NeoCurrency’s Eric Thiegs receives IMA Lifetime Achievement Award

BALTIMORE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Eric Thiegs, Head of Strategy and Growth at NeoCurrency, was awarded the Incentive Marketing Association (IMA) Lifetime Achievement Award, established in 2016 to honor individuals who have played a major role in the industry's success through a lifetime of achievements in the incentive marketplace. The award was presented during the IMA Summit Awards program earlier this week at the annual IMA Summit in Baltimore, Maryland.

The IMA Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes an individual who best represents career and industry achievement and longevity and has demonstrated outstanding leadership throughout their career, inspiring others to achieve similar success.

In his most recent role at NeoCurrency as Head of Strategy and Growth, Eric is focused on continuing NeoCurrency’s incredible rise as one of the largest US-based digital providers of global gift card, prepaid, cash-like, and digital reward content. Thanks to his guidance and leadership, NeoCurrency now offers over 3,000 global, digital brand options including Amazon, Apple, Google Play, Target, Uber, and Walmart as well as cash-like options including American Express, Mastercard Prepaid, PayPal, Venmo and Visa Prepaid. NeoCurrency offers rewards, payments and incentives across 140 countries and 52 unique currencies. Eric has been instrumental in helping NeoCurrency provide one of the world’s most robust API reward catalogs to meet client needs, particularly in the areas of incentives, loyalty, rewards, employee recognition, market research, promotions and more.

Eric is a 28-year veteran of the industry. He started at Carlson Marketing group in Minneapolis, leading an agency team on the Visa Rewards and offers account. He then lead the partnership teams at Access Development in Salt Lake City, expanding their value-add incentive offers to include national brands. Based on his accomplishments, Eric has earned a reputation as a pioneer, having brought to market one of the first B2B gift card APIs while at National Gift Card (NGC). He also helped develop the Gift Card Maturity Model for TOTUS, which was the first holistic approach allowing brands to build a frictionless gift card ecosystem across multiple partners, phases, and elements. Eric was also the first in the industry to bring automated physical gift cards fulfillment solutions to both brands and buyers, reducing delivery errors to nearly 0%. He has also been a featured speaker and presenter at industry events, webinars, roundtables, and conference for NRF, Loyalty360, IMA, IGCC, RGCA, and GCVA, to name a few.

Eric’s background in incentives and payments is unique to say the least. He was Chief Revenue Officer for NGC for nearly eight years and helped grow the business by 420% to $1B in annual B2B gift card sales and fulfillment. He came to NeoCurrency in 2023 with the goal of enhancing NeoCurrency’s go-to-market strategy and continuing to build out its blue-chip customer base while improving response time, promoting amazing customer service, creating easy integration options and keeping pricing competitive. Eric’s depth and range of experience in incentives, payments, rewards and gift cards is virtually unmatched in the industry. He is well-versed across a broad spectrum of verticals including market research, employee recognition, sales incentives, promotions, and loyalty.

“When I started my career, I was a 25-year-old sending brand coupons and paper gift certificates to people via mail for Visa promotional offers,” said Thiegs. “And now, 28 years later here at NeoCurrency, I have the fortune of guiding and implementing bleeding-edge global digital stored-value distribution best practices with world-class clients via APIs, mobile apps, loyalty programs and AI-enabled engagement programs. A lot has changed. I can’t wait for the future.”

About IMA

The Incentive Marketing Association (IMA) connects members around the world from leading companies across the marketplace to create a unified voice and growth for the incentive industry. IMA is the umbrella organization for the Incentive & Engagement Solution Providers (IESP), Incentive Gift Card Coalition (IGCC), Incentive Merchandise To Reward & Appreciate (IMRA), Incentive Travel Council (ITC), Recognition Professionals International (RPI), IMA Europe, IMA Latin America (LATAM), and IMA Middle East, Africa & Asia Pacific (MEAPAC). IMA members have the expertise, leading brands, and services to help companies improve their business with reward, recognition, loyalty, and engagement programs.

About NeoCurrency

NeoCurrency is an independent, US-based digital rewards payout fintech platform serving global brands and B2B program operators across promotions, loyalty, employee recognition, market research, and sales incentives. As a mature, enterprise-grade SaaS solution, NeoCurrency delivers millions of rewards annually, with 99.9% uptime, global privacy-compliant data practices, and proprietary fraud-prevention technology. The platform offers one of the industry’s most comprehensive catalogs of digital gift cards, prepaid products, and cash-like payout options—available in over 50 currencies and 140 countries—accessible through a single API integration or streamlined ordering dashboard. NeoCurrency is a proud member of IGCC, IMA, IMA Europe, GCVA, and IPM. For more information, visit neocurrency.com.