On April 5, 2020 we lost our friend and mentor George DeMarchi.
George was a serial entrepreneur and had over 30 years experience in telecom, prepaid and payments industries. George founded Go Prepaid, which was among the first providers of electronic PIN distribution in Canada and was always excited to bring innovative solutions to the retail and payments industries. In 2008 George sold GoPrepaid and in 2014 he and Trevor Cook formed Payment Source, acquiring both Now Prepay and EziPin Canada who were competing prepaid companies at the time. With their guidance, Payment Source has quickly become the preferred partner to bring innovative alternative payment solutions to the Canadian market.
George was passionate about everything he did and brought that enthusiasm with him in every interaction he had. His presence was felt. When George was in the room, you knew it - and were comforted in knowing that for that moment in time his brilliance and full attention was focused on the topic at hand.
“It's not finished until George breaks it.”
Because of his passion to innovate, George was always looking for how to make things better. No matter how many times a product had passed quality checks, George could always be counted on to find something to break. He enjoyed delving into each crevice of a solution. This made the solutions his companies output all the better as each went through the “George Break Test” before being launched.
As much as he loved to break things to make them better, George at his core was a builder of both companies and of people. He was always ready to share his knowledge and experience and ideas, and he loved nothing more than engaging with people and seeing them grow and develop. Lively discussions throughout the day on topics related to the industry, the company, or just the news of the day were the norm in the Payment Source office. This was seen regularly during the company Friday lunches, a weekly lunch provided by George and Trevor to the employees each week. George loved using these lunches to get to know people better and to celebrate.
George was also very generous - with both his time and with his business methods. He insisted that everyone be paid a Living Wage and he was the driving force behind Payment Source’s implementation of a matching RRSP plan and the management development programs. He gave back to the community wherever and whenever he could and encouraged others to do the same. He volunteered his time often at the Daily Bread food bank as he felt feeding the community was the best way to help build it.
Whether it was the sound of music drifting into the office hallway, or the familiar tune of one of his playlists during Friday lunches, music held a special place in George’s heart. George enjoyed all kinds of music - all genres. He had series tickets at Massey Hall and enjoyed sharing the gift of music with others, often gifting extra seats to shows he was particularly excited about to friends and colleagues.
Perhaps one of the most memorable instances of his love of music came during one of the Friday lunches. George had taken the time to create a playlist for that particular lunch with the songs highlighting the first name of each employee. The amount of time needed to create such a playlist was significant, but that didn’t matter to George. He excitedly watched the reaction of each employee as their song came on over the speakers. And was so very pleased with each and every smile and laugh that came from the music selections. It was these sorts of moments that meant so much to all of us here at Payment Source.
Thank you for everything George. We will miss you greatly.