Paysafe Group Names Former Barclays London Business Leader Philip McHugh New CEO

Leading global payment solutions provider, Paysafe Group, has officially welcomed Philip McHugh as its new Chief Executive Officer.

He will effectively take on his new CEO duties on June 24th and will replace Joel Leonoff who was named Vice Chairman of the Company's Board of Directors. CEO since 2008 Leonoff, who founded Paysafe in 1997 under the moniker Optimal Payments, will be closely involved in the company’s development of corporate strategy

A Very Successful Reign

During Leonoff's tenure at the helm of the company...

...Paysafe managed to deliver constant and consistent top and bottom-line growth and introduced, with much success, new payment solutions to the marketplace such as e-Wallets and online cash solutions. During 2018, its global transaction volumes reached a record-high $85 billion.

His replacement, McHugh, is also a member of the Board and brings “extensive experience of the global banking and payments industries to the role,” as was stated in the official press release. He has a track record of executive leadership spanning over 20 years and was a vital figure in his previous company's TSYS' growing revenues and profits by more than 30%.McHugh was in charge of the merchant solutions division.

Before that, McHugh worked for London's Barclays where he was Global CFO of Barclaycard and CEO of Barclaycard Business Solutions where he was a part of the leadership team as well.

Words of Welcome

In his first statement after being proclaimed a Paysafe CEO, McHugh remarked:

“I am truly honored to become part of the Paysafe story. Paysafe has built an incredibly unique payments business that is scaled, diverse, highly specialized and frankly hard to beat. The opportunity to continue to invest in, and leverage Paysafe’s differentiated payments assets, as well as identify new areas of growth while working with a highly focused and energized team, is a very exciting one. I look forward to meeting the team and helping to take Paysafe to the next level of growth and scale.”

Chairman of the Paysafe Board of Directors, Stuart C. Havey, was pleased with the new recruit:

“We are delighted that somebody of Philip’s caliber has accepted the role of CEO for Paysafe. His relentless focus on serving the customer, and his proven ability to drive operational excellence within complex financial organizations, has led to strong results throughout his career. This track record combined with his visionary approach will be invaluable as we advance the Company’s corporate strategy.”

Departing CEO, Leonoff, congratulated McHugh on his appointment and said he is looking forward to working with him on the transition. He added that he is confident that the company will prosper long into the future under his leadership as well.

New Tool For US Operators

In February, the online payments company introduced several new iGaming payment solutions in the form of a platform now available to US iGaming operators that begin rolling out sports betting services.

Operators are now able to approach the “full content of services, alternative and modern payment methods suitable for payment processing, such as online prepaid products.”

The business platform, comprised in Paysafe's API, provides seamless and secure payment options to players. Chief Product Officer, Karim Ahmad, has said that thecompany's 20 years of experience in the industry has helped to operate and scale the size of the issue at high speed. He also said that the provider plans to customize the experience to suit operators' needs in the future.

Source:

“UK's Paysafe Group Appoints Philip McHugh as CEO”, George Miller, europeangaming.eu, June 3, 2019.