BOARD ADVISOR | Catherine A. Allen

Catherine A. Allen serves as CEO of BITS, the Technology Group for The Financial Services Roundtable. The BITS Board is made up of the Chairmen and CEOs of 20 of the largest U.S.-based financial services companies, as well as representatives of the American Bankers Association (ABA) and the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA). BITS' mandate is to foster the growth and development of electronic commerce. BITS works in the areas of security, privacy, standards, infrastructure development and strategic use of emerging technologies.

Catherine founded The Santa Fe Group, a strategic consulting and research firm that specializes in emerging technologies, innovation, and alliances. She sits on the Boards of the Financial Services Technology Consortium (FSTC) and MIST. Previously she was Vice President, Business Development and Alliances, reporting to the Senior Technology Officer of Citicorp, where her responsibilities included developing and managing strategic alliances with technology and telecommunications companies for new, technology-based products and services. She represented Citibank as Founding Chair and President of the multiple-industry-based Smart Card Forum. Catherine first joined Citibank to head marketing and planning for the Enhanced Telephone, a home-banking service offered over screen-based telephones. She reported to the General Manager of the U.S. Card Products Group where she had responsibility for strategic alliances and technology-based new product development.

Prior to joining Citibank, from 1985-1989, Catherine was a Director of Corporate Planning for Dun and Bradstreet, and she managed market research and planning for the Donnelly Talking Yellow Pages. She also served as a consultant to CBS, Inc. on new technologies and international trade issues, while a professor at the American University's Kogod College of Business Administration.

Catherine was named as one of "unsung heroes and rising stars" in the country by FAST COMPANY magazine. She was singled out in the December 1998 issue as an innovator on the "fast track" who circumvents convention and stimulates creativity in the traditional "risk-averse" world of banking. She is consulted as an authority on the subject of e-commerce and smart cards. She has appeared on CNN, ABC's "Good Morning America," CBS's "This Morning" and "Eye on America," NBC News and NBC's "Dateline," PBS's "Nightly Business News," and is quoted frequently in The New York Times, American Banker and other industry publications.

Catherine was co-editor and author, with William Barr, of Smart Cards: Seizing Strategic Business Opportunities (Irwin Professional Publishing, 1997). She also collaborated on the recently published, The Artist's Way at Work: Riding the Dragon-Twelve Weeks to Creative Freedom (William Morrow and Co., Inc., 1998). She is co-author, along with Julia Cameron and Mark Bryan. She holds a B.S. from the University of Missouri, M.S. from the University of Maryland, and completed doctoral work at the George Washington University. Catherine is President and Chairman of the Board of the Mark Twain Research Foundation.