a wealth of experience in the financial services, technology, and operations arena. She is a senior executive with a record of achievement in leading and managing consumer and wholesale services. For five years, she worked at Visa, serving as the Executive Vice President-Business Support for the technology division. Prior to that Jane spent 13 years at Bank of America, where she was the Senior Vice President and business manager of the bank's consumer and corporate electronic bill presentment and payment services.  She holds her B.A. and M.B.A. degrees from Rutgers University.

Communication & Membership Development Co-Chair
Patricia Frazier, Vice President, Industry Relations, Western Union

Patricia Frazier is vice president of industry relations for Western Union. As an expert and veteran in the electronic payments industry, Patricia brings a comprehensive understanding of payment trends and remittance payments to the company. Patricia's responsibilities at Western Union have focused on customer service management, sales and new product development, primarily serving the payment services unit of the company.

Patricia's current responsibilities include handling the compliance review process, representing Western Union with trade associations, and working to ensure card and NACHA compliance for Western Union products and services. Patricia also works with ATM Network providers and credit card issuers such as Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express on compliance and developing new payment solutions.

Throughout her tenure with the company, Patricia has served on Western Union's Software Development Team, helping to increase productivity and processes within the company. In addition, Patricia participated in internal teams for Regulation E and NACHA-The Electronic Payments Association, making certain that Western Union is compliant with payment industry standards.

Some highlights of her career include spearheading the development of Western Union Consumer Web, a service option for companies to obtain customer payments for services (e.g. mortgages, car loans, insurance, utility payments) via the Internet. She has also played an instrumental role in enabling consumers to make electronic payments through ATM networks. Both of these services reduce customer service representative interaction and mail time, which in turn reduces collection expenses and improves cash flow.

Active in the payments industry for fifteen years, Patricia is committed to establishing and maintaining connections with trade associations to keep her finger on trends that could impact Western Union, as well as future compliance issues that could affect the entire industry. Patricia is a member of the Association for Financial Professionals and NACHA -The Electronic Payments Association.

Communication & Membership Development Co-Chair
Mary Kate Cole, AAP
Vice President
UMACHA

As Vice-President of UMACHA Kate's responsibilities include over seeing membership education development and instruction; all member communications; working with NACHA on Rules Work Groups, conferences, etc.  Kate is a member of the Regional Payment Association Forum education committee and a member of the AAP Blue Ribbon Panel.

Kate has been a participant in the council since she began with UMACHA in 1995.  She has helped with the development of the CEBP website and the update to the biller guide.

NACHA Board Liaison
Norman Robinson, Eastpay

Norman is President of EastPay, one of NACHA's regional automated clearing house associations supporting over 800 financial institutions and corporations in VA, WV, NC, and FL.   Norman has been with EastPay since 1979. Previously Norman worked for the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond in the check collection, staff & training, and audit departments.

Norman holds a B.S. in Business Management from VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University), is a graduate of the Virginia Bankers Association's School of Bank Management, and holds banking certificates from the American Institute of Banking.   He holds a CTP Certified Treasury Professional, certification from the Association for Financial Professionals, and the permanent Accredited ACH Professional certification from NACHA. He is active with the Hampton Roads Treasury Management Association and is Past President of the Commonwealth Association of Financial Professionals.

At the national level, Norman is currently on the Steering Committee of NACHA's Council for Electronic Billing and Payment, he is serving his second two-year term as a member of the NACHA Board of Directors and is co-chair of Rules Work Group #56 on the automation of WSUPP and other payment-related documents.