Paysafe, a specialized payments platform, has announced the appointment of Afshin Yazdian as CEO of its newly formed U.S. Acquiring division.
Joining Paysafe on July 1, he will be responsible for bringing to life the firm’s vision of being the country’s leading payments solutions provider, according to Paysafe.
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.
Prior to that, he served as president and CEO of New York-based Cynergy Data before its merger with PPS. Earlier in his career, Yazdian worked for iPayment for over a decade as an executive vice president and general counsel.
Completing the executive leadership team
Paysafe said that the appointment of Yazdian completes the executive leadership team for the firm’s recently restructured Payment Processing business unit, which now operates as two distinct customer-focused divisions.
While Yazdian takes charge of the U.S. Acquiring division, leading Paysafe’s third party and direct channel, Paulette Rowe serves as CEO of its global Integrated and eCommerce Solutions division. Both divisions report directly into Paysafe Group CEO Philip McHugh.
Rowe joined Paysafe earlier this year and previously worked for Facebook as its head of payments and financial services partnerships and served at Barclaycard earlier.
Before the appointments of Rowe and Yazdian, Paysafe’s global Payment Processing division was headed-up by industry veteran, O.B. Rawls, who moves into retirement at the end of June after a career in payments spanning almost four decades, according to the firm.
Covid-19 challenges
“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,” said Philip McHugh, CEO of Paysafe Group.
“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 United States by both utilizing technology and focusing on an exceptional customer experience,” Yazdian said.
(Photo: Paysafe)
