Paysafe lands new digital wallets CEO
Payments giant recruits former Amazon and American Express exec to lead subsidiary
Paysafe has appointed payments industry veteran Chirag Patel as the new CEO of its digital wallets business.
Patel will oversee the management of Paysafe’s Skrill and Neteller brands after former CEO Lorenzo Pellegrino stepped into a strategic advisory role for Skrill.
Patel joins Paysafe from Santander, where he served as EVP global head of payments from April 2018.
Prior to joining the banking institution, Patel also spent time as head of payments for Europe and international expansion at Amazon and more than seven years with American Express from August 2004 to February 2012.
The finance exec will manage Paysafe’s digital wallets branch, which was used by more than 3.5 million customers and generated $20.4bn in total payment volume in 2020.
He will report into Paysafe CEO Philip McHugh and will assume his position in early September.
Speaking on his arrival, Patel said: “I am really looking forward to joining the Paysafe team next month and to be given the opportunity to lead its exciting digital wallets business.
“I believe there is enormous potential to extend the offering to more and more customers given Skrill and Neteller’s worldwide presence, combined with Paysafe’s great technology and talented team,” he added.
McHugh commented: “Chirag has an awesome track record as a high-performing payments’ executive and has successfully launched and grown multiple consumer-facing and B2B payments products and services around the world.
“I’m thrilled to have someone of his calibre and energy-level to take our digital wallets business to the next level of growth.”