Steven M. Elefant provides strategic focus for new opportunities and enhancement of existing products and services. Also provides technology vision and leadership for developing and delivering the company's solutions as well as interfacing with intelligence, law enforcement and industry leaders to strategically identify threats.

Steve joined Heartland in November 2008 as a consultant, helping Heartland bring its Software as a Service (SaaS) applications to its merchant base. In January 2009, he became the executive director of end-to-end encryption focusing on developing point-of-sale products and executing Heartland’s E3™ security platform that encrypts cardholder data from the point of swipe/entry at a merchant location through the payments processing network and to the card brands. He was named chief information officer in August 2009. Steve was the founder of several successful Silicon Valley startup and venture capital firms. He is co-founder and former chief executive officer of ICVerify, Inc., a leader in payments processing integration of PC-based POS software. The company merged with CyberCash, Inc. in 1998 to form an Internet and physical service provider for electronic payments software. Steve has been an active member of the US Secret Service Electronic Crimes Task Force for more than six years, as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Infragard Electronic Crimes Task Force for the past five years.