Chief operating officer has left Infinet network.

Alan Pohlman, a top executive in the NYCE electronic banking network for close to a decade, will not be part of the Northeast's newest superregional network, Infinet Payment Services Inc.

Infinet, based in Hackensack, N.J., is the result of a merger of NYCE and Yankee 24, which were the dominant networks in New York and New England, respectively.

Mr. Pohlman's withdraw as chief operating officer of Infinet, in the form of an announcement that be will join the consulting firm of Carmody & Bloom as an executive vice the finalization of Infinet's formation by only a few weeks.

However, sources said he is not a direct casualty of the merger.

In fact, Mr. Pohlman's role in NYCE had steadily deslined over the last two years, leading some to predict as early as February 1993 that he would leave the network.

"Prior to the merger, I had agreed to stay on as chief operating officer. However, my desired arrangement was to do so as a consultant to allow myself to get involved in other things on an informal level," said Mr. Pohlman.

"But when the merger took place there was no longer any reason for me to be there."

With Mr. Pohlman's departure, the Infinet board of directors' for a chief operating officer begins in earnest. The COO's chief responsibility will be running Infinet's Secaucus, N.J.-based data center, which NYCE opened two years ago.

Though Mr. Pohnan is the only executive to have ever been in charge of the data center's operation, experts noted that several of the center's current executives have experience running the facility.

As such, many observers expect the new COO to come from the NYCE opganization. No Yankee 24 executive is being considered. because the network did not handle its own processing, sources said.

Managing the Secaucus data center promises to grow more difficult as Infinet expands into businesses in which neither NYCE nor Yankee 24 has any presence. These businesses include smartcard applications and automated teller machine driving.

lnfinet president and chief executive Richard P. Yanak said he expects the company's board of directors to announce a management structure in the next few months,

Under Mr. Pohlman's leadership, NYCE grew from a relatively small ring of ATMs shared by a handful of New York banks to a powerful superregional electronic banking network with hundreds of members all over the Northeast.

Though the September 1992 hiring of strategic thinker David A. Huemer forced Mr. Pohlman to relinquish his position as NYCE president and become COO spot, his peers continued to regard him as one of the industry's true leaders.

That industry respect is expected to follow him to his new position at Cannody & Bloom.

"Those who have worked with Alan know him to be one of the most knowledgeable and insightful executives in the industry," said Liam Carmody of Carmody & Bloom Inc., Ridgewood, N.J.

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