Every CEO has a story. After all, you don’t get to that kind of position without having an interesting CV. Here we take a look at some of the people currently heading up the world’s largest mobile payment providers, and reveal some behind the scenes facts about what makes them tick.
Dan Schulman - PayPal
Schulman certainly has an impressive resume, and unlike some he has worked his way to the top. Starting out as a lowly account manager for AT&T, he climbed the ranks to become the company’s youngest ever senior executive. Schulman is also passionate about several social causes, including combating youth homelessness and research into autism. He’s also been known to be vocal about controversial political issues, such as North Carolina’s so-called ‘bathroom bill’. In his spare time, he practises the Israeli martial art of Krav Maga, which he credits for his dynamism in the business world.
Tim Cook - Apple Pay
Tim Cook is an Apple long-termer, having been with the company since 1998 before taking the reins in 2011 after the passing of his friend and colleague Steve Jobs. Cook is a private person, but decided to publicly come out as gay in 2014 as he believed that it could help people struggling with their sexuality. Aside from this, he is probably best known for his many generous charitable donations which includes a pledge to donate almost his entire fortune upon his death. Cook champions many causes, including HIV/AIDS research and prevention, combating climate change, and promoting equality and human rights. Unlike many other mobile payment providers, both PayPal and Apple support pay by phone casinos. These pay by mobile casinos are considered more reliable since they work with trustworthy payments providers.
Stephen Squeri - American Express
American Express is by far the oldest company to be featured here, having been around since 1850. Mobile payments were added in 2017, and it was the following year that the current CEO Stephen Squeri stepped into the top job. Squeri has spent almost his entire career at Amex, holding various different positions within the company since joining in 1985. During this time, he played a key role in bringing the company to a more global market. Squeri strongly believes in the power and importance of education, and supports several causes that assist young people with their schooling.
Sundar Pichai - Google Pay
Sundar Pichai is a true rags to riches story, having worked his way to the top from a modest background in Tamil Nadu in India. As a child Pichai Sundararajan, as he was then known, lived in relative poverty with little access to the technologies of the day. He started out studying engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, where he met his future wife Anjali, and then won a scholarship to study at Stanford. After gaining his postgrad degree he went on to do an MBA at the University of Pennsylvania in 2002, thus starting his life in business. The following year he and Anjali were married, and the year after that he joined Google. With a background in engineering, Pichai was a valuable asset to Google from day one, and the idea for the Google Chrome web browser was his alone.
Jack Dorsey - Block
Jack Dorsey is perhaps best known as the founder of social media giant Twitter, which he started when he was just 29 years old. However he is also the founder and CEO of Block, formerly known as Square, a payments provider geared towards small and medium sized business owners. The platform allows businesses to accept and process credit card and mobile payments for goods and services. Dorsey never finished a college degree, dropping out of two places, and he is known for his somewhat eccentric lifestyle. In business he also has a reputation for not staying in one place for long, and he quit Twitter after criticism that he was no longer focused on the company. The majority of his wealth comes from Block, which he set up with his friend, business partner and former boss Jim McKelvey in 2009.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma - Paytm
Founder and CEO of mobile payments brand Paytm and parent company One97 Communications, Vijay Shekhar Sharma grew up poor in rural India. Sharma faced many disadvantages as a child, and had to teach himself English on his own time. He got his start by creating a website while at college, and then selling it for US$1 million. With this seed money he was able to found One97 Communications in 2000, and then Paytm in 2010. It is one of India’s largest mobile and internet payment providers, and Sharma became the country’s second-youngest billionaire in 2020. Since then the company has suffered some setbacks, but it seems certain that Sharma will come out on top in the long run.