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Who's who: Tom McHugh

Tom McHugh has excelled at just about everything he's tried -- except retirement. Last month the EFT industry veteran signed on as chief operating officer of Genpass Technologies, a company headed by old friend and mentor Bipin Shah.

May 7, 2002

The whole retirement idea just never seemed to stick for Tom McHugh. His plan to whittle his golf handicap into the low single-digits notwithstanding, the 55-year-old had as much chance of spending the rest of his life on the sidelines of business as Michael Jordan did when he quit basketball…the first time.

Tom McHugh

McHugh is a man who gets too much enjoyment from employment, whose idea of worthwhile entertainment is as much the pursuit of a business solution as the perfect drive on the manicured fairways of his home golf course in Tampa, Fla.

"I was ready to get back in," said McHugh, who signed on as chief operating officer of Genpass Technologies in April. He retired from the Star Systems network, where he was chief technology officer, a year ago. "For 35 years, a good deal of my life has been devoted to work. I don't have to work, but I want to work."

So when he got a call from his former boss, Genpass Chief Executive Bipin Shah, inviting him to manage the MoneyMaker and Money Belt EFT networks, the admitted workaholic abandoned his leisurely lifestyle and bought in to 14-hour workdays and a thousand-mile weekly commute to Irving, Texas. He retained some spoils of retirement -- Saturday morning rounds of golf and weekends at his Tampa home, where he just finished a 20-month remodeling project with his wife of 33 years, Arlene.

Shah's influence

It would have been difficult to say no to Shah, a man McHugh considers his mentor, and who two decades before had demanded a decision that steered him toward a lucrative and satisfying professional career. Shah considers McHugh a key player on the team he's created at Genpass, one that includes several executives responsible for building the MAC, Honor and Star networks during the last two decades.

In addition to McHugh, other hires include Doug Anderson, former EPS/MAC CEO; Gary Staub, former head of Mellon Network Services' merchant business; and Anthony Newshel, former MAC technology chief.

"He's been through the mill and knows the business inside and out," Shah said of McHugh, whom he first hired in 1982 at Philadelphia National Bank, where McHugh helped create and build MAC. "I said to him 'I know your credentials and you have one thing I'm looking for. You won't leave and you can't sleep at night if there's an issue to be resolved.'"

McHugh agrees, calling himself a classic worrier. He said his new assignment -- which calls for him to direct the daily operations of the Genpass networks, oversee the research and technology groups and supervise construction of a new Technology Center in Irving -- is one that has his juices flowing.   "Bipin called and said 'Maybe we can make some changes in the industry.' That's exciting," he said. "When you build something, it has a great deal of appeal to me. The newness of it is like getting a clean sheet of paper."

One way or another

Both men recall a time in Shah's office in Philadelphia as a turning point in their lives. McHugh remembers the day in 1982 that Shah forced him to choose between a career in data communications at the bank or taking over the technology efforts for the MAC network.

"He wouldn't let me leave his office until I decided, so I chose MAC," McHugh said.

"He had to choose, but he didn't want to give up either one, so I told him he had to choose or I would decide," Shah said.

Once the decision was made, McHugh's career path was set. He spent the next decade as chief technology officer for MAC as it became a dominant force in the industry. In 1992, Shah offered him another opportunity that McHugh couldn't refuse, and he joined Shah's Gensar Technologies as president and chief operating officer. During his five-year tenure there, Gensar became the seventh largest third-party point-of-sale processor in the United States.

Fast friends

Bob Gilmore, a retired banking executive who considers McHugh his best friend, says his pal has a classic "work hard, play hard" mentality. He said McHugh's return to the work force may mean less time for the two of them to pursue their passion - following the NASCAR circuit.

"I tried to talk him into staying out, taking time to travel," said Gilmore, who vacationed with McHugh during his abbreviated retirement in the Caribbean, where the highlight was bumping into NASCAR star Jeff Gordon. "He needed the action and it was only a matter of time before he would be back in the working world."

Gilmore, who worked with McHugh in the 1980s, said the two of them often travel to NASCAR events, and even attended a driving school in Charlotte, N.C., a few years back. But he said McHugh's work habits put him in a class by himself.

"He's one of the most dedicated and reliable people I've ever met. He's going to be doing what he's been doing well for a number of years."