The appointment of a leading payments executive, Eddie Grobler, to the Board will bring real value to Change’s global growth strategy.

Global fintech, Change Financial (ASX:CCA), announced the appointment of a leading global payments executive to its Board, as it embarks on a push for international growth.

Edward (Eddie) Grobler will join the Board as an independent Non-Executive Director, subject to shareholder approval at the company’s AGM on 25 November.

A former Mastercard executive, Grobler has more than 34 years’ experience in the payments industry – 14 years of which were spent working for one of the largest banks in South Africa where he was responsible for Electronic Banking and Merchant Services.

Grobler then joined Mastercard in 1999 as Senior Vice President for Mastercard Africa, before being appointed as Executive Vice President for Mastercard Australasia in 2008.

In 2017 he took up the role of Executive Vice President: Real Time Payments, based in the UK, where he was responsible for the development and execution of Mastercard’s Real Time Payments strategy.

Two years ago, Grobler established ‘Commerce 2040’ to create a platform for engagement with different stakeholders in the payments value chain, with the key focus on payment flows in a dynamic and changing environment.

His appointment at CCA follows the retirement of Harley Dalton, who has decided to retire from his director post at the company after three years of service.

Change is in the midst of pursuing a global growth strategy, especially in the US where it has just onboarded the first client for its US partner, Axiom Bank.

CCA Chairman Ben Harrison believes the appointment of Grobler to the Board will accelerate its growth strategy.

“I am delighted to have Eddie join the Change Board as an independent Director,” Harrison said.

“His knowledge, skills and experience in the payments industry will, along with his international successes, bring real value to Change’s global growth strategy.”

 

Other management changes

CCA said its Board has also recommended that shareholders appoint current CEO Alastair Wilkie as a director of the company at the upcoming AGM.

Subject to his appointment, the Board of Directors said they intend to appoint him as a ‘Managing Director’.

Wilkie has served as Change CEO since October 2019, and has been instrumental in the launch of the company’s business in the US, as well as securing  the recent acquisition of Wirecard’s Australian and New Zealand assets.

He’s the former chief operating officer at $1bn payments platform EML Payments (ASX:EML), and since coming to Change, has successfully secured the engagement of new key executives to assist with the execution of CCA’s market strategy.

This includes a number of key appointments made in August to its payments solutions teams, as the company looks to further bolster its Australian, New Zealand and American businesses.

“The Board excitedly anticipates welcoming Alastair as Managing Director after two years as CEO, and we look forward to his additional contribution to the company at the board level,” Harrison said.

Today’s release also includes the appointment of Tom Russell to the Board as an Alternate Director to Ben Harrison, effective from 1 November.

Russell has more than 10 years’ experience as an investor and corporate advisor, working across a range of industries with a focus on growth companies in the technology, finance, industrial, energy and resource sectors.

“Russell has been paramount to the success of Change to date both strategically and operationally in a contracting capacity,” Harrison said.

“He has a deep knowledge of our business and brings a diverse and complementary skill set to the company.”

This article was developed in collaboration with Change Financial, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

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