Founder Profile
Edward R. Telling
Last reviewed: October 2026 · By Swet Parvadiya
Who is Edward R. Telling?
Edward R. Telling is a founder of Discover Financial Services, which was founded in 1985 with Ray Graham.
- Company founded
- Discover Financial Services
- Founded
- 1985
- Co-founders
- Ray Graham
Background
Former Chairman and CEO of Sears, Roebuck and Co.
Founding Story
Edward R. Telling (1919-2005) launched the Discover Card in 1985 while serving as the CEO of Sears. His audacious strategy was to bypass Visa and Mastercard entirely by creating a proprietary payment network, leveraging Sears' massive retail footprint (which, at the time, was the largest retailer in the world) to force merchants to accept the new card.
Edward Riggs Telling was born on April 1, 1919 in Danville, Illinois, and died on October 19, 2005. He was chairman and chief executive of Sears, Roebuck from 1978 to 1985 and led its expansion from retailing and insurance into financial services. (Exact birth year remains publicly undisclosed).