More than 18 months later, not only has Heartland survived its historic disaster, but the payments processor and Carr himself are major players in the effort to improve payments security - particularly through end-to-end encryption.

"I think, frankly, that we were the leaders in getting that discussion rolling at the level it's been conducted at, and I'm very proud we've taken that role," Carr says. "It makes me feel we've taken this situation and made a positive out of it, as much as that's possible."

In an exclusive interview, Carr talks about how he responded to the Heartland data breach, discussing:

• His strategy upon learning of the breach;
• Lessons learned from the crisis - what he'd do differently;
• Advice to other business leaders when disaster strikes.

As Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Heartland Payment Systems, Carr is responsible for the strategic direction and growth of the company. He co-founded Heartland Payment Systems with Heartland Bank in 1997, quickly building the foundation for an end-to-end credit, debit and prepaid card processing engine. Under his guidance, Heartland has been named a FORTUNE 1000 company; climbed the rankings from #62 to #5 in the nation and #9 in the world; from 25 to 3,400 employees; from 2,500 to 250,000 business locations and from a portfolio of $0.4 billion in bankcard volume to more than $80 billion. Today, Heartland processes more than four billion payment transactions annually.

Carr was active in the formation of the Payments Processor Information Sharing Council (PPISC) and served as chair of its steering committee. He also serves as associate member director on the board of the Secure POS Vendor Alliance.

He has also been a driving force in the development of "E3," Heartland's end-to-end encryption technology that is designed to protect cardholder data at rest and in motion throughout the lifecycle of card transactions.