Payments companies MoneyGram International and Adyen both announced top technology hires this week, highlighting the importance of all things digital as the industry rapidly evolves.
International money transfer company MoneyGram has appointed Josh Gordon-Blake as chief digital officer, the company said in a press release Monday, saying he will spearhead the Dallas-based company's digital strategy, including the global expansion of its mobile apps and online services.
Dutch digital payments processor Adyen has appointed Tom Adams as its new chief technology officer, replacing Alexander Massey, who is set to leave the company at the end of the year, it said in a statement on Monday.
Both new hires will report to the CEOs of their respective companies, underscoring the importance of these executive roles to the business. Many businesses have undergone IT transformation in recent years, but the payments sector in particular has seen significant change with digital currencies and electronic funds transfers as a result of new technologies, new government policies and large-scale private innovation.
Adams joins Adyen from digital payments pioneer Block, the parent company of point-of-sale processor Square and smartphone service Cash App, where he led engineering for four years and spent nearly seven years at the company, according to his LinkedIn profile.
“Looking at the opportunities ahead, we see our company as being in a key position to help solve the ongoing complexities seen in the payments industry,” Adyen co-CEO Peter van der Does said in a release from the Amsterdam-based company.
Though the two companies are from different years and in different payment segments, their efforts to acquire the latest technological know-how illustrate the fierce competition currently brewing in the industry: MoneyGram's history stretches back 80 years, but the space is teeming with fintech newcomers like Adyen, which was founded in 2006. Old timers and newcomers are vying to use technology to their advantage.
For example, real-time payments are speeding up transactions around the world. For now, the U.S. lags behind some parts of the world in adopting real-time payments, but the Federal Reserve's FedNow, an instant payments system launched last year, could eventually make the technology much more accessible.
“It's still a matter of time, education and awareness,” Rocio Wu, a principal at Cambridge, Massachusetts-based venture capital firm F-Prime, said in an interview last week about the adoption of faster payments. “I think the world will eventually converge to real-time payments.”
Gordon Blake has a background as an entrepreneur and was co-founder and former chief operating officer of digital remittance business Pangaea, which was sold to Enova International for an undisclosed amount in 2021. His responsibilities at MoneyGram include remittances, cryptocurrency integrations and new products, according to an email from a company spokesperson.
A MoneyGram spokesman said he would succeed Seth Ross, who left MoneyGram last month, according to his LinkedIn profile.
