As the year comes to a close, payments firms wrapped up final top executive hires to reshape their communications, finance, and philanthropic functions.
Earlier this month, DailyPay appointed Caitlin Allen as its chief brand and communications officer, starting Dec. 1, per a company press release. Allen will manage the company’s brand marketing, social media, communications and creative operations.
Prior to joining DailyPay, Allen oversaw global brand and CEO communications at online retailer eBay and served as an executive vice president and previously as a global client relationship manager at the public relations firm Edelman.
“Caitlin's proven track record of building and elevating brands through strategic communications will be a great asset to our business,” DailyPay CEO Nelson Chai said in the press release. “She brings a deep understanding of how to build trust, differentiate a brand, and crystallize a vision.”
In the card network arena, Visa’s foundation promoted Najada Kumbuli to serve as president of the nonprofit, effective immediately, according to a Dec. 11 press release. She follows in the footsteps of Graham Macmillan, who had been the foundation’s president since 2019. Kumbuli was previously the foundation’s head of investments.
In her new role, Kumbuli will execute the foundation’s impact investing and grantmaking strategy, but will also serve as the card company’s head of global philanthropy. Before joining the Visa Foundation, Kumbuli was most recently the investment director at the international impact investment firm Calvert Impact Capital, according to the release.
“Najada’s leadership has been instrumental in accelerating Visa Foundation’s investment strategy,” Visa Foundation Chair Kelly Mahon Tullier said in the release, crediting Kumbuli with collaborating on deploying capital to grantees and investees in some 100 markets.
Payments processor Fiserv brought on a new executive this month to cultivate its investor relationships. The Milwaukee-based financial firm appointed Walter Pritchard as senior vice president and head of investor relations as of Dec. 1, the company announced earlier this month.
Before joining Fiserv, Pritchard was most recently the senior vice president of investor relations and corporate development at Palo Alto Networks. He has prior experience at companies such as Citi, Cowen & Company and Soundview Technology Group, per the release.
“Walter brings deep expertise in understanding market dynamics and communicating with investors and analysts,” Fiserv Chief Financial Officer Paul Todd said in the press release.
While Fiserv’s new hire works to strengthen investor relations, MoneyGram International is tapping seasoned talent to run its finances. Marc Winniford, a former Wells Fargo finance executive, joined MoneyGram International as its new chief financial officer.
Winniford previously spent nearly six years at Wells as a proprietary credit trading analyst and later vice president of corporate development and corporate treasury. After leaving the San Francisco-based bank, he later returned and worked his way to chief financial officer of corporate and investment banking, per his LinkedIn page.
Winniford will begin his new role at MoneyGram in February. He will replace Gary Ferrera, the bank’s former CFO, who stepped down from the position after 18 months, a MoneyGram spokesperson said.
As other firms add new faces to their leadership teams, one top industry executive, Jared Isaacman, is leaving the company he founded, Shift4 Payments, to shoot for the stars, after being confirmed by the Senate this month as the 15th administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Isaacman, who started Shift4 at 16, stepped down as executive chairman of the company’s board of directors to take the NASA leadership post. The payments executive had participated in missions for SpaceX, the space exploration company led by his friend, Elon Musk.
Isaacman was first nominated for the position by President Donald Trump in December of last year, but then Isaacman’s nomination was put aside in May, only to be resurrected last month. Shift4 named CEO Taylor Lauber as the new chairman, according to a company press release on Dec. 18.
