Natasha Toothill (pictured), the gift services director at payment network Payzone, has been named as the new chairman of the VA, the trade body representing the voucher, gift card and stored-value solutions industry.
She has worked in the industry for over 12 years and has held a number of roles at motivation and incentive companies, including director of product development at Capital Incentives & Motivation.
She joined the company that is now called Payzone over two years ago. It was formed from the merger of Alphyra Holdings and Cardpoint and is now one of the leading consumer payments and cash distribution networks in Europe.
Its range of services include pre-paid Visa and MasterCard payment cards, payment vouchers for online shopping, loyalty programmes and gift cards. It is one of the pioneers of gift card centres, which offer a range of cards from different retailers in one location.
Toothill, who was previously vice-chair, takes over the chairmanship of the VA from Andrew Sellers, corporate business manager at John Lewis, who has held the post for the past year.
She said: “The VA must take the lead in the prepaid card sector, but we must also remember that vouchers still lie at the heart of our members’ business, particularly in the corporate market.
“As an organisation we must understand what consumers want and, for our members, how we can enrich our offering to them.”
New additions to the VA’s executive include Arun Glendinning from B&Q, Bill Alexander from Red Letter Days, Denise Porter from Treatme.net, John Davis from Argos and Yvonne West of Sainsbury’s Business Direct. Members continuing on the executive include Phillip Shelley from Voucher Central, Rachelle Smith of PrePay Technologies and Caroline Watson from Voucherline.
Andrew Johnson, director general of the VA, said: “The new board offers a variety of expertise and experience and we are relishing the opportunity to continue taking the industry from strength to strength with our plans for the next 12 months.
“Natasha’s dedication and enthusiasm along with support from the other industry-leading figures on the board can only spell good news for the association and, indeed, the industry as a whole.”