PEOPLE IN THE NEWS: New Chief for MasterCard's Maestro Program

The board of Maestro International, MasterCard's global on-line debit program, has elected Steven L. VanFleet as general manager.

Mr. VanFleet, 39, will remain senior vice president of MasterCard International's global debit services group.

In the Maestro post he replaces John O. Smith, general manager since mid-1992.

Mr. Smith was also a MasterCard executive vice president, and he'll hold that job until retiring Dec. 31. In the meantime, Mr. VanFleet will report to him.

Next year he'll report to G. Henry Mundt 3d, president and chief executive of MasterCard's Cirrus System Inc., who will assume Mr. Smith's executive vice presidency as well.

Mr. VanFleet has been with the New York-based card association since 1989, when he was hired as senior vice president for the Cirrus automated teller machine network operations in Chicago.

On Wednesday he said that raising the level of Maestro's acceptance by merchants is his top priority.

"We initially focused on getting members committed and cards signed up, and we were pretty successful there," Mr. VanFleet said.

But though Maestro now has 113 million cardholders, he noted, only 44 million of its cards are in active use. "This is up from about 19 million a few years ago," he said, "but we want to hook in more."

Maestro's biggest obstacle, Mr. VanFleet said, is that certain parts of the world have not warmed to the on-line point of sale product. "Globally, we can grow only as quickly as the local markets," he said.

To overcome this, the New York-based card association will market selectively to merchants overseas.

"We're not trying to get the guy at the local grocery store," Mr. VanFleet said. "We might target travel locations for vacationers," he said, adding that locations in 11 U.S. cities have been targeted.

Mr. VanFleet said that Maestro will continue to prove more popular overseas than off-line products like MasterMoney and Visa Check, which are authorized in retailing locations much like a credit card.

"In the United States, there is definitely a call for MasterMoney and Visa Check products," he said, but this is not the case overseas.

For several years, MasterCard has been emphasizing on-line, real-time processing of debit payments, requiring immediate verification that the cardholder has sufficient funds.

Visa, while competing for on-line business, sees a more immediate growth opportunity in the off-line debit product.

Before joining MasterCard, Mr. VanFleet was vice president of operations for Pulse EFT Systems in Houston, where he managed ATM and point of sale services. Previously, he worked as a sales and systems engineer for Diebold in Houston.

Maestro International is jointly owned by MasterCard and Europay International. MasterCard said Maestro has more than 1,400 merchant participants in 70 countries.

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