Payment providers have made executive appointments with the goals of catalyzing revenue growth, reshaping marketing strategies and butressing ties to key stakeholders.
Embedded payments firm Fortis named Brent Coles as its new chief financial officer, and Sharat Shankar as chief risk and operations officer, according to a Nov. 6 news release. Both have prior industry experience to bring to the roles.
Coles spent some 25 years at companies like Onbe, Clearent and BluePay, and Shankar was most recently the executive vice president of risk at Corpay, an international business spend management company.
The two hires are part of the Plano, Texas-based company’s efforts to scale its business, and expand its enterprise resource planning partner network, the release said.
“Brent and Sharat join Fortis at a crucial point in our company's trajectory,” Fortis CEO Greg Cohen said in the release. “Their combined expertise in financial operations, risk management, and strategic partnerships will be critical to our success.”
DailyPay, an earned wage access provider, named Andrew Brandman as its chief operating officer, putting him in charge of driving revenue, entering new markets and managing marketing and customer service functions, the company announced Nov. 3. His hire follows the replacement of DailyPay’s CEO last month.
Brandman brings more than three decades of experience to the role, including at firms like Salesforce, Credit Suisse First Boston and UBS, among others. He most recently served as general vice president of global regulated industries at ServiceNow.
Another payment player made a recent hire aimed at lifting revenue. Lightspeed, a Canadian retail and restaurant commerce company, appointed Gabriel Benavides as its new chief revenue officer, the company said in a Nov. 13 press release. To drive revenue growth, Benavides will oversee the Montréal-based company’s customer service, marketing, sales and channel partnership functions.
“Gabriel's appointment comes as we deliver another quarter of strong results,” Lightspeed CEO Dax Dasilva, said in the release. His addition is aimed at helping the company rev its “go-to-market engine,” bolster customer relationships and accelerate profitable growth, the release said.
Lightspeed will lose an executive too, as President J.D. Saint-Martin heads for the exit on March 31, 2026. Saint-Martin is leaving the company to focus on mentoring and investing in early-stage Canadian startups, the release said.
“JD's leadership built the foundation for Lightspeed's transformation; Gabriel's appointment accelerates that trajectory,” Dasilva said in the release.
Another industry player is losing a top executive too. Davi Strazza, who was Adyen’s president for the North American region, left the company after 11 years this month. He said it was “time to move on” in posts on social media and didn’t share his next plans. Gary Yang, Ayden’s senior vice president of global account management and partnership, stepped into the role for now while the company seeks a successor.
Meanwhile, Pavilion Payments tapped a new executive to oversee marketing. The Las Vegas, Nevada-based gaming payments provider hired Annabelle Lee as its new vice president of marketing to manage the company’s brand strategy and go-to-market initiatives, according to a Nov. 6 press release. Lee brings prior experience at companies like Konami Gaming and Atlas Gaming, according to her LinkedIn profile.
“Annabelle brings nearly 15 years of hands-on gaming industry experience,” Pavilion President Diallo Gordon, said in the press release. “Her expertise will play a key role in amplifying our value proposition.”
The Electronic Transactions Association, which includes Visa, PayPal and Fiserv as members, Christy Ellerbee was brought on board as a new vice president of state government relations to burnish the organization’s state government ties, according to a Nov. 17 press release.
Before joining the ETA, Ellerbee spent about 14 years in government relations, including the last couple of years at the mega processor Global Payments, according to a Nov. 21 release. As the ETA monitors state policy changes across the U.S., Ellerbee will manage the organization’s state-level advocacy work nationally on behalf of the payments technology industry.
