Personal Info

Name: Dr. Jack Pan

Designation: Vice President, International Business & General Manager, the Americas

Specialization / Majored in – Electronics / Computer Engineering; Image Processing / Pattern Recognition; Object-oriented Programming (did it once upon a time)

Favorite Sports – Golf (for playing), Soccer and American Football (for watching)

Favorite Cuisine – Japanese, Vietnamese, Mexican and, yes, Chinese

Favorite Airline – Singapore Airlines (who can argue with that J)

Q – How important is it to constantly communicate with your relevant stakeholders? What is your approach in this?

A: I believe it is very important to always keep your internal and external stakeholders informed of your views, strategies and action plans. Having an open and candid dialog with your stakeholders constantly is a key to a trustworthy working and business relationship. Where possible, I will try to seek out a win-win resolution for a given situation so that I can get the wholehearted buy-in and support from my partners and stakeholders.

Q – How much has the industry changed in the last 10 years? Share your personal observations.

A: Comparing with 10 to 15 years ago, the smart card industry has come a long way. It has finally started to fulfill some of the aspirations many people had envisaged more than 10 years ago. For example, we started to see more “multi-application” smart card programs launched in the past few years that bundled various applications from more than one industry, be it in payment, transportation, or government / ID sector. With the advent of the Internet and mobile handset age, we are barely scratching the surface of potential business opportunities leveraging secure token or mobile handset device for broader payment applications that are deemed more convenient and secure for the consumers. Ultimately, I believe the industry will continue to blossom given the fact that we are gradually moving towards a paperless and cashless society where all things can and will be managed and processed through a tiny chip at your fingertip (figuratively).

Q – Define your company’s “growth” in your own words.

A: We just celebrated the company’s 15^th anniversary in last year’s Cartes conference in Paris. As a relatively young company in the smart card industry, we have much to learn from our industry friends and colleagues. While we have established some solid foundations in Asia (including a strong presence in the two most populous countries in China and India), we still have some way to go to grow our business in EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa) and the Americas (North and Latin America). However, we are committed to becoming a global company and are striving to work towards expanding the business horizon of the company into new territories and business sectors.

Q – What do you find most challenging about in your current position?

A: I am tasked to look after the international banking and transportation business as well as the burgeoning sales business in the Americas. These represent relatively new business sectors and territories to us which present inherent challenges to the company and to me personally. Our vision is that though we can compete at the price level it will not sustain us in the long run. We have to compete on product innovations, value-added services and on a case-by-case basis on tailor-made solutions that would meet a particular market needs. To succeed, we will need to deliver cost-efficient solutions to our customers with excellent quality and in a timely manner.

Q – Now that the card industry is showing signs of a renaissance after the financial turmoil, where will this trend lead to?

A: My management and I share the view that innovation and value-add will continue to drive the industry forward. We believe there are plenty of opportunities for the industry to grow and prosper so long as we can continue to exercise our ingenuity to find new business opportunities that will benefit the end users and consumers. For example, we believe public transportation is going to be an important “killer app” for us to pay attention to as it can be the springboard into many other business initiatives (e.g., banking or ID), leveraging the emerging chip and security technologies. The mobile handset is going to be another important platform for the industry to build on as it can further simplify and consolidate our daily activities through a single device.