Opn appoints Vaden Landers as President and CEO of MerchantE

By Gloria Methri

OPN Holdings, the one-stop financial solutions company from Southeast Asia, has appointed payments industry veteran Vaden C. Landers as President and CEO of MerchantE, its U.S. subsidiary.

In his role, Landers will be responsible for overseeing and accelerating growth at Alpharetta, Georgia-based MerchantE, including bolstering the financial solutions and integrations that it provides to businesses and speeding its expansion into new geographic markets and verticals.

Landers will also drive the integration of Opn’s innovative front-end merchant solutions and MerchantE’s unique direct connectivity to all the major card brands. This will enable a combined Opn and MerchantE to provide a seamless payment experience to businesses of all sizes across the U.S., Asia and beyond.

Landers brings with him nearly 40 years of payment experience in both corporate and entrepreneurial settings. During this time, he spearheaded growth and drove results at numerous public and private payment companies. His past leadership roles include positions at Global Payments, iPayment Holdings, PMT Services, Usio (previously known as Payment Data Systems) and most recently as CEO of S2 Cognition.

Landers was also notably a member of the original management team that took Global Payments public in 2001 while serving as its President of the ISO Business. In 2017, he successfully negotiated the sale of his own ISO, Singular Payments, to Usio, where he later served as Chief Revenue Officer and led the company through its entry into the payment facilitation arena.

“Vaden is an exceptional leader whose proven track record of driving sustained results and growing real value is what MerchantE needs,” said Ezra Don Harinsut, Opn’s Co-founder and Group CEO. “Vaden possesses the type of direct hands-on experience across all critical functions in payments, including sales, marketing, risk management, operations, product and technology organizations, and has the background necessary to support the Opn Group in creating a truly global payments platform.”

Harinsut added, “During this critical time that we are navigating, we’re confident that Vaden will be able to quickly step into the business and chart a new strategic path that will ultimately translate to value creation for our customers, employees, shareholders and business partners.”

Commenting on his appointment, Landers said, “I am excited to be joining the MerchantE and wider Opn team and for the opportunity to return to the payments space where I had spent my entire professional career. The more I learn about MerchantE, it is evident that this is one of those situations where all the foundational components are in place to build true value for our customers, employees and key stakeholders. Having changed hands a number of times in recent years and having previously endured some fairly significant headwinds, the business is poised for a reboot. I believe, with the talented staff and management team we have assembled, the future is bright for MerchantE.”