Coda Payments Appoints Ex-Worldpay Executive Shane Happach as CEO

Coda Payments has appointed former Worldpay executive Shane Happach as CEO.

The provider of cross-border payments and distribution solutions to digital content publishers said in a Thursday (Feb. 2) press release that Happach will relocate to Singapore and assume the role in May.

“Shane is a seasoned payments executive and CEO, relishes delivering impactful solutions to clients, enjoys operating on a cross-border basis and has a track record of creating value for shareholders both private and public,” Coda Founder and Executive Chairman Neil Davidson said in the release.

Happach most recently served as CEO of payments and financial services player Mollie. Before that, he was with payment service provider Worldpay for a decade, leading the commercial function of its online payments division, then serving as executive vice president and driving 500% growth, according to the release.

In his new role, Happach will focus on growing the firm’s ecosystem and expanding its consumer and B2B offerings, the release said.

“Coda has unlocked billions of dollars of value for its clients and enriches the lives of tens of millions of users every month with a highly differentiated suite of offerings,” Happach said in the release. “I look forward to building on this foundation, leading the Coda team at this exciting moment in the company’s growth.”

A Flywire survey found that 88% of finance professionals said the complex nature of cross-border payments collection hampers their ability to grow internationally, and 95% said they could accelerate their global expansion if they had an easier way to deal with exchange rates.

The payments sector is highly fragmented, so there’s a lot of room for each firm to grow in the specific niche they’ve chosen, and there’s a lot of competition driving innovation and forcing companies to up their game to provide a better experience for their customers, Happach told PYMNTS in an interview posted in February 2022.

Because customers move between payment providers or use multiple payment providers, there’s also an opportunity for multiple payment providers to serve the same end customer, Happach said at the time.

“[It’s] another thing that keeps the industry really rich in terms of competitive innovation,” Happach said.