December 4, 2025 • 23 mins
Bruce Lowthers is the CEO and Executive Director of the Board at Paysafe, where he has led a successful transformation of the company since his appointment in May 2022. Under his leadership, Paysafe streamlined its operations, recalibrated its growth strategy, and returned to growth by focusing on innovation, customer experience, and a sales-driven culture. A former CPA and entrepreneur, Bruce co-founded multiple startups and payments industry associations, including ATPC and P20, and serves on the board of the Electronic Transactions Association (ETA). Prior to Paysafe, he spent 15 years at FIS, ultimately serving as President. He has been recognized with numerous industry awards and accolades for his leadership and contributions to the payments and fintech sectors. In addition, Bruce is an active philanthropist, supporting multiple causes, including cancer, education, and public health in the U.S. and in the UK.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
M and T Bank preson CEOs. You should know.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Riven by Western Transportation Group and iHeart Media. Let's meet
Bruce Lothers. He is the CEO for Pace, a big
global payment network that provides online and in person payment
solutions for both customers and businesses. Before we talk more
about Bruce's company, I first asked him to talk a
little bit about himself, where he's from and his origin story.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
I grew up in a city just outside of Boston
called Everett and went to college at the University of
Massachusetts Lowell.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
So a proud river.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Hawk, outstanding and when it came to school, what did
you want to do and what did you do when
you went out there in the real world.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Yeah, that's interesting. So my godfather, my uncle, was a
big influence in my life and I wanted to be
just like him as probably many kids growing up do,
and wanted to be an engineer. I started out in
engineering and college and then somehow made the transition into accounting,
(01:05):
and at my uncle's influence, it was really very instrumental
and kind of the decisions I was making at the
time back then, and he was very bullish on accounting
for some reason and got me to switch into that,
and I went into a career of public accounting, which
(01:26):
really set me up in a lot of ways for
success in my career and was really foundational for me
of understanding how financial statements work.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Well, the pieces of the puzzle are coming together for
me because as I took a look at your resume
and why you're explaining your engineering and your accounting. That
leads right into paysafe, and we're going to ask about
mission and vision and all the great things and capabilities
and programs that you offer your clients. But I'm curious
about joining the company as CEO. And obviously I can
see why the company paysafe was interested in you, but
(01:59):
why were you into sitting and joining them after all
the things that you had done.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Yeah, I was very fortunate in my career that started,
as I mentioned as CPA and worked at Deloitte and
Ernst and Young really loved it. Went into, like so
many people do, into the startup world, where I had
a client that had some technology that led me to
(02:22):
four startups, the last one being acquired by a company
called FIS, which really at the time was a mid
size company. We were about three billion in revenue, and
over the next fifteen years, I had the opportunity to
do a lot of different things at that company, and
(02:44):
then ultimately became president of the company, running the company
at a fifteen a little over fifteen billion dollar revenue company.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
So I had the opportunity to do things really small.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
From you know, right off, as the story goes, I
was right off the kitchen table to a fifteen billion dollar,
seventy thousand employee company. And it was really at that
time that I had the opportunity to say, well, Okay,
that's probably doesn't sound great, but I was getting older,
(03:17):
and so I had the opportunity to say, well, how.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Do I want to end up my career, my corporate career?
Speaker 3 (03:22):
And I decided that after a lot of discussion, talking
with my wife and just thinking it through, that I
really wanted to get back to building something. And that
really led me to the opportunity at pay Safe. They
had gone public. They had had some troubles posts going
(03:44):
public from a series of macroeconomic issues that really put
the company in dress, and it seemed like it wud
be a great challenge to see if I could come
in and help turn the company around and set the
company up for successes and then you know, be able
to go on to whatever's next. For me at that point,
(04:07):
but I had never done kind of a turnaround before,
and I was intrigued whether.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Our team would be able to do.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
That outstanding well. One of the common themes we have
in the series is that challenges ahead of entrepreneurs out there,
and if you do me a favor and indulging me
just for a second before we talk specifically about pay
sape Bruce, because we do have a lot of current
CEOs and leaders, but we also have a lot of
future entrepreneurs that are listening to this series and seeing
how everybody has done it. Now, I realized that your
journey is very specific to you, but in general terms
(04:39):
when it comes to startups, what are the exciting things
about that? But what are also the pitfalls? Because I
know there's both.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Yeah, there's a lot of exciting things about it. I
think for me, what I realized later on, you know,
I wasn't dialed into kind of how I was thinking
about it as I was doing it, but it really
started with trying.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
To help people.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
I think as I've gone back and reflected on it,
and I think about the products that we created. It
was really about going to friends and saying, Hey, what
are the challenges that you're having, and then we built
things to solve for that problem. And then we sold
that company, we went to the next one, and I
always joke I wasn't smart enough to just come up
(05:23):
with a cool new product. I just went back out
and asked people, Hey, what do you need? What are
you struggling with, and then tried to solve that. And
so that really has kind of been the key to
success for us. As we came into these things, we
did have thought process around being in particular verticals things
that were things we felt good about. Fintech for me,
(05:46):
was always one that I loved because of just a
pace of change. It was really dynamic space and you
were really only limited by your own emanation, and so
that was really something that was very attractive to me.
Is to have the opportunity to go in work with people,
help them make their lives better and just a little
(06:07):
bit on an every single day basis. And that's what
we've really tried to do and still trying to do
it all these years later.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Well, I appreciate you sharing that, and as you tell
that story, it always reminds me, whether it's my career
in sports with television, radio or what you do. There's
a couple things that come to mind. Crowdsourcing people to
find out what they want and then to making their
lives a little bit better, a little easier, and that
really can go for any business model, can it?
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Sure, Ken, and it can take you a long way, right.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
I think it's one of the great things about what
people do is really taking the opportunity to help a person,
a business, a community, and I think if he keeps
that at the heart of things, things generally work out
pretty well.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
All right, Well, let's talk about pace Safe and all
the incredible things that are going on before we get
into programs, capabilities and all the cool products you have.
I do want to talk about mission and vision because
I know they're always important leaders out there and your
team members too. So when I ask you about mission
and vision when it comes to pay Safe, what are
those Yeah?
Speaker 1 (07:06):
For us?
Speaker 3 (07:06):
As I came in, we really tried to hone in
on what was going to be important for us, and
a lot of when you're doing starting these companies or
taking over a company, it's about galonizing people around a
particular mission for us. We really looked at the experiential economy.
When you look at what pay safe does, eighty percent
(07:30):
of our business was in verticals that would be defined
as experiential economy, so this is gaming, restaurants, travel, those
kind of verticals. So it was a natural place to say, Okay,
these are the verticals we're really going to focus in
on this experiential economy and we want to be a leader,
global leader in that in that space, and so that
(07:53):
really became something that we've centered on. We talk about
it every day in what we're doing and how do
we get better? And again you'll see the theme there
of how do I make people's lives a little better
in every day, So whether it's buying that next skin
for your video game or having the enjoyment of buying
(08:18):
a ticket for a game that you're going to take
your family to and creating those wonderful memories, that's where
we're trying to focus.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Very good, well, Bruce, let's do this. There's a lot
of people that know what paysafe does and is, but
there's a lot of our listeners are being introduced to
the company for the first time. So if you were
to give kind of a thirty thousand foot view and
a short version to tell them this is what we do.
What would you tell them?
Speaker 3 (08:40):
I would tell you that we are a global payments provider.
We do business in over one hundred different countries. The
business is actually quite simple. We have a merchant acquiring business,
which that's where we process payments. If you go into
any store and you use your debit card or credit card,
where the people that process those payments for that retailler,
(09:02):
whether that's online or physically in a storefront. The second
part of our business is really a digital wallet business,
and so this is really a consumer centric wallet, much
like PayPal or any of your probably every consumers get
at least five different wallets on their phone. We would
(09:24):
be one of those, and that is predominantly in Europe
and most recently we just launched a national wallet in
Peru called Pago Effectivo and so very very excited about
that recent launch. That's really what we do, payment processing
for merchants and moving money for consumers, allowing people to
(09:46):
buy what they want to buy, to create great memories.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
And without any assumptions that there are other companies that
do exactly what you your team and pay Safe do.
How do you differentiate yourself from said competition.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
I think a couple of is one.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
We're twenty nine years old and we really have created
a tremendous risk framework. So in our business, there's a
tremendous amount of regulatory changes that happen. There's a lot
of licensing that's required to actual process payments and move
money around the globe, and we've kind of led in
(10:22):
that area. So that really creates a mode around the
business of what we do and how we do it.
I think also our distribution channels really set us apart.
When you look in Europe, for example, we have over
a million storefronts that you can go in with our
pay Safe card and use that, and there's not a
(10:42):
lot of people out there that have a million storefronts
where you can go buy something or use a product.
So that distribution channel and scale that we have in
the US on our merchant acquiring side is really what
sets us apart.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
You know what technology and the world we're living in
right now. Things are moving very quickly and the company
is doing well, But are there any current challenges for you,
your team members, and your clients right now that you're
working through.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
I think in our business is kind of I alluded
to you earlier with fintech, there's a lot of changes
that they're always going on, right, So there's always the
regulatory change is happening. I think now as I think
about it versus earlier in my career, you're just seeing
the pace of play be much faster. So the regulatory changes,
(11:32):
technology changes, really consumer behavior is changing at a lightning
pace compared to what it was ten, fifteen, twenty years ago.
I think those are really the three common things that
I see. It doesn't really matter whether you're in Europe
or the US or Latin America. Those things are the
(11:53):
things that really create a lot of challenges for anybody.
And probably the fourth we'd add is just the more
recently is probably just the geopolitical pressures that every CEO
faces on a daily basis now. And I think in
(12:14):
all of the CEO meetings that I have, geopolitics always
seems to come up. Of late, there was always those
three of regulatory, tech, and consumer behavior, and now I
would say the geopolitics is coming up more and more so.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Bruce, one of my favorite questions in this series is
talking about the cool things that happen out there with
your clients and making a difference. And my question to
you as well, I'm sure you've got handfuls of different stories.
Whether it's a small, medium, large business or a client.
It's about you know, this is why we get up
every day kind of thing because we're making a difference.
Is there a story that you can share with us
and you don't have to mention the client or the person,
(12:51):
just something that you know, we really we made it.
We made a difference at day, the team and I
did and it turned out really well for them and
it was really cool. And this is why we get up.
You have a short story you can share with us.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
I think we have those stories every day, right.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
So there's always a consumer that has run into problems
one way or another and either the money didn't get
to where they thought it was going to get to
or and our team has really done a great job.
I'm really proud of the evolution of the team over
the last few years bringing the customers to the center
(13:25):
of what we're trying to do right and help them.
So you see that quite a bit. What our team
has really been focused on has been on that engagement improvement,
so building out systems so that we can respond faster,
move to being proactive versus reactive to events that happen
in the movement of money. You know, fraud is a
(13:47):
big issue that we're all combating. We've made some choices
to speed things up, but also do it in a
way that the payments remain safe and people can have
trust that the money's getting to where they think it's
going and executing a transaction at a high level. So
I feel very good about the energy that the team
(14:09):
has poured into improving experiences for consumers and merchants, and
I think we've really come a long way in that regard.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Well, just a moment, I'm going to talk to you
about leadership and ask you a few things about that,
because I think it's important in this series. But I
also want to talk about communication. And I talk to
a lot of CEOs. Whether it's a medium, large, small company,
doesn't matter what the size, is about making sure that
the mission, the vision, and all the communication that you
need to do for your team members is funnel down
(14:38):
and you have a pretty big wide net that you
cast with all your clients out there. So when it
comes to communication with you and your team members the
execution and also making sure that the company's always getting better.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
How do you do that well, it's a great question, Dennis.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
I think one of the things that you learn over
the years is just that you can't communicate enough. It
can't be just in one format, So you have to
be aware that people absorb information differently, and so it's
really important to kind of layer out your communication and
(15:13):
do it in a variety of different ways. So internally,
we do a lot to make sure people understand why
we made decisions and how we made those decisions. I've
always believed in just being transparent about those things, and
it's really kind of helped. You may not agree with
like how I got or what I ultimate decision was,
(15:35):
but you always understand how I got there. And because
I'm always been very transparent about just saying here's the
fact pattern that I had, this is what led me
to that decision, and I found that to be very helpful.
We do a tremendous amount, whether it be town halls
or roundtables and off site meetings with our teams to
(15:56):
make sure that we all are bought in on what
the vision is, how we're executing against that vision where
we stand.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
What needs to be worked on, and I think.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
That's really been successful because of the team is willing
to do that and willing to take the time to
invest in the others within the organization and really take
time explaining what we're trying to do.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
You know, Bruce, there is one thing that really caught
my attention that I have subscribed to a long time
ago after I learned a hard lesson as a young manager,
and you were talking specifically about this, and I think
this is a good lesson for anybody, whether you're going
to be a future leader or you're a current leader.
And I think that people appreciate in the end being
appropriately candidate and just giving them the truth, because if
(16:42):
you start dancing around things, it muddles things up and
it puts everybody in trouble. So that's something that I
want to make sure that you kind of expounded on
a little bit, because in the end, I think people
just want the truth, whether they like it or not,
so they can move on with things and know exactly
and how their leader stands.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Yeah, I think it's just important.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
And again for me, that's always worked, and I don't
know if that's because of the being counter in me
that just wanted to share the numbers and say, look,
this is what I'm looking at. So obviously I'm a
very data centric person, but I have just found that
it's massively helpful if you just are open about it.
(17:21):
Everybody understands here's where we sit, these are the decisions
we're facing, and this is you know, how I got
to where we got through. And so I think that's
really just something I was just speaking yesterday at the
University of North Florida as something I mentioned there as
well as just this is really important as you're coming out.
(17:42):
These are all young kids coming out and starting their career.
Transparency is so important to build trust with your team,
and you can get through a lot if you have
trust with your team.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Yeah, I couldn't have said it better. I really appreciate that.
And I think this is a good segue to talk
a little bit about leadership and once again, and we
have so many leaders that listen to this series, Bruce,
but also a lot of future leaders, and I know
that everybody's going to roll a little different when it
comes to what they think leadership is and then how
to execute it. But as I mentioned, the word leadership
to you and your team and in your life, how
do you execute it and what does the leadership mean
(18:15):
to you?
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Yeah, I think it's one of those questions that comes
up quite a bit, and I always go back early
on and I'll.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Share a brief story please.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Yeah, that my grandfather was, you know, older guy. I
was in high school and at the time, and its
story always just stuck with me, and that we went
over to see him. He was kind of restricted to
bed at the time, and I was just a young kid,
(18:47):
thought I was going to be captained of the football team.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
I didn't get it.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
I was like every eighteen year old kid, kind of
down in the dumps about you know, the plate that
I was now facing the horrors of not getting what
you wanted, and I never forget.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
He asked me why I was upset.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Now, this is a guy that was literally dying and
he was more worried about me and why I was upset.
And I shared with him that, you know, I didn't
get what I thought I was going to get and
he said, oh, he said, well, you know, when you
run out onto the field next week and you go
(19:27):
to practice, do you have to be captain?
Speaker 1 (19:30):
To be first.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
And I looked at him like he was, you know,
crazy old guy, and I said, well, no, of course,
you don't have to do that.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
And he said oh.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
He said, well, when you start doing all your drills,
I guess you have to be captain to go first there.
And I said, well, no, grandfather, I don't. I don't
have to be captain like whoever's first is first. And
he just said, well, you know, why not just be
first and and you can still lead like it didn't.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Matter, smart man.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
And I kept that my whole life, and it's really
served me well throughout my career because you didn't need
to be CEO to set the vision of what you
were trying to do or set the pace or cadence
of what the team was trying to accomplish. You just
had to be willing to step out there and give
(20:26):
direction and be willing to be accountable for what was happening.
And I really it's probably a silly story, but.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
I've not at all. I love that.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
I love that smary life and really grateful for that
little lesson.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Yeah, it's a great one too. And I think the
other thing, I'm sure you subscribe to this to Bruce,
We're all going to make mistakes. You are, I am,
your team members are, but I'm always that person to
see if you make a mistake or you trip up,
how do they respond, because that really, in the end,
is what it's all about. Is it to see if
some it can be a future leader or not?
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Absolutely?
Speaker 3 (21:02):
And you know, especially you know, I think back to
the startup days. It was all about a series of mistakes, right,
you know, we always used to talk about we were
just bumping into the wall looking for the crack to
run through. So it was just a series of mistakes
till you found something that worked. And it was all
about just being fast, make the mistake didn't matter, learned
(21:25):
something and move on and really have kept that and
that transferred whether I was in a startup or in
a super large company or in a company like here
at pay Safe.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
All right, well, let's do this. I really enjoyed the conversation.
I want to get some final thoughts from you, Bruce,
and then we're also going into the website. Anything else
you'd like to talk about as we wrap up, but
just maybe recap what we've chatted about the floors, your sir,
go ahead.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
Look, I appreciate the opportunity to be here. I think
you know, when we talk about pay safe, I would
just invite and anybody who's interested to come check out
pasafe dot com. We're always hiring, so please feel free
to reach out. We love creative people that are curious,
(22:13):
want to learn and try to be something part of
something that's special, and I think that's really what we're
focused on here, is creating a world class payments organization.
So we want to be part of our communities. We
want to be good corporate citizens, and we're looking for
all great people, So please feel free to reach out
and we'd love to chat with you.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
At Stanley Bruce, I can't tell you how much I
appreciate your time. I'm glad we could feature you on
CEOs you should Know. Continued success and thanks again.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Well, thank you, I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Our community partner, M and T Bank supports CEOs you
should Know is part of their ongoing commitment to building
strong communities, and that starts by backing the businesses within them.
As a Bank for Communities, M and T believes in
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Because when businesses succeed, our communities succeed
M and T Bank preson CEOs. You should know.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Riven by Western Transportation Group and iHeart Media. Let's meet
Bruce Lothers. He is the CEO for Pace, a big
global payment network that provides online and in person payment
solutions for both customers and businesses. Before we talk more
about Bruce's company, I first asked him to talk a
little bit about himself, where he's from and his origin story.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
I grew up in a city just outside of Boston
called Everett and went to college at the University of
Massachusetts Lowell.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
So a proud river.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Hawk, outstanding and when it came to school, what did
you want to do and what did you do when
you went out there in the real world.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Yeah, that's interesting. So my godfather, my uncle, was a
big influence in my life and I wanted to be
just like him as probably many kids growing up do,
and wanted to be an engineer. I started out in
engineering and college and then somehow made the transition into accounting,
(01:05):
and at my uncle's influence, it was really very instrumental
and kind of the decisions I was making at the
time back then, and he was very bullish on accounting
for some reason and got me to switch into that,
and I went into a career of public accounting, which
(01:26):
really set me up in a lot of ways for
success in my career and was really foundational for me
of understanding how financial statements work.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Well, the pieces of the puzzle are coming together for
me because as I took a look at your resume
and why you're explaining your engineering and your accounting. That
leads right into paysafe, and we're going to ask about
mission and vision and all the great things and capabilities
and programs that you offer your clients. But I'm curious
about joining the company as CEO. And obviously I can
see why the company paysafe was interested in you, but
(01:59):
why were you into sitting and joining them after all
the things that you had done.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Yeah, I was very fortunate in my career that started,
as I mentioned as CPA and worked at Deloitte and
Ernst and Young really loved it. Went into, like so
many people do, into the startup world, where I had
a client that had some technology that led me to
(02:22):
four startups, the last one being acquired by a company
called FIS, which really at the time was a mid
size company. We were about three billion in revenue, and
over the next fifteen years, I had the opportunity to
do a lot of different things at that company, and
(02:44):
then ultimately became president of the company, running the company
at a fifteen a little over fifteen billion dollar revenue company.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
So I had the opportunity to do things really small.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
From you know, right off, as the story goes, I
was right off the kitchen table to a fifteen billion dollar,
seventy thousand employee company. And it was really at that
time that I had the opportunity to say, well, Okay,
that's probably doesn't sound great, but I was getting older,
(03:17):
and so I had the opportunity to say, well, how.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Do I want to end up my career, my corporate career?
Speaker 3 (03:22):
And I decided that after a lot of discussion, talking
with my wife and just thinking it through, that I
really wanted to get back to building something. And that
really led me to the opportunity at pay Safe. They
had gone public. They had had some troubles posts going
(03:44):
public from a series of macroeconomic issues that really put
the company in dress, and it seemed like it wud
be a great challenge to see if I could come
in and help turn the company around and set the
company up for successes and then you know, be able
to go on to whatever's next. For me at that point,
(04:07):
but I had never done kind of a turnaround before,
and I was intrigued whether.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Our team would be able to do.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
That outstanding well. One of the common themes we have
in the series is that challenges ahead of entrepreneurs out there,
and if you do me a favor and indulging me
just for a second before we talk specifically about pay
sape Bruce, because we do have a lot of current
CEOs and leaders, but we also have a lot of
future entrepreneurs that are listening to this series and seeing
how everybody has done it. Now, I realized that your
journey is very specific to you, but in general terms
(04:39):
when it comes to startups, what are the exciting things
about that? But what are also the pitfalls? Because I
know there's both.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Yeah, there's a lot of exciting things about it. I
think for me, what I realized later on, you know,
I wasn't dialed into kind of how I was thinking
about it as I was doing it, but it really
started with trying.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
To help people.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
I think as I've gone back and reflected on it,
and I think about the products that we created. It
was really about going to friends and saying, Hey, what
are the challenges that you're having, and then we built
things to solve for that problem. And then we sold
that company, we went to the next one, and I
always joke I wasn't smart enough to just come up
(05:23):
with a cool new product. I just went back out
and asked people, Hey, what do you need? What are
you struggling with, and then tried to solve that. And
so that really has kind of been the key to
success for us. As we came into these things, we
did have thought process around being in particular verticals things
that were things we felt good about. Fintech for me,
(05:46):
was always one that I loved because of just a
pace of change. It was really dynamic space and you
were really only limited by your own emanation, and so
that was really something that was very attractive to me.
Is to have the opportunity to go in work with people,
help them make their lives better and just a little
(06:07):
bit on an every single day basis. And that's what
we've really tried to do and still trying to do
it all these years later.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Well, I appreciate you sharing that, and as you tell
that story, it always reminds me, whether it's my career
in sports with television, radio or what you do. There's
a couple things that come to mind. Crowdsourcing people to
find out what they want and then to making their
lives a little bit better, a little easier, and that
really can go for any business model, can it?
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Sure, Ken, and it can take you a long way, right.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
I think it's one of the great things about what
people do is really taking the opportunity to help a person,
a business, a community, and I think if he keeps
that at the heart of things, things generally work out
pretty well.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
All right, Well, let's talk about pace Safe and all
the incredible things that are going on before we get
into programs, capabilities and all the cool products you have.
I do want to talk about mission and vision because
I know they're always important leaders out there and your
team members too. So when I ask you about mission
and vision when it comes to pay Safe, what are
those Yeah?
Speaker 1 (07:06):
For us?
Speaker 3 (07:06):
As I came in, we really tried to hone in
on what was going to be important for us, and
a lot of when you're doing starting these companies or
taking over a company, it's about galonizing people around a
particular mission for us. We really looked at the experiential economy.
When you look at what pay safe does, eighty percent
(07:30):
of our business was in verticals that would be defined
as experiential economy, so this is gaming, restaurants, travel, those
kind of verticals. So it was a natural place to say, Okay,
these are the verticals we're really going to focus in
on this experiential economy and we want to be a leader,
global leader in that in that space, and so that
(07:53):
really became something that we've centered on. We talk about
it every day in what we're doing and how do
we get better? And again you'll see the theme there
of how do I make people's lives a little better
in every day, So whether it's buying that next skin
for your video game or having the enjoyment of buying
(08:18):
a ticket for a game that you're going to take
your family to and creating those wonderful memories, that's where
we're trying to focus.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Very good, well, Bruce, let's do this. There's a lot
of people that know what paysafe does and is, but
there's a lot of our listeners are being introduced to
the company for the first time. So if you were
to give kind of a thirty thousand foot view and
a short version to tell them this is what we do.
What would you tell them?
Speaker 3 (08:40):
I would tell you that we are a global payments provider.
We do business in over one hundred different countries. The
business is actually quite simple. We have a merchant acquiring business,
which that's where we process payments. If you go into
any store and you use your debit card or credit card,
where the people that process those payments for that retailler,
(09:02):
whether that's online or physically in a storefront. The second
part of our business is really a digital wallet business,
and so this is really a consumer centric wallet, much
like PayPal or any of your probably every consumers get
at least five different wallets on their phone. We would
(09:24):
be one of those, and that is predominantly in Europe
and most recently we just launched a national wallet in
Peru called Pago Effectivo and so very very excited about
that recent launch. That's really what we do, payment processing
for merchants and moving money for consumers, allowing people to
(09:46):
buy what they want to buy, to create great memories.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
And without any assumptions that there are other companies that
do exactly what you your team and pay Safe do.
How do you differentiate yourself from said competition.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
I think a couple of is one.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
We're twenty nine years old and we really have created
a tremendous risk framework. So in our business, there's a
tremendous amount of regulatory changes that happen. There's a lot
of licensing that's required to actual process payments and move
money around the globe, and we've kind of led in
(10:22):
that area. So that really creates a mode around the
business of what we do and how we do it.
I think also our distribution channels really set us apart.
When you look in Europe, for example, we have over
a million storefronts that you can go in with our
pay Safe card and use that, and there's not a
(10:42):
lot of people out there that have a million storefronts
where you can go buy something or use a product.
So that distribution channel and scale that we have in
the US on our merchant acquiring side is really what
sets us apart.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
You know what technology and the world we're living in
right now. Things are moving very quickly and the company
is doing well, But are there any current challenges for you,
your team members, and your clients right now that you're
working through.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
I think in our business is kind of I alluded
to you earlier with fintech, there's a lot of changes
that they're always going on, right, So there's always the
regulatory change is happening. I think now as I think
about it versus earlier in my career, you're just seeing
the pace of play be much faster. So the regulatory changes,
(11:32):
technology changes, really consumer behavior is changing at a lightning
pace compared to what it was ten, fifteen, twenty years ago.
I think those are really the three common things that
I see. It doesn't really matter whether you're in Europe
or the US or Latin America. Those things are the
(11:53):
things that really create a lot of challenges for anybody.
And probably the fourth we'd add is just the more
recently is probably just the geopolitical pressures that every CEO
faces on a daily basis now. And I think in
(12:14):
all of the CEO meetings that I have, geopolitics always
seems to come up. Of late, there was always those
three of regulatory, tech, and consumer behavior, and now I
would say the geopolitics is coming up more and more so.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Bruce, one of my favorite questions in this series is
talking about the cool things that happen out there with
your clients and making a difference. And my question to
you as well, I'm sure you've got handfuls of different stories.
Whether it's a small, medium, large business or a client.
It's about you know, this is why we get up
every day kind of thing because we're making a difference.
Is there a story that you can share with us
and you don't have to mention the client or the person,
(12:51):
just something that you know, we really we made it.
We made a difference at day, the team and I
did and it turned out really well for them and
it was really cool. And this is why we get up.
You have a short story you can share with us.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
I think we have those stories every day, right.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
So there's always a consumer that has run into problems
one way or another and either the money didn't get
to where they thought it was going to get to
or and our team has really done a great job.
I'm really proud of the evolution of the team over
the last few years bringing the customers to the center
(13:25):
of what we're trying to do right and help them.
So you see that quite a bit. What our team
has really been focused on has been on that engagement improvement,
so building out systems so that we can respond faster,
move to being proactive versus reactive to events that happen
in the movement of money. You know, fraud is a
(13:47):
big issue that we're all combating. We've made some choices
to speed things up, but also do it in a
way that the payments remain safe and people can have
trust that the money's getting to where they think it's
going and executing a transaction at a high level. So
I feel very good about the energy that the team
(14:09):
has poured into improving experiences for consumers and merchants, and
I think we've really come a long way in that regard.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Well, just a moment, I'm going to talk to you
about leadership and ask you a few things about that,
because I think it's important in this series. But I
also want to talk about communication. And I talk to
a lot of CEOs. Whether it's a medium, large, small company,
doesn't matter what the size, is about making sure that
the mission, the vision, and all the communication that you
need to do for your team members is funnel down
(14:38):
and you have a pretty big wide net that you
cast with all your clients out there. So when it
comes to communication with you and your team members the
execution and also making sure that the company's always getting better.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
How do you do that well, it's a great question, Dennis.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
I think one of the things that you learn over
the years is just that you can't communicate enough. It
can't be just in one format, So you have to
be aware that people absorb information differently, and so it's
really important to kind of layer out your communication and
(15:13):
do it in a variety of different ways. So internally,
we do a lot to make sure people understand why
we made decisions and how we made those decisions. I've
always believed in just being transparent about those things, and
it's really kind of helped. You may not agree with
like how I got or what I ultimate decision was,
(15:35):
but you always understand how I got there. And because
I'm always been very transparent about just saying here's the
fact pattern that I had, this is what led me
to that decision, and I found that to be very helpful.
We do a tremendous amount, whether it be town halls
or roundtables and off site meetings with our teams to
(15:56):
make sure that we all are bought in on what
the vision is, how we're executing against that vision where
we stand.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
What needs to be worked on, and I think.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
That's really been successful because of the team is willing
to do that and willing to take the time to
invest in the others within the organization and really take
time explaining what we're trying to do.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
You know, Bruce, there is one thing that really caught
my attention that I have subscribed to a long time
ago after I learned a hard lesson as a young manager,
and you were talking specifically about this, and I think
this is a good lesson for anybody, whether you're going
to be a future leader or you're a current leader.
And I think that people appreciate in the end being
appropriately candidate and just giving them the truth, because if
(16:42):
you start dancing around things, it muddles things up and
it puts everybody in trouble. So that's something that I
want to make sure that you kind of expounded on
a little bit, because in the end, I think people
just want the truth, whether they like it or not,
so they can move on with things and know exactly
and how their leader stands.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Yeah, I think it's just important.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
And again for me, that's always worked, and I don't
know if that's because of the being counter in me
that just wanted to share the numbers and say, look,
this is what I'm looking at. So obviously I'm a
very data centric person, but I have just found that
it's massively helpful if you just are open about it.
(17:21):
Everybody understands here's where we sit, these are the decisions
we're facing, and this is you know, how I got
to where we got through. And so I think that's
really just something I was just speaking yesterday at the
University of North Florida as something I mentioned there as
well as just this is really important as you're coming out.
(17:42):
These are all young kids coming out and starting their career.
Transparency is so important to build trust with your team,
and you can get through a lot if you have
trust with your team.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Yeah, I couldn't have said it better. I really appreciate that.
And I think this is a good segue to talk
a little bit about leadership and once again, and we
have so many leaders that listen to this series, Bruce,
but also a lot of future leaders, and I know
that everybody's going to roll a little different when it
comes to what they think leadership is and then how
to execute it. But as I mentioned, the word leadership
to you and your team and in your life, how
do you execute it and what does the leadership mean
(18:15):
to you?
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Yeah, I think it's one of those questions that comes
up quite a bit, and I always go back early
on and I'll.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Share a brief story please.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Yeah, that my grandfather was, you know, older guy. I
was in high school and at the time, and its
story always just stuck with me, and that we went
over to see him. He was kind of restricted to
bed at the time, and I was just a young kid,
(18:47):
thought I was going to be captained of the football team.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
I didn't get it.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
I was like every eighteen year old kid, kind of
down in the dumps about you know, the plate that
I was now facing the horrors of not getting what
you wanted, and I never forget.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
He asked me why I was upset.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Now, this is a guy that was literally dying and
he was more worried about me and why I was upset.
And I shared with him that, you know, I didn't
get what I thought I was going to get and
he said, oh, he said, well, you know, when you
run out onto the field next week and you go
(19:27):
to practice, do you have to be captain?
Speaker 1 (19:30):
To be first.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
And I looked at him like he was, you know,
crazy old guy, and I said, well, no, of course,
you don't have to do that.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
And he said oh.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
He said, well, when you start doing all your drills,
I guess you have to be captain to go first there.
And I said, well, no, grandfather, I don't. I don't
have to be captain like whoever's first is first. And
he just said, well, you know, why not just be
first and and you can still lead like it didn't.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Matter, smart man.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
And I kept that my whole life, and it's really
served me well throughout my career because you didn't need
to be CEO to set the vision of what you
were trying to do or set the pace or cadence
of what the team was trying to accomplish. You just
had to be willing to step out there and give
(20:26):
direction and be willing to be accountable for what was happening.
And I really it's probably a silly story, but.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
I've not at all. I love that.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
I love that smary life and really grateful for that
little lesson.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
Yeah, it's a great one too. And I think the
other thing, I'm sure you subscribe to this to Bruce,
We're all going to make mistakes. You are, I am,
your team members are, but I'm always that person to
see if you make a mistake or you trip up,
how do they respond, because that really, in the end,
is what it's all about. Is it to see if
some it can be a future leader or not?
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Absolutely?
Speaker 3 (21:02):
And you know, especially you know, I think back to
the startup days. It was all about a series of mistakes, right,
you know, we always used to talk about we were
just bumping into the wall looking for the crack to
run through. So it was just a series of mistakes
till you found something that worked. And it was all
about just being fast, make the mistake didn't matter, learned
(21:25):
something and move on and really have kept that and
that transferred whether I was in a startup or in
a super large company or in a company like here
at pay Safe.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
All right, well, let's do this. I really enjoyed the conversation.
I want to get some final thoughts from you, Bruce,
and then we're also going into the website. Anything else
you'd like to talk about as we wrap up, but
just maybe recap what we've chatted about the floors, your sir,
go ahead.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
Look, I appreciate the opportunity to be here. I think
you know, when we talk about pay safe, I would
just invite and anybody who's interested to come check out
pasafe dot com. We're always hiring, so please feel free
to reach out. We love creative people that are curious,
(22:13):
want to learn and try to be something part of
something that's special, and I think that's really what we're
focused on here, is creating a world class payments organization.
So we want to be part of our communities. We
want to be good corporate citizens, and we're looking for
all great people, So please feel free to reach out
and we'd love to chat with you.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
At Stanley Bruce, I can't tell you how much I
appreciate your time. I'm glad we could feature you on
CEOs you should Know. Continued success and thanks again.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Well, thank you, I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Our community partner, M and T Bank supports CEOs you
should Know is part of their ongoing commitment to building
strong communities, and that starts by backing the businesses within them.
As a Bank for Communities, M and T believes in
dedicating time, talent, and resources to help local businesses thrive.
Because when businesses succeed, our communities succeed
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