Shift4 named founder Jared Isaacman as executive chairman after President Donald Trump abruptly dropped the executive’s nomination to run NASA over the weekend, the digital processor said in a regulatory filing Thursday.
"Mr. Isaacman will remain an executive officer and Class I member of the Board," the filing said. The change is effective on Thursday, according to the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Allentown, Pennsylvania-based payments processing company had selected Shift4 President Taylor Lauber to succeed Isaacman if Trump’s December nomination was confirmed by the Senate, but the chamber never voted on it.
Isaacman, who has been the company’s CEO and chairman since it was founded in 1999, will retain his super voting shares in Shift4, according to the filing. Lauber said during an April earnings call that Isaacman would convert his class B and class C shares into class A shares, which are worth a single vote per share.
That agreement was "subject to several conditions, including the ratification and confirmation by the U.S. Senate of Mr. Isaacman's appointment as administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration," the SEC filing said. "As a result of this condition not being met, Mr. Isaacman is no longer required to reduce his voting shares."
Isaacman had a 76% voting power ownership stake in Shift4, according toan April 30 proxy filing.
Trump cited Isaacman's "prior associations" when he withdrew the NASA nomination. The president pulled the nomination over the Shift4 founder's past contributions to Democrats, according to a report from the New York Times.
However, Isaacman suggested on a Wednesday episode o fthe All-In podcast that his ties to billionaire SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk cost him the nomination, Bloomberg reported. Musk may also have helped him win the nomination from Trump, given Isaacman’s participation in past SpaceX missions.