Contributor Bios

As Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Heartland Payment Systems, Bob Carr is responsible for the strategic direction and growth of the company. Bob co-founded Heartland Payment Systems with Heartland Bank in 1997, quickly building the foundation for an end-to-end credit, debit and prepaid card processing engine. Under his guidance, Heartland has been named a FORTUNE 1000 company; climbed the rankings from #62 to #5 in the nation and #9 in the world; from 25 to 3,400 employees; from 2,500 to 250,000 business locations and from a portfolio of $0.4 billion in bankcard volume to more than $80 billion. Today, Heartland processes more than four billion payment transactions annually.

Over the years, Bob has written numerous articles educating industry associates on business issues, including the inner workings of the payments processing industry, encouraging his peers to join him in adopting policies that treat merchants and fellow businesses equitably. He also spearheaded The Merchant Bill of Rights ― a revolutionary public advocacy initiative to promote fair card processing practices on behalf of all business owners. Bob has been at the helm of an industry collaboration movement to thwart cybercriminals ― and help protect business owners, consumers, processors and financial institutions. He was active in the formation of the Payments Processor Information Sharing Council (PPISC) and served as chair of its steering committee. He also serves as associate member director on the board of the Secure POS Vendor Alliance.

Bob has been a driving force in the development of “E3™,” Heartland’s end-to-end encryption technology that is designed to protect cardholder data at rest and in motion throughout the lifecycle of card transactions.

Bob started his career as an instructor at Parkland College. At the age of 22, he was elected President of the college faculty and named Director of the Computer Center. A year later, he was hired by the Bank of Illinois to establish a new profit center providing computer services to small businesses. In 1972, Bob started a software and consulting firm for small and mid-sized businesses, providing the first integrated accounting system offered on microcomputers.

In 2003, Bob was awarded the bankcard industry’s first Lifetime Achievement Award. Ernst and Young named him Entrepreneur of the Year in 2004 and again in 2007. On August 11, 2005, he rang the bell on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange to celebrate Heartland’s IPO, which was 21 times oversubscribed, breaking PayPal’s previous industry record of 12 times oversubscribed. In 2006, Bob earned the Walter Aikman Entrepreneur Award. In 2007, he received the “Best Executive” honor by American Business Awards and later was named the Technology CEO of the Year by the Eastern Technology Alliance. In 2008 and 2009, Heartland was named the “Best Service Company to Sell For” by Selling Power magazine. In 2009, Bob was awarded the Beta Gamma Sigma Medallion Award for Entrepreneurship.

Bob received his Master of Science degree in computer science and Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from the University of Illinois (Champaign-Urbana). He also received an honorary PhD from Lewis University.

Bob resides in Princeton, NJ where he and his wife, Jill, received the New Jersey Historic Preservation Award for renovating Woodrow Wilson’s home. He also currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the Historic Society of Princeton; the Seton Hall Business School Board of Advisors; and the Board of the Woodrow Wilson House in Washington, DC.

Bob and Jill formed their own personal foundation, the Give Something Back Foundation, which provides scholarships to deserving college students, recognizes teaching excellence and donates to various charitable organizations.