Big payments players and emerging rivals made executive hires this month with some naming new CEOs and others aiming to strengthen their finance, sales and marketing functions.
Processing company Fiserv named a new chief financial officer and two new co-presidents this week as it reset course and temper fallout from a disappointing third-quarter earnings report. The company replaced Chief Financial Officer Bob Hau, hiring Paul Todd, former chief financial officer at rival Global Payments, for the job.
It also elevated Chief Operating Officer Takis Georgakopoulos to co-president and hired former United Healthcare Group’s Optum Financial Services CEO Dhivya Suryadevara as co-president, effective Dec. 1, according to a Wednesday press release.
DailyPay also installed a new chief executive to run the company on Oct. 1. The company named Nelson Chai to the post, after he served as executive chairman since January. Before joining the early wage access company, Chai was a CFO at Uber Technologies, Merrill Lynch and the New York Stock Exchange.
Chai became DailyPay’s CEO after Stacy Greiner, its previous chief executive, left after about 18 months in the role. Greiner also previously served as DailyPay’s operations chief for about two years. She had been appointed last November after Kevin Coop exited as CEO in mid-2024.
At Mastercard, Jill Kramer will begin as the card network’s chief marketing and communications officer, starting Dec. 1, the company said this month. Raja Rajamannar, who currently serves in that role, will become a senior fellow for the card network.
Kramer brings prior experience at companies across industries, such as ExxonMobil, AT&T, BBDO, and DDB, but she most recently served as chief marketing and communications officer at Accenture. At the consulting behemoth, she oversaw the company’s brand and advertising operations and went on to lead its “global, integrated and tech-driven function,” Mastercard said in a press release. Now, she’ll focus especially on business-to-business campaigns.
“Jill’s global perspective and deep expertise in B2B marketing will be invaluable as we continue to accelerate our growth and innovation,” Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach said in a statement.
Point-of-sale software startup ClarityPay hired Mrutyunjaya “MJ” Panda this month as chief operating officer after the company, which provides merchants with checkout credit services, achieved profitability in July, according to a company press release.
Panda formerly worked as head of fraud risk management and online money movement for the Marcus consumer banking operation at investment bank Goldman Sachs, according to this LinkedIn profile. He’s also worked a decade at the card company American Express.
“Panda will lead the evolution of risk and data intelligence, guiding the company through its next phase of growth while delivering sustainable, optimized credit programs,” the ClarityPay said.
Meanwhile, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank Truist Financial tapped two payments “veterans” this month to head sales for its enterprise payments business. The company named Elaine Kim, formerly at Bank of America and JPMorgan, as head of commercial banking sales. It appointed Rico Iacchetti, formerly at PNC, as its head of corporate banking sales. The roles were newly created positions, a spokesperson for the bank said.
“These appointments mark the next chapter in our payments evolution," Chris Ward, Truist’s head of enterprise payments, said in the release. “Elaine and Rico bring the vision and purpose-driven leadership needed to deepen client partnerships and drive focused growth across every segment we serve.”
At Bill Holdings, a corporate shake-up resulted in the exit this month of Raj Aji, the chief legal officer and chief compliance officer, according to a regulatory filing. Aji took a medical leave as of Oct. 13, with an impending retirement at an unspecified date. While Bill didn’t name a replacement, Mike Dunn serves as interim general counsel and has oversight for legal and compliance, according to the company’s website.
Butter Payments announced the hiring of a new CEO, Sofya Pogreb, and new chief operating officer, Charles Rosenblatt, on Oct. 23. Butter uses machine learning tools to help its customer recover failed payments.
Pogreb joined San Francisco-based Butter in April, according to her LinkedIn profile, after past experiences as operations chief at Bill Holdings and NEXT Insurance. Rosenblatt was formerly a senior executive at the payments company Payoneer and digital payments firm Hyperwallet.
Earlier this month, Chris Boncimino, business operations advisor at card technology company Torpago, noted the passing of industry executive Sam Shrauger, formerly COO of Skipify, the San Francisco-based e-commerce payments company.
“Sam’s career left a profound impact on the payments industry and on all who worked alongside him,” Boncimino said in a LinkedIn post this month. “His leadership at Skipify, Airbnb, Visa, PayPal, several startups, and on numerous corporate and nonprofit boards reflected his rare vision, remarkable intellect, and profound kindness.”
His cause of death was not disclosed, and the company didn’t respond to a request for comment. Shrauger served as a board member for the non-profit Mission: Cure, where his profile said he had suffered from chronic acute pancreatitis for decades. The organization recognized his contributions in a post this month.
