Leading Financial Industry Executive Joins Affinion Group

STAMFORD, Conn., Nov. 22, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Affinion Group, Inc. ("Affinion" or "the Company"), a global leader in customer engagement solutions that enhance and extend the relationship of millions of consumers of financial service, retailing, hospitality and e-commerce companies, announced today that it has enhanced its executive team by naming Lloyd M. Wirshba, a financial services and consumer products executive, the President and CEO of Affinion North America.  

Mr. Wirshba, who will report to Affinion's Chairman and CEO Nathaniel J. Lipman beginning December 1st, will be leading the Company's largest division, and responsible for $1.1 billion in annual revenue, more than 45 million consumer subscriptions in lifestyle, leisure and protection programs, and over 5,000 client relationships.

Mr. Wirshba joins Affinion from Barclays Bank PLC, where he has served as the Chief Executive Officer of Barclaycard US since 2007.  While there, Mr. Wirshba was responsible for managing more than 7 million domestic credit card accounts and $11 billion in card receivables.  He also led the development and rapid growth of Barclaycard's customized, co-branded card programs for many of the most well-known companies in travel, entertainment, retail and financial services.

"We couldn't be more pleased that an individual of Lloyd's caliber is joining Affinion at a time when our opportunities for growth have never been more varied or more exciting," said Lipman. "Lloyd's extensive experiences in the financial services industries will ensure that our strategic direction is even more aligned to the needs of our clients, while his experiences in subscription-based products will ensure that our programs and services continue to address fundamental consumer needs in an extremely customer-centric manner."

"I am delighted to be joining Affinion and, like Nat, am energized about our prospects for growth," said Mr. Wirshba. "I look forward to working closely with our marketing partners in creating and delivering products and services which will deepen customer loyalty and provide consumers outstanding value."

Continued Lipman, "With Lloyd joining the team, and the other upgrades we've made recently in the leadership of our loyalty and protection programs – two areas that are critical to our growth initiatives – I believe we will begin 2011 extremely well positioned to deliver against our near- and long-term priorities."

In his previous experiences, Mr. Wirshba spent 21 years at American Express Company in leadership positions throughout the organization, including finance, operations, marketing, sales and business development, working in both the card issuance and merchant sides of the business.  He also spent 2 years at AOL, where he was responsible for managing an organization of over 12,000 worldwide customer care consultants, providing acquisition, retention, billing and technical support services for the then 22 million member subscription base.

Immediately preceding his position at Barclays, Mr. Wirshba was at ICT Group, a global customer management and business process solutions company, where he was responsible for the strategic development and execution of growth and diversification initiatives.  At ICT Group, he ran the business development and sales, information technologies, human resources and training, quality and compliance, strategic planning and marketing functions.

About Affinion Group

As a global leader with more than 35 years of experience, Affinion Group (www.affinion.com) enhances the value of its partners' customer relationships by developing and marketing loyalty solutions. Leveraging its expertise in customer engagement, product development and targeted marketing, Affinion provides programs in subscription-based lifestyle services, personal protection, insurance and other areas to help generate increased customer loyalty and significant incremental revenue for more than 5,500 marketing partners worldwide, including many of the largest and most respected companies in financial services, retail, travel, and Internet commerce. Based in Stamford, Conn., the Company has approximately 4,000 employees throughout the United States and in 12 other countries, primarily in Europe, and markets in 15 countries globally. Affinion holds the prestigious ISO 27001 certification for the highest information security practices, is PCI compliant and Cybertrust certified.

SOURCE Affinion Group, Inc.

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