Mollie appoints former Worldpay exec as its new CEO

By Megha Bhattacharya

European payment service provider Mollie has announced the appointment of Shane Happach as the new CEO. Happach succeeds Gaston Aussems who was the company’s CEO between 2013 and mid-2020. He will start on April 1st, 2021 and has been formally appointed by Mollie’s Supervisory Board, with confirmation from the Dutch Central Bank.

“I’ve spent the last 15 years processing payments for some of the largest and most recognisable brands on the planet. I’ve come to a very simple conclusion: merchants are significantly under-served by traditional payment service providers. PSP business models are fundamentally about price and volume and, in Europe especially, merchants need more support from their partners,” says Happach.

“Mollie represents a very different approach. The people here deeply care about merchants that don’t have whole departments dedicated to payments infrastructure, addressing abandonment and securing customer data. These businesses need that support from their PSP, a PSP whose principal job is to help its customers grow. That’s why I’m so excited to be leading Mollie as we continue to drive product innovation and expansion across Europe.”

Previously, Happach worked with Worldpay as Chief Commercial Officer of its eCommerce division and more recently as EVP and Head of Global eCommerce. Before Worldpay, he worked with GlobalCollect – acquired by Ingenico in 2014 – in business development roles across the Americas and EMEA.

“It’s been an exciting seven months for Mollie, with our strong growth, expansion into the UK and now the arrival of Shane,” says Adriaan Mol, founder of Mollie. “Shane ‘gets it’. He understands the problems with the current PSP model. And he understands what Mollie can do to address those problems and simplify complex financial services to help businesses grow. Shane has helped drive impressive – 500% – growth at Worldpay. We know he’s the right person to help drive Mollie’s international expansion and ensure our product innovation meets the emerging needs of our 110,000+ customers across Europe.”

Recently, Mollie announced the expansion of support for UK merchants aiming to grow into Europe. The development will provide UK merchants with the ability to explore new markets, along with the provision of a choice of preferred payment methods for EU customers. Through Mollie’s partnerships with Klarna, Magento and EU gateways, UK merchants can trade competitively in the eurozone.