PSC Management Team

Tom Arnold

Tony Bates

Paul Guthrie

Richard Thompson

Nigel Tranter

Tom Arnold


Tom Arnold is a Partner with PSC. He specializes in analyzing, and guiding the design, development and deployment of secure payment systems for high-risk enterprises. These include credit card payment, cash management, global payment, merchandizing, and counter crime systems. Deployments include both technical and best business practices in each area.

Tom has served as VP of Product Development and Chief Software Architect for the Merchant Services Division of InfoSpace, Inc. Products include Internet and IP/card-present payment gateway, loyalty earn and rewards systems, private-label hosting, Internet yellow pages, and wireless retail interaction system.

Prior to joining InfoSpace, Tom was the Chief Technical Officer for CyberSource Corporation. While at CyberSource, Tom designed and deployed the full suite of Internet Commerce Services for the Company. Tom has an extensive background in Internet eBusiness systems and electronic commerce, having published several white papers, designed and consulted to some of the most successful electronic businesses, and provided policy guidance to the US Government policy makers.

Tom has a strong background in software engineering and the development of systems technology within both the public and private sectors. Prior to CyberSource, Tom managed applications development at Silicon Graphics, Inc., developing the next generation of electronic sales, software distribution and software licensing systems. And, prior to Silicon Graphics, Inc., Tom lead a software development team building on-line transaction processing and database systems at NASA / Ames Research Center.

In May 25, 1999, Tom gave expert testimony to the US House of Representatives, Committee on Commerce, Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade and Consumer Protection to assist in their deliberations on the proposed SAFE Act, related to the use of encryption technology to secure and protect Internet eBusiness trading. Then, on June 10, 1999, Tom testified before the US Senate, Committee on Banking on the security and technology impact of the proposed Export Administration Act of 1999. Since that time, Tom has been consulted by numerous regulatory agencies including the Department of Commerce, Department of Treasury, Department of Justice, World Trade Organization, European Union Tax Ministers, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the US Fair Trade Commission on topics of Internet commerce, digital rights management, identity theft, fraud, consumer protection and consumer privacy.

Tony Bates


Tony Bates is a Partner and the Chief Operating Officer of PSC. With global experience of the e-payments, Internet, enterprise software and ASP services industries; Tony has built multi-national organizations with a focus on strategic relationships and international sales from multiple channels. Tony has a deep understanding of e-commerce, enterprise systems solutions, business models, technology companies, and channel relationships. Tony's experience spans credit card payments, international corporate business development, global payment processing, merchandizing, marketing and sales.

Prior to PSC, Tony was the senior business development executive for WorldPay Inc., the global online payments provider of the 5th largest banking group in the world, RBS group. Tony was responsible for business strategy, market development and building high-performance sales teams for the multi-currency e-payments company.

Before joining WorldPay, Tony was senior vice president enterprise solutions for InfoSpace, Inc.'s Merchant Business Unit. In this role, Tony lead InfoSpace's entry into new markets, developed business plans and go to market strategies, built strategic relationships to promote InfoSpace with organizations such as Visa, MasterCard and American Express, and First Data Corporation (NYSE: FDC).

Previously, Tony was senior vice president of sales and marketing for QSI Payments, Inc., a global provider of e-payments infrastructure software and secure payment solutions for large financial institutions and major enterprises.

From 1997 to 2000, Tony served as executive vice president of international operations for CyberSource Corporation (NASDAQ: CYBS), a developer and provider of real-time, on-demand e-commerce transaction services. Tony's responsibilities included managing their intellectual property management business and all international business units. Tony also acted as president of CyberSource during the spin-off and successful initial public offering of its software reseller operation, Beyond.com (NASDAQ: BYND).

Tony has also held senior level positions with Serena Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: SRNA), a provider of software change management products and services for organizations whose business operations are dependent on managing information technology, and Specialix, Inc., a leading international manufacturer and marketer of connectivity peripherals and data communications products in over 70 countries.

Tony received an honors degree in electronics and electrical engineering from Newcastle upon Tyne Polytechnic in the United Kingdom.

Paul Guthrie


As a co-founder of the company and its Chief Technology Officer, Paul Guthrie's vision and expertise drives the strategic development of PSC's extensive base of code and systems, and its application in the design and implementation of identity, authentication, and payment solutions.

Prior to co-founding PSC, Paul served as CTO for The Brodia Group. Under Paul's supervision, the development of Brodia's extensible identity and authentication platform was integrated with the technologies and services of a range of business partners, including wireless carriers and seven of the top ten financial institutions in America.

Before joining Brodia, Paul served as vice president of technology research at Visa International. He developed strategies to utilize emerging technologies within Visa's payment systems, incorporating these technologies to develop proofs of concept. In addition, he briefed Visa's executive management team and member banks about technology-related issues affecting emerging technologies, including smart cards, payments, key public infrastructures, electronic cash and checks. He also was the technical lead for Visa's successful venture capital organization.

As director, networks and systems for Visa Interactive, Visa's home banking subsidiary, Paul oversaw operations related to the company's transaction processing systems and bank extranets. Paul designed financial voice and data networks deployed on an international basis. Prior to this, Paul was an early employee at US Order, a pioneer in home banking and online catalog and grocery shopping. US Order was later sold to Visa.

In addition, Paul has consulted for several prominent telecommunications organizations, including AT&T Bell Laboratories and Rockwell International, where he worked on high speed switching, ISDN, voice response and fax servers and other areas of telephony. Paul has spoken at numerous industry and related events including CardTech/SecureTech and Jupiter Financial Services forums in the fields of security, telecommunications and payments.

Richard Thompson


Richard Thompson was born in Lexington, Kentucky, and attended Harvard College, where he graduated with an A.B. in 1977, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. From there he entered Stanford Law School where he received a J.D. in 1980 and was admitted to the Order of the Coif.

From 1980 to 1983, Richard was an associate at the firm of Rosenfeld, Meyer & Susman where he practiced transactional entertainment law, litigation and real estate law. From 1983 through 1988, Richard was an associate and later a partner, practicing transactional entertainment law at the firm of Silverberg, Rosen, Leon & Behr. Upon dissolution of that firm at the end of 1988, he became a founding partner of Silverberg, Katz, Thompson & Braun where he stayed until March 1995. From 1995 through May 2000, Richard was a partner in the firm of Bloom, Hergott, Diemer & Cook, one of the leading motion picture entertainment law firms in Los Angeles. From May 2000 until December 2001, he was first Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and General Counsel and then later promoted to Chief Operating Officer of The Brodia Group, which developed and licensed a consumer payments platform that facilitated secure online payments for the customers of major credit card companies. Richard is currently of counsel to the firm of Bloom, Hergott & Diemer, where he has returned to private law practice, while continuing to pursue entrepreneurial projects, such as his involvement with Payment Software Company.

Beginning in 1989, Richard began to focus a significant part of his law practice in software and new media, initially representing developers and publishers of multimedia CD-ROM products as well as designers, writers, programmers, producers and other individual talent. As the internet became a significant commercial medium, Richard's software practice shifted to clients focused on internet businesses, including Brodia. While at Brodia, Richard became deeply involved in legal aspects of the payment business and negotiated strategic partnerships with a number of leading companies in the payment business, including a majority of the top ten United States credit card issuers and MasterCard. Richard has spoken extensively regarding internet and software-related legal issues at, among other places, USC, UCLA, the Practicing Law Institute and the Los Angeles Copyright Society. Richard is a past president of the Los Angeles Copyright Society.

Nigel Tranter


Nigel Tranter is partner with PSC and has extensive experience in the development and implementation of corporate policies and procedures for a number of certification standards. Nigel also has experience of developing and auditing web-site application security systems and assessment processes. Nigel has also deployed enterprise level computing infrastructure for both software development and web applications.

Prior to PSC Nigel was CSO for Finaplex, a leading provider of wealth management enterprise software for banks and financial institutions, based in San Francisco. Nigel was responsible for the overall security at Finaplex, including the Finaplex Wealth Platform, the day-to-day operations (including all of IT operations), corporate web site, and physical security. Nigel also led the deployment and management of the Finaplex ASP product offering for two leading Finaplex customers. Nigel took Finaplex through 2 certification processes; SysTrust in 2001 and Trust Services in 2004. He brings years of security and procedures experience to PSC, having consulted with PriceWaterhouseCoopers in San Francisco, CA - developing their web application assessment methodology.

During 2000, Nigel was VP Customer Support Services for Sanctum Inc, where he built the US support team; developed training programs, tools and assessment methodology in support of the company's web application security products. Prior to Sanctum Nigel was the Director of the Global Rights Registry (GRR) for CyberSource where he achieved ISO 9000 in four months. The GRR handled secure web digital downloads for software publishers such as Symantec, Qualcomm, McAfee, and others.

Nigel is a member of the Bay Area InfraGard Chapter, and a regular speaker at their meetings, and has contributed to the Open Web Application Security Project (www.owasp.org) and holds a degree in Economics from London University.