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PayPal pays up for talent
A PayPal sign is seen at its headquarters on January 30, 2024 in San Jose, California. The company updated its technology leadership amid an ongoing shift in senior leadership in the past year. ·Payments Dive·Justin Sullivan via Getty Images
PayPal Holdings handed out eye-catching pay packages in 2024 after CEO Alex Chriss arrived a year earlier and began filling out his new executive team.
"2024 was an important transition year for PayPal,” the proxy filing said. “We returned the company to profitable growth, driving a positive inflection in transaction margin dollars. We continued to build out a world-class leadership team, accelerate innovation, forge new partnerships, and improve our customer value proposition."
The digital payments company’s approach to pay is to use “nimble and aggressive compensation strategies” to attract “world class talent,” said its proxy statement filed Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Chriss collects new team
Among Chriss’ newly appointed managers last year were Suzan Kereere, who joined PayPal to become the president of global markets; Aaron Webster, its new global chief risk officer; and Diego Scotti, who was hired in late 2023 as executive vice president of the consumer group.
Kereere, who joined the company in January 2024, earned $29.4 million last year, including a stock award valued at $20.8 million and a $6 million signing bonus, the proxy filing showed. She previously held top executive positions at the processor giant Fiserv and at card network behemoth Visa as well as American Express, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Board Chair Enrique Lores told shareholders in the proxy that Kereere “is well-recognized for her accomplishments in digital transformation, sales optimization, front-line customer engagement, and profitable growth.”
Scotti, who joined the company in December 2023, earned $17.3 million last year, including a $13.7 million stock award and $1 million signing bonus, according to the proxy. He was previously the top marketing officer at telecom Verizon Communications and retailer J. Crew, according to his LinkedIn profile.
“We’ve assembled an exceptional leadership team to drive our strategic transformation from a payments company to a commerce platform,” a PayPal spokesperson said by email when asked for comment on the pay. “Our compensation packages were designed to attract these talented, sought-after leaders to join PayPal.”
Compensation reflects peers
Publicly-traded companies generally explain in proxies that executive compensation is based on compensation levels at peers. PayPal noted in its proxy that its peers include “10 technology companies and 10 financial companies with which we generally compete for talent.”
Those included card companies American Express and Visa; banks Capital One and JPMorgan Chase; processors Fiserv and Fidelity National Information Services; and technology firms Intuit and Oracle. A few younger companies, including fintech Block and ride-share firm Uber Technologies, were also included on the list.
A random glimpse at compensation provided at other payments players showed none of Fiserv’s executives, except the CEO, earned more than $10 million last year, according to that company’s proxy filing this year, albeit none of them were newly hired.
At American Express, only one executive other than the CEO earned more than $15 million last year, according to that company’s latest proxy filing, though none of those executives were newly hired either.
At JPMorgan Chase, the U.S. largest bank, pay packages tended to be higher, with most of the executives listed earning more than $23 million annually last year, according to the bank’s proxy filing. One executive at the company who was newly promoted to a segment co-CEO role for 2024 earned $23.6 million in compensation.
Factors driving compensation
PayPal compensation awards for executives take into account experience and responsibilities as well as “compensation at their prior employer” and “potential contributions,” among other factors, the proxy said.
Ultimately, PayPal compensation also is based on the company’s performance, including its stock appreciation, an individual’s performance and teamwork, the proxy showed.
Stock awards are bolstered by the company’s performance. Last year, PayPal’s net income slipped 2% to $4.15 billion while revenue climbed 7% to $31.8 billion, according to the company’s fourth-quarter earnings press release.
Newly appointed executives also are sometimes compensated at a new company for money they leave behind at a prior employer and that was the case for Kereere and Webster, the proxy said.
Chriss landed a lucrative package when he was hired by San Jose, California-based PayPal, drawing $41.92 million for 2023, with a $41.14 million stock award making up the majority of his compensation, according to PayPal’s proxy filing last year. By contrast, without the big stock award, his compensation was much lower at $6.66 million for 2024.
Other top executives added to the PayPal management team by Chriss include Jamie Miller, the chief financial officer, who was paid nearly $13 million in 2024 year, including a $7.4 million stock award and a $3 million bonus, according to this year’s proxy filing.
The proxy filing noted that Chriss and Miller will receive long-term incentive awards in the company’s 2025 compensation cycle.
