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Western Union Names New Leadership to Support Americas Region Go-to-Market Strategy

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^{Published in Stocks and Investing on Friday, February 6th 2009 at 10:17 GMT, Last Modified on 2009-02-06 10:19:11 by Market Wire}  

ENGLEWOOD, Colo.--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU), a global leader in money transfer services, today announced it has appointed product management and consumer loyalty leaders in support of The Americas region.

Victoria López-Negrete will lead the newly formed Hispanic Product Management team at Western Union, with responsibility for managing all Hispanic consumer-related products and services across the U.S. and Outbound corridors to Mexico and Latin America. She will also manage the Mexico business for Western Union.

Victoria brings to Western Union 20 years of consumer and financial services experience. She joins Western Union from Epana Networks, a prepaid phone card business. Prior to that, she was group account director for Lopez-Negrete Communications. Among other accounts, she managed the U.S. Hispanic advertising strategy for Visa USA and Microsoft.

As a regional executive, Victoria also managed Citibank's credit card business in 11 countries across Latin America. As general manager for MasterCard International - Mexico, she managed MasterCard's relationships with all Mexican banks and helped capture significant market share gains.

She has served on several boards of directors, including Visa Latin America, TSYS-Mexico, Prosa and the Mexican Banking Association.

Most recently, Victoria was named by El Diario La Prensa newspaper among the Top 50 Outstanding Latin Women in the U.S. A graduate from Anahuac University in Mexico City, she holds degrees in social communication and marketing.

Jorge E. Consuegra will lead the U.S. Product Management team. Under Jorge's leadership, the team will manage the Domestic Money Transfer business at Western Union. Jorge will focus on identifying and driving the development of new products and services to expand Western Union's business to new consumer segments.

With more than 20 years of marketing experience, Jorge brings to Western Union a progressive track record in digital, direct marketing, brand management, consumer packaged goods and consumer financial services marketing.

Jorge joins Western Union from Yahoo! Inc., where he recently served as vice president marketing, international. While at Yahoo! he also served as general manager for Yahoo! en Español with responsibilities for the U.S. Hispanic market.

Prior to that role, he was director, marketing, promotions and sponsorships at Pepsi Cola International. Jorge also gained consumer financial services experience with American Express in New York.

A Harvard MBA graduate, Jorge will work to effectively position Western Union's U.S. products among mainstream consumers.

Greg A. Schneider will have responsibility for leading the newly formed Marketing Information Management and Loyalty team supporting Western Union's in-region structure. In his new role, Greg will help transform Western Union's regional business by developing a best-in-class marketing information management team to better serve the region, including leveraging Western Union's Gold Card loyalty program and its more than seven million users.

With more than 20 years of financial services experience, Greg joins Western Union from Simon Property Group, where he recently served as senior vice president, marketing information management. At Simon, Greg managed, among other key projects, the Simon Giftcard, the largest Visa prepaid program in the world with over 35 million cards sold. Greg worked in the consumer financial services sector for almost 17 years with Banc One, which was acquired by JP Morgan Chase.

Greg holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from Ohio University.

"With more than 60 years of collective consumer, product and financial services experience, Victoria, Jorge and Greg bring a wealth of knowledge to Western Union," said Stewart Stockdale, Executive Vice President and President, The Americas for Western Union. "Their additions to our existing world-class team across the Americas will help Western Union develop new ways to better serve its consumer base."

About Western Union

The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU) is a leader in global money transfer services. Together with its Vigo and Orlandi Valuta-branded money transfer services, Western Union provides consumers with fast, reliable and convenient ways to send and receive money around the world, as well as send payments and purchase money orders. It operates through a combined network of more than 375,000 Agent locations in over 200 countries and territories. In 2007, the company processed nearly 168 million consumer-to-consumer money transfers and 405 million consumer-to-business transactions. Famous for its pioneering telegraph services, the original Western Union dates back to 1851. For more information, visit [ www.westernunion.com ].

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