Management

Manfred Krüger, born 19 March 1950, in Wiendorf near Rostock

From the mid-1970s, having completed his banking training and business administration studies at the German Sparkassenakademie, Manfred Krüger held a number of different managerial positions within the German savings banks organisation.

From 1991, his work was devoted to card-based payments: firstly as a specialist at the German Savings Banks Association (Deutscher Sparkassen- und Giroverband - DSGV) in Bonn; then from 1995 as the head of the card strategy project group at the same association, focusing on: the nationwide introduction of chip cards, cooperation with companies operating nationwide in the credit card sector, the integration of Visa into the Savings Banks credit card family while continuing to promote the Eurocard, and the expansion of the product range in the field of debit cards. In 1998, Mr. Krüger became the director of the credit card strategy department at DSGV.

In 1999, he joined the management of EURO Kartensysteme, Frankfurt am Main. In this role, he was responsible for the areas of Controlling, Licensing and Administration, and made concerted efforts to develop the business areas of Debit Cards and E-Commerce, established under his stewardship.

He played a key role in the restructuring phase at EURO Kartensysteme, the main objective being the spin-off of the Acquiring business area.

With the successful spin-off of Acquiring, Mr. Krüger became Chief Executive Officer of the newly-formed acquirer, ConCardis GmbH, with responsiblity for company management, effective from 1 July 2003.

Manfred Krüger is a member of the Administrative Board of the "Verein zur Förderung der Aktivitäten von MasterCard in Deutschland e.V."

Rainer Sureth, born 7 October 1949, in Niendorf on the Baltic Sea

Rainer Sureth has been General Manager of ConCardis GmbH in Frankfurt am Main since 1 July 2003.

On completing his business administration studies in Hamburg in 1976, Rainer Sureth began his career in the insurance sector. In 1979, he joined Commerzbank in Frankfurt and subsequently worked as head of Retail and Corporate Banking at a number of branch offices.

He transferred to Commerzbank's Head Office in 1989 to help develop a new retail banking strategy. From 1990, he was responsible for issues such as payment transactions, card business, deposits and all-financing business, in his position as head of department at the Zentrales Geschäftsfeld Private Kunden (retail banking division). He was particularly interested in promoting online banking and POS business, and played an instrumental role in the acquisition of the TUI Visa portfolio in 1998. He also managed special projects in Retail banking and European direct banking at national and international level. In addition, he represented the interests of Commerzbank in committees of the Association of German Banks (Bundesverband deutscher Banken), with regard to payment services and card business in particular.

Manfred Krüger and Rainer Sureth form the Management Board of the Company, which was established on 1 July 2003 and emerged from the Acquiring business area at EURO Kartensysteme. Since its spin-off from EURO Kartensysteme, ConCardis GmbH has become one of the leading German providers of card acceptance services, with around 400,000 merchants. ConCardis offers an end-to-end portfolio of services in cashless card payment transactions for trade and industry, releasing the potential of credit and debit cards.