Troy Woods, chairman of the board, president and chief executive officer of TSYS, has guided the company's diversification strategy into faster-growing areas of payments as TSYS moved beyond its roots as a third-party processor for a few hundred bank issuers and merchant acquirers. This included the company's entry into the direct merchant acquiring business serving hundreds of thousands of businesses and into a leading prepaid services provider, supporting millions of underserved consumers who do not have access to traditional financial services.

He has been the catalyst in TSYS' vision to be the leading global payments solutions provider by driving innovation to improve lives and businesses across the world by putting people at the center of payments. Under Woods leadership, the company introduced its brand promise, People-Centered Payments, which is based on the belief that payments should revolve around people, not the other way around.

Woods started his career at Columbus Bank and Trust Company (Columbus, Ga.) in 1970, working part-time in the bankcard department and eventually becoming a vice president. He left the company in 1977 to become a senior vice president for card services with United American Bank, Knoxville, TN. In 1979 he joined AmSouth Bank in Birmingham, AL, as senior vice president of Card Services, and in 1982 became senior vice president of Consumer Lending. He rejoined TSYS in 1987 and was involved in directing the company's international expansion, strategic planning activities, negotiations with major clients, and the continual improvement of TS2®, the company's core issuing payments engine.

He is a member of the Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies with nearly 15 million employees and more than $6 trillion in annual revenues.

Woods is chairman of the TSYS Board of Directors, and also serves, or has served, on the Board of Directors for several civic organizations. These include the YMCA of Metropolitan Columbus (Ga.), West Georgia Honor Flight and the Greater Columbus Georgia Chamber of Commerce. He has also served as a member of the Board of Trustees for Columbus State University and the River Center for the Performing Arts in Columbus, Georgia.

He earned a bachelor's degree from Columbus State University (Columbus, Ga.). Woods also graduated from the University of Virginia's Graduate School of Retail Bank Management; Louisiana State University's School of Banking of the South; and University of Pennsylvania's CEO Academy at The Wharton School.

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