The hits just keep on coming out of MCX this week.
On the heels of the announcement that founding retailer Best Buy has officially jumped ship and resolved to start taking Apple Pay in stores later this year, MCX brought another piece of less-than-cheerful news to the marketplace: CEO Dekkers Davidson will be leaving MCX to pursue “other opportunities.”
“So, will this MCX story have a happy ending and will everyone living in the land called Payments live happily ever after?” MPD CEO Karen Webster wrote during MCX’s early days in her payments fairytale. At the time Webster said, “it depends.”
With the week MCX is having – that “it depends” could perhaps be modified with “on divine intervention.”
With Davidson on his way out, payments industry veteran Brian V. Mooney will step up as the company’s Interim Chief Executive Officer.
“We appreciate the contributions Dekkers has made to MCX in helping establish the foundation for the company’s growth and success,” MCX noted in statement. “We wish him well in his new endeavors.”
Before stepping in to helm MCX, Mooney was the CEO and board member of Bank of America Merchant Services. Merchant Services is among the largest merchant payment acquirers in the U.S.
Mooney, in his capacity as CEO, led client engagement and product strategies for mobile, sales, operations, risk, and compliance.
“Brian is a proven leader who has spent a substantial portion of his career at the forefront of payment technology, processing and acquisition. He is the right leader for MCX now: talented, experienced, consumer-focused, and fully prepared to help MCX and its hard-working employees deliver on the company’s enormous potential and vision.”
MCX spokeswoman Kristin Parran Faulder officially denied to CNET that Davidson’s departure was related in anyway to the Best Buy defection. Apparently it was just a huge coincidence that the CEO’s decision to pursue a new opportunity followed 24 hours after an anchor merchant dropped out.
Mooney, in his capacity as interim CEO, has his work cut out for him. CurrentC, MCX’s mobile wallet, still has not launched after years on the drawing board, meaning it will have to take the field against Apple Pay, PayPal (who recently acquired CurrentC’s mobile payments engine, Paydiant), Android Pay and Samsung Pay, already starting from behind.
Still, the situation does not seem to have dimmed the company’s official enthusiasm.
“MCX was created to capitalize on a tremendous opportunity for consumers, and I look forward to taking the company through the next exciting phase of bringing CurrentC to the market,” said Mooney. “MCX has a talented team in place backed by the determination and resources of many of the world’s largest and most successful merchants. Building on that foundation, we’re focused on making CurrentC the consumer preferred mobile payments app.”