PayScan America Principals
PayScan America, Inc. is a strong, close-knit team of seasoned professionals. Key personnel include:
- Louis J. Krouse – CEO
With more than 24 years in the payments industry, Lou holds three patents in payment processing areas. In 1996 he earned an MBA from Pepperdine University, becoming a member of the National Business Honor Society. He served as an adjunct professor at the Stern School of Business and was elected Chair of the Center for Entrepreneurship at New York University. He was elected Inc. Magazine’s National Entrepreneur of the Year, awarded by Merrill Lynch and Ernst & Young, and holds the first National Business Enterprise Award, judged by Warren Buffet and a panel of other industry titans. Lou has appeared on Good Morning America and Today, and has given lengthy interviews to Bill Moyers, Paula Zahn, FNN, NBC and CBS. He has had national articles written about his business ventures in many publications, including Forbes and Fortune, as well as newspapers such as The Washington Post and The New York Times. His work is described in mainstream books such as “Aiming Higher” and “The Sixth Sense.” Two of his business cases are being used today at Harvard University. Lou has previously founded four payment enterprises; all were sold off before founding Pacific Payment Systems Inc., a California corporation, and PayScan America Inc. Lou remains one of the nation’s foremost authorities on consumer payments. Lou also holds several patents central to the PayScan® process.
- Gregory L. Hrncir – EVP
For nearly fifteen years, Gregg has invested in, and served as securities and corporate counsel and strategist for, a broad range of private and publicly traded companies, principally focusing on emerging growth technology companies. Gregg has worked with Lou in the payments industry for the last thirteen years spanning three different companies. Gregg has a wealth of experience regarding IPOs, M&A transactions, private placements, structuring companies and transactions, joint ventures, strategic partnerships, intellectual property licensing, ’34 Act public company reporting, and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. He earned a B.S. from Arizona State University and a J.D. from Whittier Law School. Gregg is licensed with the Arizona and California State Bar Associations. He is also a member of the Beverly Hills and Los Angeles County Bar Associations and multiple philanthropic and business organizations. - Trevor R. Hanson – CTO
Trevor has over thirty years in the software industry. He left computer timesharing vendor National CSS in 1980, with legendary technical marketeer Larry Smith, to form Hanson-Smith, Ltd., a small consultancy. On hundreds of diverse projects, for clients ranging from Fortune 100 giants to startups, he has dealt with a wide range of problems. Technical work has addressed software product design/development, development tools/methods, messaging architectures, test protocols, and process troubleshooting. Strategic planning has involved writing business plans, product line positioning, and business reengineering. Other consulting assignments have included technical audits, acquisition Due Diligence, and facilitating JAD sessions. Some projects have spanned years – such as building a municipal infrastructure management system, and sustaining long-term relationships with software vendors and public utilities. Continuous hands-on technical work has maintained currency – from operating system development to financial modeling – and includes object-oriented and messaging technology research that began in the 1970s. Consulting has given Trevor insight into many business challenges. Trevor met Lou in the 1980s; together, they have studied many facets of payment processing, and worked on several ventures. - Vito A. Canuso III – VP, Intellectual Property
Mr. Canuso recently joined PayScan America from Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear, where he had been practicing as an IP lawyer since 1990 and was a partner from 1995 to 2008. His practice focused primarily on IP litigation and IP prosecution matters, including protection and enforcement of financial business methods. He also spent a great deal of his time assisting start-up companies in building and implementing IP strategy. Mr. Canuso received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of San Diego in 1990, after practicing as an engineer in Pennsylvania for several years. He earned a Masters of Science Degree in Environmental Health Engineering from the University of Notre Dame in 1983, and a Bachelors of Science in Mechanical Engineering at Villanova University in 1980.
