News
Who's who: Melanie Chewning
Throughout a 13-year career in the financial services industry, Melanie Chewning has earned a reputation as a multi-tasker extraordinaire. Yet the ability didn't come naturally. 'I've never thought of myself as being really good at any one thing. So I decided early on to learn to do more than one thing at a time,' says the vice president of ATM Services for Lynk Systems.
May 29, 2003
Melanie Chewning is full of surprises.
The vice president of ATM Services for Atlanta-based transaction processor Lynk Systems is a "self-proclaimed introvert" despite her reputation as a tireless networker at tradeshows and other industry events. "I know everyone sees me as an extrovert, but I'm not. I'm comfortable as part of a group, but I don't like to be singled out."
 |
Melanie Chewning |
Though she's a no-nonsense, Type A personality, her exercise of choice is yoga -- albeit Bikram or "hot" yoga, a demanding and highly regimented form of the discipline that requires its devotees to perfect their postures in a room heated to 103 degrees. "I've tried some of the other forms of yoga but they're too loosey goosey for me," she said.
Juggling act
Throughout a 13-year career in the financial services industry, she has earned a reputation as a multi-tasker extraordinaire. Yet the ability didn't come naturally.
"I've never thought of myself as being really good at any one thing. So I decided early on to learn to do more than one thing at a time," she explained.
Longtime friend and mentor Norma Wayco, Lynk's senior vice president, was impressed by that talent when Chewning worked as an intern at Wayco's marketing company. Chewning's savvy became evident when she helped Wayco coordinate a complicated promotional effort called "Truckers for Trees," in which a caravan of truckers delivered trees to all 50 states.
Chewning has handled the multi-tasking challenge of parenthood with aplomb since daughter Olivia was born last year. "She's been a strong role model for the other working mothers at Lynk," Wayco said.
"There are some things you can teach and some things you can't," Wayco said. "Melanie has the things you can't teach, like common sense and initiative. She has good peripheral vision. She picks up on things that are happening around her quickly and well, even things that don't directly affect her division. She's good at seeing the total impact."
Atlanta or bust
Wayco offered Chewning a job after her internship. But by the time Chewning completed her degree at Southwest Texas State University and planned her move to Atlanta, Wayco had sold her company.
There were no hard feelings. Chewning became an account executive at Georgia Credit Union Affiliates, where she sold, designed and produced marketing materials such as newsletters, brochures and statement stuffers for about 50 Georgia credit unions.
After a two-and-a-half year stint there and six months as a business development officer for the Southern Federal Credit Union in Fayetteville, Ga., she went to work as a product manager for Wayco at Lynk.
"She'd been on my radar screen from the day I walked in the door at Lynk. She was the first employee I hired there," Wayco said.
Enter the ATM
Chewning helped Wayco manage the company's scrip processing business, which evolved into ATMs in 1995. Lynk played a key role in one of the first dial-up ATM interfaces, for the Triton 9500.
"I feel so fortunate to have been a part of it," Chewning said. "Not only did I get to see Lynk grow as a company, I got to see the retail ATM business grow as an industry as well."
Melanie Chewning Vice president of ATM Services, |
During her first six years at Lynk, Chewning advanced from product manager to assistant vice president of ATM sales, helping to grow the business to a 35-person division that generated $55 million in revenue in 1999.
Lured by the then-strong pull of the dot-com, she left Lynk in late 1999 to become a product manager for Internet banking at an Atlanta area company called nFront, Inc. She found the offer "intriguing" when contacted by nFront. "It was an opportunity to get into a new business and strengthen my financial services background," she said.
Perhaps surprisingly, Wayco agreed. "It was hard to lose her, but I felt that the new areas of responsibility at nFront would help her grow," she said.
At nFront, Chewning developed the rollout strategy and support documentation for two Internet banking products, online statements and check imaging. Shortly after nFront was acquired by Calabasas, Calif.-based Digital Insight Corporation in early 2000, Chewning assisted with the migration to a new platform and became Digital Insight's director of consumer products.
Again proving her multi-tasking chops, Chewning became engaged in July of 2001, right after she accepted the Digital Insight position. When she and husband David returned from their honeymoon, they renovated their house from top to bottom. Olivia was born shortly afterward.
Focus first
Because Chewning was thriving in her new job, Wayco resisted when Lynk's chief executive asked her to invite Chewning back into the Lynk fold. She changed her mind, however, when told that Chewning would become vice president of the ATM division. "I took her to lunch, and I said 'We better order wine first because you're going to need it,'" said Wayco.
Chewning's return to Lynk gave her a chance to apply the lessons she had learned at nFront and Digital Insight to the ATM world, primarily an emphasis on creating a clear definition of new products to ensure that the end results will fulfill expectations.
"You must understand what you want your end product to be, from the very beginning," she said. "It's all a matter of focus. The first six months after I came back, I'm sure everyone who worked with me probably got tired of hearing me talk about focus all of the time."
Not everyone, Wayco said. "Melanie has really grown here, and she's earned the respect of a lot of people."
Included In This Story
Triton Systems
Triton FI based products • NO Windows 10™ Upgrade • Secured locked down system that is virus/malware resistant • Flexible configurations - Drive-up and Walk-up • Triton's high security standards • NFC, anti-skim card reader, IP camera and level 1 vaults are all options • Triton Connect monitoring • Lower cost
