Bio

Simon Laker leads Consult Hyperion’s Global Mobility Payments practice. He is a leading authority on the implementation of open payments systems in public transport, using payment cards as a token for travel. He worked with Transport for London and the major payment schemes to define the operational and transaction models to support the use of payment cards in place of transit tickets in the UK. His work has subsequently been adopted and deployed globally by the Payment Schemes. Simon has extensive experience in the analysis of service distribution platforms, particularly in developing markets. He led the analysis of FMARD and IFDC’s requirements for, and contributed to the design of, the GES-TAP e-voucher delivery platform, which over a 3-month period, was used to distribute and redeem e-vouchers with a value in excess of $19m to 500,000 farmers in areas of Nigeria’s Sokoto state with limited electricity and mobile networks. More recently he has helped the transit authorities in Boston (MBTA), New York (MTA) and Philadelphia (SEPTA) to refine their requirements for a new ticketing service; identify potential vendors whose services could deliver against those requirements; issue an RFP to those vendors for the procurement of the required services; review their technical responses to support the selection process. In all three projects, Simon has had to work within and comply by UK & US government procurement rules and procedures, as well as considered Best Practice in areas where such rules do not apply. Simon is a recognized expert in the design, implementation and operation of secure retail payment services. He has helped organizations such as First Data to design and develop new services to support the deployment and use of ApplePay & AndroidPay services; Mastercard to analyze the impact of their Fraud Management tools; Motivate to review their card payment agreements and the bills levied by their Acquirers to identify potential areas for cost savings.