Visa Taps Square’s Mary Kay Bowman To Lead Seller Solutions

To head up Visa’s strategy for acceptance products and solutions, Mary Kay Bowman is coming to the firm as its new head of seller solutions. The executive is tasked with the development, design and delivery of “new services and solutions that will transform the payment experience for both sellers and consumers,” the company said in a blog post.

Visa noted that Bowman comes to the company as point of sale moves from traditional payment acceptance to experiences based on digital and cross-channel payments. Visa Chief Product Officer Jack Forestell said in the blog post, “Mary Kay is the perfect person to oversee this team, as she brings over 20 years of global payments strategy, product development, product management and operations experience to Visa. At all stages of her career, she has worked at the intersection of commerce and financial services, including online, cloud, face-to-face and mobile commerce.” The executive added in the blog post, “Visa welcomes Mary Kay to the team.”

Bowman comes to Visa from Square, where Bowman was a “big hire” for the company in 2015, according to CNBC. On the news of her departure, the outlet reported that shares of Square fell by roughly 1 percent. Bowman left Square only a few months following the departure of CFO Sarah Friar, who the outlet said Wall Street considered to be a “rockstar CFO” and was described as a “key deputy.” The report, however, noted that Square had chosen Amrita Ahuja to take Friar’s place as CFO.

Before joining Square, Bowman worked on the payments team at Amazon as a director for more than 10 years, according to her LinkedIn profile. In addition, her profile noted that she has served as senior director of payments at Digital River, Inc. and as an RSE at PeopleSoft. She has also served as a board member at Food Lifeline and a member at the Merchant Risk Council.