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Leadership Team

 

Steve Upshaw, Chief Executive Officer, Affinion International

Steve Upshaw serves as Chief Executive Officer of Affinion International, the European Division of Affinion Group. Prior to this position, Mr. Upshaw served as Executive Vice President and Managing Director of Affinion International – based in the UK. From May of 2002 until March of 2004, Mr. Upshaw was Senior Vice President of Product Management for Trilegiant Corporation’s financial and protection products in the US. In addition, he was responsible for the company’s domestic contact centre operations. Mr. Upshaw served as Vice President, Customer Retention for Cendant Marketing Group from January 2000 until May of 2002 where he led relationship management strategies for more than 20 million membership subscribers. Mr. Upshaw joined Cendant in 1995.

 

Michele Conforti , SVP and Chief Financial Officer, Affinion International

Michele Conforti has served as SVP and CFO for Affinion International since May, 2007. Mr Conforti is a CPA and MBA with over fifteen years of experience with global blue chip companies across industries such as Financial Services, manufacturing and business services. Prior to joining Affinion International, Mr Conforti spent eight years with American Express holding various key positions including most recently VP and CFO of Establishment Services International, a BU/Division of American Express where he managed a team of 30 professionals across multiple regions, overseeing all aspects of the P&L, investment optimisation, policies and procedures, balance sheet review and SOX planning. Prior to American Express, Mr Conforti also held positions with Enel as VP/Head of Corporate Financial Analysis-Investor Relations, and with DHL International as area controller.

 

Jennifer Sanders, SVP, Marketing and Product Services, Affinion International

As Senior Vice President of Marketing and Product Services, Ms. Sanders manages the strategic marketing and direct sales processes, as well as product management and development across Affinion International’s wide array of channels. Preceding this, she served as Senior Director for Trilegiant Corporation’s Direct Mail Marketing Services Division where she streamlined structure and integrated new systems to support the direct mail effort of the company’s top 100 insurance and membership clients. Ms. Sanders was also responsible for the budget and management of member flow, creating cost-efficient processes to attain all cost-per-acquired-member targets. From June 1998 until June of 2000, Ms. Sanders launched a myriad of new products and marketing strategies throughout Cendant Corporation’s sales channels – acquiring 1 million members in 1998 alone. Ms. Sanders joined Cendant in 1997.

 

Michael Fahey, General Counsel and Company Secretary, Affinion International

Michael Fahey serves as General Counsel and Company Secretary of Affinion International. In January of 2005, Mr. Fahey brought his expertise and knowledge from his legal counsel position at the US-based Affinion Group to Affinion International. Prior to Michael joining Cendant Marketing Group in July of 2002, he served as an associate attorney for the law firm of Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett, where he focused on mergers and acquisitions, securities and other transactional projects in their New York City and London offices. Mr. Fahey holds a JD from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a BA from Manhattan College.

 

Yolinda Liversage, Chief Executive Officer - Cims South Africa

Yolinda Liversage is the esteemed Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer of Cims South Africa. As one of the founding members of this successful subsidiary over seventeen years ago, Ms. Liversage is still actively involved in her responsibilities as Chief Executive Officer. With more than 7 million members in the Cims South Africa programs, Yolinda serves to make certain that each division consistently meets and exceeds company goals and expectations. Ms. Liversage is also a director of Toro LifeStyle (Pty) Ltd, Cims South Africa’s Black Empowerment Entity..

 

David Palmer, Managing Director, Affinion International – United Kingdom

David Palmer leads the management of Affinion International’s company operations in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Prior to this, David helped Citigroup develop its UK Consumer Operations as Marketing and Sales Director and then directed the growth of its UK Personal Credit Card Division as its Business Head. From September of 2000 until February of 2003, Mr. Palmer served as the European Marketing Head for US-based Robert W. Baird and its Granville Baird European subsidiary, leading the companies’ re-branding and re-positioning into the UK and German middle markets. Before that, David was the Customer Marketing Head of the Personal Credit Card Portfolio Division at NatWest, where he was responsible for maximizing revenues from the second largest credit card base in the UK – helping it transition into the new, parent company – the Royal Bank of Scotland Group.

 

Guillaume Huser, Managing Director, Affinion International – South West Europe

Guillaume Huser leads the management of Affinion International’s company operations in France, Italy and the Benelux countries. Prior to this, Mr. Huser held the position of Vice President Corporate Services at American Express where he helped growing the Corporate Cards portfolio and launching the Co branded card between American Express and Air France. From 1999 until 2002, Guillaume served as Vice President of the Global Commercial Card Division in Western Europe where he grew the Corporate Card business of France, Spain and Portugal and launched the Corporate Purchasing card. Mr. Huser joined Affinion International in 2003.

 

Knut-Erik Clausen, Managing Director, Affinion International – Nordic Division

Knut-Erik Clausen leads the management of Affinion International’s company operations in Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland. Prior to this, Mr. Clausen served as Marketing and Sales Director of Affinion International, Norway where he launched the successful segmentation strategy with DnBNOR. Before joining Affinion International in 1991, Knut-Erik held a variety of positions throughout the financial industry. From 1982 until 1988, he was Marketing Manager at Gjensidige Forsikring, Norway and was responsible for implementation of their loyalty scheme.