Citicorp Unit Joins the Hunt For Experts in Smart Cards

If you know smart cards, Citibank wants you.

You also may have options, because many other companies are in the same hunt for talent.

Citibank has two openings and has hired the executive search firm Norman Broadbent International Inc. to find candidates with a combination of technical and marketing backgrounds.

The Citicorp unit has been in the forefront of the smart card movement for several years. Catherine Allen, a vice president in the New York bank's technology office, became closely identified with those efforts as chief organizer and chairman of the Smart Card Forum, a multi-industry educational group.

Ms. Allen relinquished the chairmanship last fall and recently left Citibank to start a consulting business, Santa Fe Group.

A Citibank executive confirmed that the positions are open, but would not comment further.

The postings are indicative of a labor shortage in this corner of an otherwise depressed job market. While traditional bankers are being downsized by the thousands, people with smart card and electronic commerce backgrounds are in high demand.

"Everybody's looking for people - every bank I know," said a source active in the smart card business.

Dan Cunningham, head of the U.S. subsidiary of Gemplus, the major French manufacturer of cards with embedded computer chips, said there is a scramble for expertise in card technology.

Companies are willing to pay a premium for experience "because there's a shortage of talent," Mr. Cunningham said.

A source familiar with Citibank said one new hire will report to Henry Lichstein, vice president of long-term advanced development, at the Transaction Technology Inc. affiliate in Santa Monica, Calif.

The other, at a lower level, will report to Kim Southworth, vice president of advanced development, in New York. The company has been searching for at least four months.

A headhunter at Norman Broadbent said the successful applicant should have plenty of marketing experience, a master's degree in business administration, and foreign language skills.

According to a written job description, responsibilities include "assisting in product development of the bank's next generation Visa/MasterCard based on a chip platform."

Banking experience is not a requirement. The headhunter said Citibank would consider applicants from Silicon Valley companies, American Telephone and Telegraph Co., or other technology firms.

People with Internet and electronic commerce experience are also viewed as desirable.

Among other high-profile hirings in the smart card sector, Mondex, the smart card unit of National Westminster Bank of London, recently recruited Timothy J. Stewart from AT&T to head its new U.S. office.

Joseph Schuler, senior vice president of new business development and marketing, National City Stored Value Systems, said he gets calls at least once a month from executive search firms.

"Someone with expertise in the smart card industry will not have a hard time finding a job," said Mr. Schuler, a former independent consultant who was hired by Cleveland-based National City Corp. in September.

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