Dive Brief:

• Fidelity National Information Services named James Kehoe — who resigned last month from the CFO post at Deerfield, Illinois-based Walgreens Boots Alliance — to succeed Erik Hoag as the payment giant’s finance chief, effective Monday, according to a Tuesday press release. 

• Hoag, who is stepping down after just a year in the CFO seat, has held various FIS roles during 16 years with the company, starting out as segment CFO for banking solutions and more recently working as EVP of finance and subsequently as deputy CFO before being tapped for the top finance position last year, according to his LinkedIn profile. Hoag, 50, is leaving to pursue “other opportunities,” the release stated.

• In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, FIS said it agreed to pay Kehoe a $1.2 million signing bonus and an initial $10 million restricted stock grant that will vest over the next two years. He’ll also be eligible for a $6 million annual equity grant starting next year. His $975,000 salary and annual target bonus of 1.5 times that much will be supplemented by a $500,000 lump sum payment if he relocates to Florida within nine months of starting the new job, the filing said.

Dive Insight:

Jacksonville, Florida-based FIS is switching CFOs as it prepares for a significant cleaving of its businesses next year when it will part with its Worldpay merchant payment services unit. Last month, the mega-processor said it would sell a 55% majority stake in Worldpay to Chicago private equity firm GTCR for $11.7 billion. 

In its remaining business catering to the banking industry, FIS faces pressures in selling to those clients as they grapple with economic pressures and fallout from the demise of several banks earlier this year. FIS’ second-quarter results showed revenue growth slowing in the company’s banking division — as U.S. banks have been impacted by higher interest rates and lower economic growth.

The change also comes a year after a flurry of payments companies — including FIS — announced they were bringing on new CFOs, amid some of those same macroeconomic pressures, including inflation.

Kehoe, 60, is pivoting to the payments sector after serving as CFO of the healthcare and pharmacy company Walgreens since June 2018, according to an FIS filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Prior to joining Walgreens, he was the finance chief for the Japan-based Takeda Pharmaceutical Company and also served a brief stint as CFO for Kraft Foods Group, sister publication CFO Dive previously reported. 

Kehoe’s experience at Kraft may have been particularly appealing to FIS management, given that company’s 2012 split creating Mondelez International and Kraft Foods Group. Knowledge gained from that transaction could come in handy as FIS readies for the split with its WorldPay, which is expected to be complete by next July. 

“He is a seasoned player, no-nonsense, straightforward, going-to-get-stuff-done type of dude,” Chicago executive search firm consultant Josh Crist said of Kehoe.

It makes sense for Kehoe to move from a struggling Walgreen to the higher market capitalization FIS, Crist said. Still, Crist noted that FIS management faces challenges too, and changing the CFO after just one year under Hoag doesn’t reflect well on FIS. “They’re struggling to maintain the positive momentum they saw for a number of years,” Crist said.

In the release, FIS CEO Stephanie Ferris, who became CEO this year, credited Hoag with playing an “instrumental role” in the company’s growth during a “transformational period of modernization.” Ferris also welcomed Kehoe, citing his international experience and his “record of success in driving shareholder value.”

Kehoe faced economic pressures at Walgreens. In its fiscal quarter ended May 31, WBA did not meet its expectations, CEO Roz Brewer said during an earnings call. While the company reported sales grew in the quarter — increasing by 8.6% year-over-year to $35.4 billion — Brewer pointed to margin pressures that the company is facing in its full year outlook, stemming from changing consumer and category conditions and a “steeper drop off” in COVID-19 testing and vaccines since the public health emergency was declared over.

To help with the transition at FIS, Hoag will stay with the company as a non-executive officer through this year. His departure was first publically announced Tuesday, according to a company spokesperson.

Kehoe also holds a Masters in business studies in finance from University College Dublin, Ireland and a Bachelors of Commerce Degree from University College Galway, Ireland, according to the release.