Payments company TodayPay, a Fintech developing Refunds as a Service, today appointed Visa executive Mike West as a strategic advisor. The announcement was made at the Consumer Electronics Show. West led Visa Direct’s international commercialization and network expansion by launching new use cases, payment capabilities and value-added services.
He joins TodayPay with more than 25 years of experience in payments, including senior roles at Visa, PayPal and American Express. West helped Visa Direct expand globally to more than eight billion card, account, and digital wallet endpoints, across 200 countries.
“Mike is a leading expert in the payments industry, product commercialization and go-to-market, and helping companies navigate the transition from market entry to global scale,” TodayPay founder and CEO Jeremy Balkin said. “We’re excited to leverage his breadth of experience and expertise to bring our innovative TodayPay suite of alternative refund solutions to merchants and consumers.”
“I built TodayPay because I’ve seen firsthand how the speed of a payment can change somebody’s life. There’s over a trillion dollars of value exchanged every year in the form of refunds, yet there’s been almost zero innovation in improving the refund customer experience. Mike will help us revolutionize the refunds experience for merchants.”
TodayPay said it decouples the refund, which is a payment solution, from the return, which is a logistics problem. Balkin said that helps merchants compete end-to-end on customer experience based on the speed of a payment instead of the speed of broken supply chains. For consumers, it means the ability to get paid instantly with multiple redemption choices.
“TodayPay is a revolutionary force for transforming the refunds process which is a trillion-dollar problem for retailers, e-commerce platforms, and marketplaces. TodayPay’s momentum and growth shows no signs of slowing,” said West. “I look forward to bringing my experience as a leader in the payments industry to a business that is establishing itself as a new market champion.”
West has more than 10 years of experience at Visa, most recently overseeing Visa Direct, a global real-time money movement platform and the launch of new products, use cases and growth of international markets. Prior to Visa, he spent four years leading product marketing at PayPal, where he supported the company’s successful launch of new digital payments solutions and services and subsequent rapid global expansion.
West holds an MBA from the University of New England, and a Corporate Finance Executive Program Diploma from London Business School.