A week after launching PYUSD, its own US-dollar-denominated stablecoin, global payments giant, PayPal, has unveiled Alex Chriss, a top executive at Intuit, as its new President and Chief Executive Officer. Chriss is to take over the position from Dan Schulman who has managed the role for nearly a decade.

PayPal Announces New CEO/President

PayPal announced Chriss’s appointment today (Monday), noting that the current Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Small Business and Self-Employed Group unit at Intuit, will formally step into the new role on September 27, 2023. However, Schulman, who announced his intention to retire from PayPal earlier this year, will remain on the Board of the financial services firm until the company’s next annual stakeholder meeting billed for May next year.

Speaking on Chriss’ appointment, PayPal praised Chriss’s leadership experience at Intuit, including leading teams that helped the American financial software business to deliver cloud-based accounting software, QuickBooks, and email marketing platform, Mailchimp, to millions of users globally.

“During the five years that Chriss led the Small Business segment [at Intuit], he grew its customers and revenues at a compound annual growth rate of 20% and 23%, respectively,” PayPal stated. “In 2021, he led Intuit's successful $12 billion acquisition of Mailchimp, significantly expanding the capacity of Intuit's platform and its customer base.”

With this experience, John Donahoe, the Chair of the PayPal Board of Directors, believes that Chriss is “the perfect leader to take PayPal forward and accelerate the company’s growth opportunities.” As part of the appointment, Chriss is expected to join PayPal’s Board.

‘Next Generational Leader’

Meanwhile, PayPal said it picked Chriss for the top position after following through a thorough search process that lasted over several months. The firm noted its goal was to appoint “a next-generation leader with extensive global payments, products, and technology experience, capable of driving growth across the PayPal platform for years to come.”

Chriss, who joined Intuit in July 2004 as the Group Manager for Business Development and Channel Sales, boasts of nearly two decades of financial industry experience.

Intuit, an American financial software company, is the brand behind QuickBooks, Mailchimp, tax preparation software, TurboTax, and credit monitoring service, Credit Karma.