Dive Brief:

• Longtime PayPal alum Gabrielle Rabinovitch is now serving in the top financial seat for merchant payments provider Worldpay as the company marshals its operations as a newly independent entity, according to a post on social media site LinkedIn.
• The Cincinnati, Ohio-based payments provider officially began operating on its own at the start of this month, approximately one year after its parent company Fidelity National Information Services announced it would spin off the unit. Worldpay and FIS will “continue to maintain a strong strategic go-to-market partnership to provide our respective clients continued access to a broad set of complementary product solutions,” Worldpay wrote in an announcement of the completed spin-off on its LinkedIn page.
• “I am thrilled to be leading Worldpay's world-class finance organization” as the company moves forward on its next phase of growth, Rabinovitch wrote of her move to Worldpay on LinkedIn.

Dive Insight:

The newly re-established Worldpay will lean on Rabinovitch’s finance chops to help it navigate life as an independent company majority controlled by the private equity firm GTCR, after what has been a turbulent half-decade for the merchant payments provider.

For Rabinovitch, meanwhile, the move follows a stop-and-start history in PayPal’s top financial seat. Logging a near eight-year tenure at the San Jose, California-based company, Rabinovitch was tapped to fill PayPal’s CFO seat on an interim basis multiple times while the business hunted for permanent financial leadership.

In May 2022, Rabinovitch was appointed interim finance chief when the company’s then-CFO John Rainey departed for Walmart; she retook the acting CFO position when Rainey’s replacement, Blake Jorgensen, took a medical leave of absence one month into his stint as PayPal’s financial leader, CFO Dive previously reported.

She continued to serve in the acting CFO role when Jorgensen ultimately departed the company in March 2023, and held the position until PayPal appointed agricultural company Cargill alum Jamie Miller to the position effective November 2023, Industry Dive sister publication Payments Dive reported.  

Rabinovitch left PayPal as the payments provider was making an effort to continue slashing its costs; during her first earnings call as CFO, Miller outlined the company’s plans to reorganize its cost structure in a bid to bolster more profitable growth, Payments Dive reported. Miller highlighted automation and improved productivity as essential to the strategy. This comes after PayPal announced it would be laying off 9% of its total workforce.

The former PayPal interim CFO is not departing for calmer waters, however. Rabinovitch is taking on the top financial seat at Worldpay as it changes its shape yet again. FIS acquired the business in 2019 for approximately $43 billion, an acquisition that occurred after Worldpay was bought in 2018 by payment processing service provider Vantiv.

The 2019 merger yielded lackluster results for both parties; due to a lack of mergers and acquisitions activity on the part of FIS. The company was not able to “feed” Worldpay enough capital, FIS CEO Stephanie Ferris told analysts, Payments Dive reported.

Moreover, Worldpay is setting up shop amid ongoing turmoil in the payments and banking space, pressures which persuaded its parent company FIS to break off the unit in the face of mounting economic uncertainties.

FIS has reported slowing revenue while facing leadership shifts of its own. Ferris, a former CFO of Worldpay, took over as CEO of FIS last February; FIS also appointed Walgreens Boots Alliance veteran James Kehoe as its CFO last August, CFO Dive previously reported. Former Worldpay CEO Charles Drucker, has resumed his role in the top executive chair for the business, according to Payments Dive.

As part of the spin-off, FIS sold a 55% stake in Worldpay to private equity firm GTCR for $11.7 billion, Payments Dive reported. FIS retained a 45% ownership interest.

GTCR has also allocated an additional equity investment of up to $1.3 billion as Worldpay looks to achieve its strategic goals following the spin-off, Worldpay said. This includes enabling the payments provider to engage in acquisitions once again and to focus on boosting growth in e-commerce.

Worldpay did not immediately respond to requests for comment.