PayPal has named HP CEO Enrique Lores to its board. This positive turnabout follows a year of significant stock loss and poor quarterly earnings results. The firm’s macro outlook isn’t getting any easier. With changing consumer spending habits and market dynamics, it is this change in leadership.
In premarket trading on Tuesday, PayPal’s shares fell approximately 17.9%, reflecting investor concerns over the company’s recent performance. Lores now is at PayPal with the same task of rebooting its strategy and operations. He was President and CEO of HP for more than six years. Lores has been serving as the chair of PayPal’s board since July 2024, successfully transitioning that company to a new strategy before taking on this role.
Lores will succeed Alex Chriss, who in September 2023 moved to PayPal from Intuit, where he succeeded Dan Schulman. As Chriss departs, Jamie Miller—much lauded CFO and COO of the company—takes over on an interim basis as the new CEO. He’ll guide until Lores officially takes the reins.
The need for such a dramatic leadership transition comes as PayPal announced fourth quarter revenue and profit that was much lower than Wall Street estimates. These results have set off the alarms bells at the same time a wider cost-of-living crisis has taken a toll on consumer spending. The announcement is compounded by the company’s advanced prediction of a drop in full-year profit, catching investors off guard who had predicted a brighter projection.
PayPal indicated that the decision to bring on Lores was driven by the board’s assessment that the company’s pace of change and execution was “not in line with the Board’s expectations” in light of broader market trends.
In his statement announcing his new role, Lores said he looks forward to leading PayPal through “this transformative era.”
“The payments industry is changing faster than ever, driven by new technologies, evolving regulations, an increasingly competitive landscape, and the rapid acceleration of AI that is reshaping commerce daily. PayPal sits at the center of this change, and I look forward to leading the team to accelerate the delivery of new innovations and to shape the future of digital payments and commerce,” – Enrique Lores.
