First Data strengthens senior leadership team
First Data Corporation has bolstered its senior leadership team as part of its ongoing transformation from a payments processor to a collaborative technology company and solutions provider for merchants and financial institutions around the world.
The company promoted two executives to new roles: Barry McCarthy to lead four strategic businesses including the STAR Network and Sanjiv Das to lead First Data’s international business. The company has also brought in two new hires: Andrew Gelb to lead the financial services business and Adam Rosman as general counsel.
“Leadership sets the tone in any organization and these four accomplished executives will help the outstanding team we are assembling to lead First Data’s transformation to a global tech company with an entrepreneurial spirit, deeply rooted in the movement of money around the world,” said chairman and CEO Frank Bisignano. “Barry, Sanjiv, Andrew and Adam each have a proven track record of success in their respective areas and will continue First Data’s rich history of being an industry leader and will help lead the company in the years ahead.”
McCarthy has been tapped to lead four strategic businesses, including First Data’s STAR Network, the leading independent debit network. The company also identified the other businesses he will lead, TeleCheck, Money Network and Prepaid Solutions, as strategic growth opportunities. The debit network market alone generates $4.2 billion in revenue each year representing a significant growth opportunity for STAR. A 10-year First Data veteran, McCarthy led the turnaround of the First Data Financial Services division, and will be building a team to strengthen and grow these businesses into a separate First Data operating unit.
Gelb, the new leader of First Data’s financial services business, has spent nearly two decades at Citi where he most recently led their treasury and trade solutions business in North America. As leader of the financial services business, Gelb will have responsibility for a range of services including credit and debit card issuing solutions, statements, card production, lockbox and online banking. Gelb brings to First Data a distinguished track record of building and growing global businesses and a unique international background which will be helpful as the financial services business expands. Gelb’s diverse experience spans leadership positions throughout Citi’s transaction services businesses in North America, EMEA and Japan.
Das will lead the First Data international business and drive growth around the world. Das joined First Data in 2014 from Citi, where he served most recently as CEO and president of CitiMortgage. He also served on Citi’s operating committee and is broadly regarded as one of the main architects in the turnaround of Citi’s mortgage business in the wake of the financial crisis. Das will now oversee First Data’s international business, which has operations in 35 countries and provides payment technology and processing solutions in nearly 70 countries. He has a successful track record of leading large, complex businesses both within the United States and internationally. Das succeeds John Elkins, who will now serve as chairman of international of First Data.
Rosman will serve as First Data’s new general counsel. He joins First Data from Willis Group Holdings plc, the world’s third largest insurance broker, where he was general counsel and led the company’s worldwide legal, compliance, risk, audit and corporate secretary functions. At First Data Rosman will oversee First Data’s in-house attorneys and outside counsel and be responsible for all legal matters. Previously, Rosman was a partner at Zuckerman Spaeder LLP, a Washington D.C.-based law firm and spent five years as an Assistant United States Attorney in Washington D.C. and one year in the White House as deputy assistant to the president and deputy staff secretary for President Clinton. He is a graduate of Stanford Law School and Union College and has lectured extensively as an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center. Rosman succeeds Dave Money, who will now serve as vice chairman of First Data prior to his retirement.