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Paysafe appoints Afshin Yazdian as CEO of its U.S. Acquiring division
Yazdian’s appointment completes a new executive leadership team in Paysafe’s global payment processing business
Paysafe, a leading specialized payments platform, today announced the appointment of Afshin Yazdian as CEO of its newly formed U.S. Acquiring division. Joining on July 1st, Yazdian will be charged with bringing to life Paysafe’s vision of being the U.S.’s leading payments solutions provider.
Mr. Yazdian has over two decades of leadership experience in payments. Most recently, he was President of Priority Payment Systems (PPS), a Georgia-based payments technology company serving over 174,000 merchants throughout America. Before that, he served as President & CEO of New York-based Cynergy Data before its merger with PPS. Earlier in his career, he worked for iPayment for over a decade as Executive Vice President and General Counsel and was instrumental in the formation of the company – itself acquired by Paysafe in 2018.¹
The appointment of Yazdian completes the executive leadership team for Paysafe’s recently restructured Payment Processing business unit, which now operates as two, distinct customer-focused divisions. Yazdian takes charge of the U.S. Acquiring division, leading Paysafe’s third party and direct channels; meanwhile, Paulette Rowe² serves as CEO of its global Integrated and Ecommerce Solutions division. Both divisions report directly into Paysafe Group CEO Philip McHugh.
Rowe, who was recently named as one of PaymentsSource’s “most influential women in payments”, joined Paysafe earlier this year and previously worked for Facebook as its Head of Payments and Financial Services Partnerships, and before that Barclaycard. Her appointment to Paysafe’s executive leadership team is designed to accelerate the company’s global integrated payment offerings and cement Paysafe as a leading provider of ecommerce solutions.
Before the appointments of Rowe and Yazdian, Paysafe’s global Payment Processing division was headed-up by industry veteran, O.B. Rawls³, who moves into retirement at the end of June after a career in payments spanning almost four decades.
Philip McHugh, CEO of Paysafe Group, commented: “We’re delighted to complete our executive leadership team in payment processing with the appointment of Afshin. The current COVID-19 outbreak poses significant challenges for our direct merchant customers as well as our ISO and Agent partners, and we’re confident that Afshin, with his track record of building and managing high growth organizations, and his laser focus on customer service, will ensure that we all emerge stronger as the market stabilizes.
Paulette is also an incredible operator and inspirational leader and possesses vast and highly relevant payments experience. She has already had a major impact since joining the team earlier this year.
I would also like to express my heartfelt thanks to O.B. – he is a true payments’ legend and has made an irrefutable mark on both Paysafe and the industry in general. We wish him good health and much happiness in his retirement, and he will be missed by all of us.”
Commenting on his appointment, Afshin Yazdian said: “I am incredibly excited to join the Paysafe family, a company I have long admired and an organization I believe is well-positioned for incredible growth and expansion. We will strive to rapidly change the payments industry and become the leading provider of payment solutions in the U.S. by both utilizing technology and focusing on an exceptional customer experience.
