Paysafe confirms Philip McHugh as inbound CEO

Paysafe Group has confirmed the inbound appointment of Philip McHugh as new Chief Executive, replacing long-term leadership incumbent Joel Leonoff.

McHugh will take charge of Paysafe’s executive team on 24 June, as Leonoff takes the governance position of Vice Chairman of Paysafe’s Board of Directors.

A twenty-year executive, specialising in digital payments, retail banking and corporate finance, McHugh joins Paysafe Group having formerly served as Senior Vice President of Merchant Solutions for US credit card processor TSYS (2017-2019).

Further executive experience sees McHugh as the former CEO of Barclaycard (2010-2013) and CFO and territory lead of Citigroup Latin America (2003-2006).

Philip McHugh commented on taking over Paysafe Group leadership  –  “I am truly honoured 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.”

Updating investors, Stuart C. Harvey, Jr, Chairman of the Paysafe commented, that the technology group had found the best executive to replace Joel Leonoff.

“We are delighted that somebody of Philip’s calibre 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.”

Issuing a statement, Harvey and the board thanked Leonoff for his 11-year tenure leading Paysafe Group. Leonoff was part of the enterprise founding team of Optimal Payments, a company which would merge with rival Skrill in 2015, which would lead to the foundation of Paysafe Group.

“Joel is a true entrepreneur and has taken this business from humble beginnings as a Canadian start-up to a global payments provider serving millions of merchants and consumers around the world. We would like to thank him for his terrific contribution over the years and we look forward to continuing to work closely with him as Vice Chairman of our board.”Harvey added

Acting as Vice Chairman, Leonoff maintains that he will continue to be closely involved in the development of Paysafe’s corporate strategy.

“I congratulate Philip on his appointment and look forward to working with him on the transition. I am confident that under his leadership Paysafe will continue to prosper long into the future. It has been an incredible honor to lead Paysafe and I am very grateful for the commitment and hard work of our people and their passion for creating a truly pioneering payments company.”