President and Founder at Alterna Card Services

Ms. Tapia has been an entrepreneur most of her life. She is one of the founders of Alterna, and created and developed the “Alterna” marketing program for the Hispanic unbanked and money transfer markets. She also was one of the founders of Teletienda Network, Inc., dba MercadoVisions an innovative in-store community TV network for Hispanic retailers to support the Alterna program. She led the negotiations and managed strategic relationships to bring leveraged coverage through relationships such as CardMarte, MetaBank, First Data, Western Union, Sky Cable de Mexico/Prepago USA and Telemundo for digital content. She contracted with 9 large distributors for Alterna to include the Washington Farm Bureau, and the Catholic Diocese of Puerto Rico. She also developed Alterna’s process patent for Card Registration for immigrants which is being represented by Wilson,Sonsini, et al. Ms. Tapia founded Global Payment Solutions, LLC (“GPS”) in 1996, and has worked in emerging payment technologies for the last 19 years. Under Ms. Tapia, GPS developed relationships with both government and corporate clients. In her capacity with GPS, which is an electronic payment processing (EFT/ACH) sales and marketing company, Ms. Tapia succeeded in bringing such accounts as Lockheed Martin IMS, EDS and ACS, to the company. Ms. Tapia has represented GPS on the NACHA’s Electronic Check Council, which is responsible for setting regulatory guidelines for the electronic payments industry. Ms. Tapia worked in the legal field for 15 years, specializing in intellectual property and issues relating to the Hispanic community in California. She also served as administrative clerk/judicial assistant for the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. She also created and owned French Basque restaurants and delicatessens throughout the San Francisco Bay Area such as the infamous Basque Hotel and Restaurant.