SILVER SPRING, MD (July 30, 2012) – Merchant Link, a leading provider of payment gateway and data security solutions, today announced that Patricia Sappington will join the company as Director of Channel Development with a focus on building Value Added Reseller (VAR) relationships and growing market share. Sappington comes to Merchant Link from Elavon, Inc., where she facilitated new relationships and interfaces with VARs, directed global hospitality sales, and managed gateway customer relationships.
 
As a veteran of the hospitality and payments industries, Patricia is well-versed in the strategic development of channel programs and will focus on creating a new Value Added Reseller Launch Program to enhance the company’s relationship with its growing base of partners. Patricia will focus on the lodging, restaurant and retail verticals.
 
“The Director of Channel Development position is significant to Merchant Link’s overall strategy and direction,” said Laura Kirby-Meck, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Merchant Link. “Patricia brings the depth and breadth of knowledge and experience necessary to grow the VAR program. She has a passion for service that will continue to expand the number of payment devices and systems we connect to.”
 
“Merchant Link is well-known in the payments industry for its service and support, and is leading the way in its development of payment data security solutions such as tokenization and point-to-point encryption. I’m thrilled to join the team,” said Sappington.  
 
About Merchant Link
Merchant Link is a leading provider of cloud-based payment gateway and data security solutions, removing the risk and hassle from credit card acceptance for more than 150,000 hotels, restaurants, and retailers. Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Silver Spring, Md., Merchant Link currently enables more than 3 billion transactions annually for some of the world's best-known merchants, providing connectivity to the major U.S. payment card processors. TransactionVault™, our tokenization solution, and TransactionShield ®, our point-to-point encryption solution, mitigate the risk of a data compromise while lowering the cost and effort of PCI compliance. Further information is available at www.merchantlink.com. For our expert opinion on encryption, tokenization and PCI compliance, visit the Merchant Link blog at www.merchantlinksecuritycents.com.