The Executive Interview Series provides readers with exclusive insights from movers and shakers in the payments industry. The payments industry is under continuous transformation. This series offers diverse perspectives on everything from strategy to payments technology and the industry’s future.
In this interview between Jeff Sloan, former CEO of Global Payments, and TSG’s Morgan Murphy, Jeff highlights trends for 2025 and beyond, B2B payments growth, integrated payments, leadership innovation, and more.
Bio: As past chief executive officer and a former member of the board of directors of Global Payments, Jeff Sloan is a decisive leader with deep industry knowledge and more than 30 years of experience in financial technology. Jeff joined Global Payments as president in 2010 and became chief executive officer in 2013. He retired in June 2023. Prior to joining Global Payments, Jeff was a partner and the worldwide head of the Financial Technology Group in New York for Goldman, Sachs & Co. He pioneered the development of the modern FinTech practice in investment banking. Jeff has been recognized by Institutional Investor as one of “America’s Best CEOs” and by the Atlanta Business Chronicle as one of “Atlanta’s Most Admired CEOs”. He was inducted into the Georgia Fintech Hall of Fame in 2023 for his visionary leadership that enabled Global Payments to achieve its position as a worldwide digital payments technology leader.
Q. Morgan M.
You have been recognized by Institutional Investor as one of “America’s Best CEOs” and by the Atlanta Business Chronicle as one of “Atlanta’s Most Admired CEOs.” Could you share a pivotal moment in your career that you believe significantly shaped your leadership style and prepared you to earn such esteemed recognition?
A. Jeff S.
I think it’s critical in career development to be comfortable being uncomfortable. What do we mean by that?
I completed my ninth triathlon since retirement in the summer of 2023. We talk a lot in training for these events about being uncomfortable while racing. Not just physically but mentally. Something usually goes wrong over the nearly six hours it takes to complete an Ironman 70.3.
I’ve changed careers three times over the last one-third of a century since I began working professionally. I was a corporate lawyer, an investment banker and senior corporate executive. One of the commonalities among these careers is a fast-paced environment, with really smart colleagues and challenging but invigorating clients. Each is of course very different, and each also has a steep learning curve.
I think recognizing that change is a constant and that your ability to adapt (and to thrive while uncomfortable) is a core skill that is critical to learning. That recognition is pivotal to career development in my opinion.
Q. Morgan M.
As a previous partner with Goldman Sachs leading the global FinTech group, you were able to pioneer the development of the payments practice where you led many of the industry’s landmark transactions over two decades. What experiences from that role were essential to leverage leading large Fortune 500 payment organizations?
A. Jeff S.
For most of the early 2000s, I was one of a handful of banking partners running the financial services practice at Goldman Sachs. While I enjoyed the capital markets centric, professional services environment in banking, I wanted the chance to run larger enterprises focused on building technology solutions.
So, I tried to bring with me the partnership culture that GS had as both a private and then early public company. What do I mean by that? Each of us is equally responsible for the successes (and failures) of our businesses. We raise our hands when we need help, and we all chip in when help is needed. But we are equally happy not to help when it’s not needed.
Everyone regardless of level has an equal hand in decision making. We gang tackle problems together, and we ultimately adopt the same viewpoint on how to resolve complex issues even if we have many different options entering the discussion. That’s a partnership.
Q. Morgan M.
From your experience working in a fast-paced technological environment, how did you ensure that the company stayed ahead of industry trends and continuously adapted its technological infrastructure to maintain a competitive edge in such a dynamic market?
A. Jeff S.
In the technology business, we necessarily place multiple bets on what we hope will be winning products and solutions over the coming months. We know some will fail, but we expect the winners to outshine the losers over time.
We should fail fast. Failure is a part of risk taking and is to be expected, but it also needs to be a learning experience. Not failing means you’re not trying hard enough.
Q. Morgan M.
While at GPN you pivoted its ecommerce offerings toward omnichannel acceptance ahead of competitors. What drove this strategic shift, and how did you align the company’s vision and resources to capitalize on this emerging market trend?
A. Jeff S.
We were very fortunate through the visionary leadership of Paul Garcia, my immediate predecessor, to have a number of core strengths when I arrived in 2010.
Among these were an expansive physical footprint across what became 40 countries within market sales, localized products and services and domestic operations and sponsorship. We also had small but growing relationships with a number of e-commerce heavy hitters primarily overseas that came through bank partnerships.
Our innovation was to recognize that marrying physical with virtual acceptance could be used offensively to compete at the highest levels with purely e-commerce centric new entrants. That physical footprint took decades to assemble and of course was vast and highly defensible.
I thought then we were on the right track, but of course COVID-19 greatly accelerated this trend. And today omnichannel acceptance is dogma within the industry.
Q. Morgan M.
Being at (GPN) a truly global organization, what surprised you most about the differences in payments trends and behavior from the U.S. perspective versus the rest of the world?
A. Jeff S.
Certainly, the historical preference outside the US for debit-based payments (of course now predominant in the US) coupled with account-to-account transfer (A2A) payments are the biggest surprises overseas.
The US is the largest, most PE and VC centric environment, and I fully expect innovation and investment to continue here. But these differences are like laboratories, and it is fun to watch. All of this is already converging.
Q. Morgan M.
In 2023 you were inducted into Georgia Fintech Hall of Fame for transforming Global Payments into a worldwide digital payments technology leader. How have you innovated and adapted your leadership strategy over the years to fuel so much success in your endeavors?
A. Jeff S.
My uncle was a high school football coach for decades. He told me years ago that the secret of success was KISS. Keep It Simple (you know what).
So, I tried to apply some of his football lingo to our businesses by emulating one of the best coaches of all time, Vince Lombardi. Coach Lombardi had a few simple rules: winning is a habit; do things right all the time, not just sometimes; and play with both your head and your heart. In sum, hard work, commitment, accountability, loyalty and dedication.
Rather than change these things, which have stood the test of time, I’ve chosen to keep them. It worked well.
Q. Morgan M.
In what ways are you leveraging your knowledge and experience to continue making an impact in the payments space?
A. Jeff S.
I think in any business the focus on creating long-lasting equity value is where the emphasis should be. That’s what I’ve tried to do throughout my career, and I expect to continue to do it going forward.
Q. Morgan M.
Fintechs and software providers are joining forces to dominate specific verticals. Strategic partnerships can be critical for expanding into underserved niches, and quickly gaining cutting-edge, API-driven solutions the market is expecting, and scaling across regions and industries. What do you expect the next stage of evolution in terms of the integrated payments landscape to look like in the years ahead?
A. Jeff S.
I expect more blurring of the hardware, software and payments lines of demarcation. Embedded wallets are a great example. Customers (and their consumers) expect seamless, frictionless experiences from their partners. And so should we.
Q. Morgan M.
Merchants increasingly view payments not as a standalone service but as part of a holistic solution that drives efficiency. How do you think merchant acquirers can take advantage of these types of merchant opportunities?
A. Jeff S.
Acquirers should provide complete ecosystems of solutions. It should matter less what platform, what types of hardware or software are used. Only that it works efficiently and seamlessly.
The best recent example of this is in stadiums and at QSRs. Remember what those experiences used to look like pre 2020. And consider how they look today. That’s where the focus should be.
Q. Morgan M.
The B2B merchant space continues to be a key category for the secular growth of electronic payments methods to overcome paper-based transactions. What is your perspective on the opportunity for investing in B2B technology today?
A. Jeff S.
I believe that the state of the B2B payments market today resembles the state of the e-commerce payments market in the 1990s. I expect logarithmic growth in B2B over the coming years. It’s a land grab with no single dominant provider.
In many of the traditional payments businesses, you need to displace another provider to win. Not so in B2B. The competition there is in cash, check and a bit of ACH. The future is very bright in B2B payments, both AP and AR. The market is highly competitive and fragmented currently with no clear winner.
Q. Morgan M.
Finally, what key Payments trends do see occurring in 2025 and beyond?
A. Jeff S.
We have talked about a number of these already, like B2B payments and omnichannel acceptance. Those will provide terrific growth opportunities for years to come.
I do think it’s worth spending a moment on generative AI. I think AI in payments will be about specific use cases in the immediate term. Examples include better use of data and analytics, fraud prevention and a fundamental rethinking of how customer service is delivered in the payments industry. Over time, I expect further acceleration of product development and innovation from broader adoption of AI and newer technologies.