PayPal‘s new CEO will be Alex Chriss, the executive who runs the small business and self-employed group at Intuit, members of PayPal’s board announced Monday.
Chriss will take over for PayPal’s longtime CEO Dan Schulman beginning Sept. 27. Schulman had previously announced a plan to step down from the role by the end of the year. He will remain a director at the company until May 2024.
“I am proud to take the baton from Dan and thrilled to have the opportunity to work with PayPal’s talented and committed team to build on PayPal’s remarkable history and draw on its unique capabilities to deliver outstanding products and services to businesses and consumers,” Chriss said in a release Monday.
Shares of PayPal were up nearly 2% in morning trading Monday.
PayPal’s board said Chriss was chosen for the role out of a pool of nine candidates. The selection process began in February. The board members said they were impressed by Chriss’ leadership at Intuit, particularly as he steered the company through its $12 billion acquisition of the marketing platform Mailchimp.
Members of the board also met with more than 20 investors, including activist investor Elliott Management, while conducting the search for the new CEO. Last summer, Elliott Management accumulated an undisclosed stake in PayPal. The board members said the firm had no role in the search.
Schulman became PayPal’s CEO after the split from eBay in 2015, and he notified the company of his decision to retire at the end of December last year.
“I’m proud of what we have accomplished at PayPal and of the incredibly talented and committed people I work with every day,” Schulman said in a statement announcing his decision. “Together, we have reimagined financial services and e-commerce, and worked to improve the financial health of our customers.”
