Dive Brief:
- Payments software provider ACI Worldwide today appointed Thomas Warsop, its interim CEO and a former board chairman, to take that post on an ongoing basis as of Thursday, according to a press release issued by the company. He will also serve as president of the suburban Miami company.
- The board member Adalio Sanchez will remain as the company’s non-executive board chair, the Wednesday release from the Coral Gables-based company said.
- “After conducting a thorough search process, and given Tom’s strong management skills, considerable expertise in financial services technology, and deep knowledge of ACI’s business, strategic plan and opportunities to enhance value, the Board is confident he is the right person to continue leading our organization forward,” Sanchez said in the release.
Dive Insight:
The company pushed out its former CEO, Odilon Almeida, last November, appointing Warsop at that time to serve in the interim role. At the time, ACI provided little explanation for the ouster, other than to say the company needed to accelerate change.
“As ACI advances its vision to lead the real-time payments revolution, the Board determined that now is the right time to transition to a new leader focused on accelerating our technology transformation and delivering operational excellence across our business,” ACI Director Mary Harman, who headed up the board’s nominating and corporate governance committee, said at that time in a prior release.
Warsop, who joined ACI’s board eight years ago in 2015, has experience in the payments sphere. He formerly worked for payments processor Fiserv for nearly six years as the group president overseeing sales for financial institutions from 2007 to 2012. Subsequently, he was the CEO of Chicago-based extended warranty and service contract provider The Warranty Group and also the CEO of Jersey City, New Jersey insurance services provider York Risk Services Group, according to his LinkedIn profile.
“While we have more work to do to fully capitalize on the opportunities ahead, we have a strong roadmap and are continuing to execute,” Warsop said in the release Wednesday. “I believe we are well-positioned to build on our current momentum as we continue to enable leading corporations, fintechs, financial disruptors and merchants to drive the real-time digital transformation of payments and commerce.”
The company reported a loss of $32.3 million for the first quarter, compared to net income of $15.5 million for the year-earlier quarter, according to a release on the results. Revenue fell 10% to $289.7 million.
ACI has been a participant in the build-up and pilot program for the Federal Reserve’s new real-time payments system, called FedNow. That new instant payments system is expected to go live in July.
