VeriFone appoints new CEO
VeriFone Systems, a leading global secure electronic payments provider, has appointed Paul Galant as the company’s CEO and elected him to its board of directors, effective Oct. 1.
Prior to joining VeriFone, Galant served as the CEO of Citigroup Inc.’s Enterprise Payments business since 2010. Before that, from 2009, Galant served as CEO of Citi Cards, heading Citigroup’s North American and International Consumer Credit Cards business during a period of dramatic change in the industry. Prior to that, from 2007, he was CEO of Citi Transaction Services.
“Following an extensive search process, that considered a broad list of highly qualified candidates, Paul was deemed unanimously by the board to have the best combination of professional experience and leadership skills to continue to capitalize on the solid progress we have made in recent months,” said Dr. Leslie Denend, VeriFone’s interim non-executive chairman. “His experience in guiding businesses through industry change and his track record in multi-channel payment innovation will position the company strategically for continued growth and long-term value creation.”
“I am honored to have been selected as VeriFone’s new CEO,” said Galant. “I am impressed with the progress the company has made during the past year and recognize there is still much work to be done. I am committed to VeriFone’s business success and look forward to working with the talented senior leadership team and VeriFone’s 5,500 employees worldwide to deliver the quality and innovation that our clients need and the value that our shareholders expect. VeriFone has established a tremendous presence in the payments ecosystem with its managed services, platform software and data analytics offerings across its core global network of more than 20 million devices in 150 countries. This is a strong foundation to build upon, and I look forward to continuing to serve our clients and grow our device and services businesses leveraging new technologies and powering new commerce channels.”
“In the past six months, VeriFone has made important strides implementing our broad transformation effort to increase our value-added services and software offerings,” added Denend. “On behalf of the entire board, I would like to thank Rich McGinn, who agreed to step in as our interim CEO at a critical time in our history. As a consequence of his efforts and those of other outstanding executives, VeriFone is now well-positioned as we look to our future under Paul’s leadership.”
Galant holds a B.S. from Cornell University where he graduated a Phillip Merrill scholar. He has served as chairman of the NY Federal Reserve Bank Payments Risk Committee, and chairman of the Clearing House Secure Digital Payments LLC, and is an executive member on the NY Weill Cornell Medical Center council.