Dive Brief:
- Global Payments will elevate Shannon Johnston to senior executive vice president and CIO on Jan. 1, when current CIO Guido Sacchi retires after nearly 13 years in the role, the company said Wednesday.
- The promotion is Johnston’s second this year. In June, she rose to EVP, deputy CIO and chief digital officer. Johnston joined the fintech and digital payments solution company as VP of application development in 2016, according to her LinkedIn bio.
- The company cracked the Fortune 500 two years ago, after a $21.5 billion merger with Total Systems Services in 2019. It expanded its global footprint through the $4 billion acquisition of Evo Payments last year.
Dive Insight:
M&A activity has grown Global Payments into a point-of-sale software and merchant solutions powerhouse. The company was the third-largest non-bank merchant acquirer in the U.S. last year, according to industry research firm The Nilson Report.
Business expansion brought integration and product launch challenges.
Global Payments delayed the launch of its mobile-first restaurant and retail point-of-sale software, pegging its commercial release date to early 2024, the company revealed during a Q3 2023 earnings call last month. Integrating Evo Payments software into Global Payments’ merchant solutions suite remains a work in progress, the company said.
Sacchi led the company’s IT and digital business strategies, global infrastructure and information security operations through the 2019 merger and last year’s acquisition.
“Guido is a highly regarded, exceptional leader who has been instrumental in the transformation of our company into the payments technology and software leader we are today,” Cameron Bready, president and CEO, said in the announcement.
Johnston worked closely with Sacchi throughout his tenure and even prior to her arrival at Global Payments, the company said.
Sacchi’s departure and Johnston’s elevation follow on the heels of a broader C-suite reshuffle.
In June, Bready succeeded the company’s President and CEO Jeff Sloan, who stepped down after more than a decade of leadership in May. Previously, Bready served as COO, a position he took in 2019.
