Cathy Medich has left Commercenet, the electronic commerce consortium of which she had been executive director since its founding two years ago, to join Verifone Inc.
Effective April 1, Ms. Medich became director of marketing for Verifone's Internet commerce division in Menlo Park, Calif.
She said she will be responsible for product strategy, marketing, and communications at a company that was historically known for its credit card authorization terminals but which is now steering a parallel business course into on-line and Internet commerce.
Last November, Redwood City, Calif.-based Verifone spent $28 million to acquire Enterprise Integration Technologies, the Internet software and transaction security company that helped found Commercenet. The chief executive of EIT, Jay M. Tenenbaum, became a vice president at Verifone.
Commercenet began as a modest coalition of companies exploring the potential of electronic commerce. It has blossomed into an organization supported by more than 150 major banks and corporations.
"I feel really good about Commercenet," Ms. Medich said. "I think that in two years we went from not having a consortium to having a very energetic, active body that has a fair amount of industry influence."
A search is under way for a new executive director at Commercenet, Ms. Medich said. Asim Abdullah, whom Ms. Medich hired in January to start an international affiliates program, is acting executive director.
Ms. Medich, who was graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and earned an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, has held senior product marketing and strategic planning posts at General Electric and Teradyne. Before joining Commercenet in 1994, she was division engineering manager for Teradyne in Walnut Creek, Calif.
"I come from the for-profit sector, and I knew that at some point I'd move back into the for-profit arena," Ms. Medich said, explaining her decision to leave Commercenet.
Calling Verifone's Internet commerce job an "alignment of position and my interest," Ms. Medich said she would participate in product development alliances with Netscape Communications Corp. and Oracle Corp.
"Our plan is to provide secure, end-to-end payment solutions for the merchant, the consumer, and financial institutions," she said.
Randy Kahn, a former member of Commercenet's steering committee who was until recently a senior vice president at First Interstate Bank, said the decision to hire Ms. Medich indicated "a strong move by Verifone into the Internet business."
