Visa's purchase of Plus a boost for card pioneer.

At the American Bankers Association's bank card conference in September, Denny D. Dumler accepted a sensitive assignment as moderator of an unusual panel discussion among 10 top executives of MasterCard and Visa.

Mr. Dumler, chief executive officer of Rocky Mountain BankCard System and a card industry pioneer, was an ideal choice. He refereed with a fairness and aplomb that made him a shoo-in to do it again.

"I really enjoyed it," he said, relishing the role of sometimes hard-nosed, always good-natured, gadfly. "We got a lot of positive feedback from the participants and the associations."

This week it became obvious that there will be no repeat performance.

Impressive Resume

With Visa U.S.A.'s acquisition of Plus System Inc., Mr. Dumler is moving to Plus full time as executive vice president and chief operating officer. It would not be appropriate for anyone in the Visa-Plus camp to arbitrate its combat with MasterCard-Cirrus force.

But this career advance was not something Mr. Dumler could pass up. It rounds out one of the most impressive resumes in U.S. bank card circles.

Mr. Dumler, 52, was present at the creation of Visa in the 1960s, when it was a licensee group for Bank of America's BankAmericard; and at the creation of Plus in the Mountain States in the 1970s, before it went national and international.

"Sometimes, when you're in the middle of it, you have no idea that history is being made, but that's exactly what it was," Mr. Dumler said this week.

He joined Colorado National Bank in 1965 in "methods and planning." "Today we'd call it reengineering," he said.

Wide Range of Experience

Within a few months he had become an assistant manager in operations and human resources to D. Dale Browning, thus beginning a long association with another card pioneer. As Mr. Browning advanced, eventually to president of Colorado National Bank and vice chairman of Colorado National Bankshares, Mr. Dumler followed in his footsteps or carved out management niches of his own in operations and data processing, bank cards, and retail banking.

Together they organized the Plus automated teller network, initially for the banks in Rocky Mountain BankCard, which Colorado National owned.

From 1982, when Plus went national, Mr. Browning juggled bank and Plus responsibilities. He left the bank last January, after First Bank System of Minneapolis announced its acquisition of Colorado National. Now he is stepping down as Plus president and moving to Visa as senior consultant to Wesley C. Tallman, executive vice president, product and market development.

|Getting Very Involved'

In the wake of the First Bank acquisition, Mr. Dumler returned full time to Rocky Mountain BankCard after having taken broader retail banking responsibilities.

Although he remained executive vice president at Plus, "My recent day-to-day involvement was minimal," he said. "While the numbers in this organization [62 employees] are smaller than I have been accustomed to, I will be getting very involved with all of the people and all of the members directly. So in a way, my change is both bigger-picture and smaller-picture."

"Denny contributed greatly to the architecture and soundness of the payment system structure of this country, and that is something he is sure to continue to do at Plus," said Thomas F. Chapman, a former Plus chairman who is executive vice president of the Equifax Financial Information Services Group.

"He has great insight, passion, and energy, and is a man of unmatched integrity," said Mr. Chapman

Mr. Dumler has never left Denver, and Plus is not relocating. But he expects to step up his travel, "both to spend time with the members and with the Visa management" in California. "That's one of the benefits of having grown children," a son, 24, and daughter, 19.

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