George Wallner

George Wallner
Born
Hungary
Alma materKandó Kálmán Technical College
OccupationsEngineer, entrepreneur
Known forFounder of Hypercom;
co-founder of LoopPay;
co-founder of Magnet Defense
RelativesPaul Wallner (brother)

George Wallner is a Hungarian-born engineer, inventor and entrepreneur. He founded the payment terminal manufacturer Hypercom in 1978 and later co-founded LoopPay, the mobile-payments company where he developed the Magnetic Secure Transmission technology behind Samsung Pay.[1][2] He is a co-founder and chief technology officer of Magnet Defense, a Miami firm building autonomous unmanned surface vessels.[3]

Early life and education

Wallner was born in Hungary and studied electrical and communications engineering at Kandó Kálmán Technical College in Budapest.[4][5] He emigrated to Australia in 1973 and spent roughly five years there building large telephone systems and data-collection networks.[6]

Career

Hypercom

Wallner founded Hypercom in 1978 with his brother Paul, building it from a business plan the two had drawn up in Sydney. Its systems delivered credit-card authorizations to merchant terminals quickly, and the company became an early maker of point-of-sale payment terminals. Hypercom used the Australian operation as a base to expand across the Asia-Pacific region, and later moved into Latin America.[6] It relocated its headquarters to the United States in the late 1980s and settled in the Phoenix area, where it competed with VeriFone.[6][4]

Hypercom listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1997, with Wallner still its majority owner.[6][1] The following year, The Nilson Report ranked him among the top ten smart-card experts.[4] He chaired the board from the company's founding until mid-1999 and was president and chief executive until late 2000. He then served as chief strategist until 2003, when he moved into a consulting role.[5][7]

LoopPay and Samsung Pay

Wallner came out of retirement in 2012 to co-found LoopPay with Will Graylin. He had earlier backed two of Graylin's mobile-payments ventures, ROAM Data and WAY Systems, as an investor and board member.[1] As chief technology officer at the Burlington, Massachusetts company, he developed Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST), a method that lets a smartphone send payment-card data to an ordinary magnetic-stripe terminal without any change to the merchant's hardware.[1][8]

Samsung Electronics acquired LoopPay in February 2015 as part of its move into mobile payments.[9][10] Later that year LoopPay revealed that hackers had breached its corporate network months earlier. The company said the intruders had not reached its payment-management systems.[11]

Marine technology and defense

Wallner owns Atlantitech, a Miami-based company that makes marine electronics and control systems, and he has owned and helped design several vessels.[12] In 2020 the Louisiana shipbuilder Metal Shark delivered Magnet, a 48-metre aluminium expedition catamaran built to his commission.[12][13] Incat Crowther was responsible for the naval architecture. Wallner designed the control system that runs the boat, and Atlantitech supplied much of its electrical equipment.[12][14]

Wallner co-founded Magnet Defense, a Miami defense-technology company developing autonomous unmanned surface vessels, and is its chief technology officer.[3][15][16] The company began production of its first M48 in March 2026 and expects to deliver it in the second quarter of 2027.[15][17] In April 2026, at the Sea-Air-Space Exposition, it signed a memorandum of understanding with Hanwha Defense USA to jointly build a 38-metre unmanned vessel.[3][18]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Webster, Karen (August 11, 2013). "Loop: The Idea And Inspiration". PYMNTS.com.
  2. ↑ Lee, Se Young (September 8, 2015). "Enter Samsung Pay? Smartphone giant seeks mobile payments spark". Reuters.
  3. 1 2 3 "Magnet Defense and Hanwha Defense USA partner up to produce MUSVs". Marine Log. April 22, 2026.
  4. 1 2 3 Rolwing, Rebecca (December 6, 1998). "Hypercom chairman 'a real visionary' in industry". The Arizona Republic. p. D11 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. 1 2 "Hypercom Corporation notice of annual meeting and proxy statement". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 2000.
  6. 1 2 3 4 "Hypercom Corporation". International Directory of Company Histories. St. James Press – via Encyclopedia.com.
  7. ↑ "Hypercom Corporation definitive proxy statement (DEF 14A)". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. April 2003.
  8. ↑ Hindy, Joe (February 18, 2015). "Samsung officially acquires mobile payment startup LoopPay". Android Authority.
  9. ↑ Roy, Abhirup; Chan, Edwin (February 19, 2015). "Samsung buys startup LoopPay, moves toward mobile payments". Reuters.
  10. ↑ Dredge, Stuart (February 19, 2015). "Samsung buys mobile payments firm LoopPay to take on Apple Pay". The Guardian.
  11. ↑ "Hackers targeted LoopPay systems as early as March". Retail Dive.
  12. 1 2 3 Gauert, Cecile (October 15, 2021). "On board Metal Shark's 48m power catamaran Magnet". Boat International.
  13. ↑ "Metal Shark debuts 48-meter catamaran expedition yacht". WorkBoat. April 10, 2025.
  14. ↑ Verdon, Michael (October 5, 2020). "This 148-foot tri-deck catamaran can cross the Atlantic 4 times on a single tank of gas". Robb Report.
  15. 1 2 "Magnet Defense starts production of M48 USV, delivery set for 2027". Naval Technology. March 27, 2026.
  16. ↑ "Magnet Defense begins production of first M48 platform". Marine Technology News. April 1, 2026.
  17. ↑ Haun, Eric (March 31, 2026). "Magnet Defense begins production of first M48 uncrewed vessel". WorkBoat.
  18. ↑ "Hanwha and Magnet Defense formalize MUSV strategic partnership". Naval News. April 21, 2026.
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