PayPal’s Jim Magats Named CEO of MX

Open finance company MX has named former PayPal executive Jim Magats as its CEO.

Magats will begin his new role Aug. 17, following 18 years at PayPal, according to a Thursday (July 28) press release. He will also join the MX board of directors.

“Jim Magats brings a wealth of experience and knowledge about how to deliver high-impact financial solutions and products for consumers, merchants and financial organizations, along with a vast network of partners and customers at the world’s leading financial institutions and FinTechs,” said MX Founder and Executive Chairman of the Board Ryan Caldwell in the release.

Caldwell had been MX’s CEO until earlier this year, when he stepped down to spend more time with his daughter following the child’s heart transplant. Shane Evans, who had served as interim CEO, will remain with MX in an advisory role, the release stated.

Read more: SaaS Firm MX Names Interim CEO as Founder Transitions to Executive Chair

Magats’ most recent position with PayPal was as the company’s senior vice president for omni payments solutions, which involved overseeing the firm’s open banking strategy and solutions, as well as a partner network of more than 150 financial institutions (FIs) and networks, according to the release.

He also supervised the product and technology teams responsible for PayPal’s merchant-facing products, including Braintree and Zettle, as well as the payment platforms that power PayPal Check Out and Venmo, which process more than $1.2 trillion annually, the release stated.

“Financial data is the lifeblood of a connected economy, and nobody helps organizations access and act on financial data better than MX,” Magats said in the release. “Our opportunity to make financial data accessible and actionable is global, extends across verticals, and has the potential to make a positive difference in the lives of billions of people.”

Magats spoke about the value of data last year in a conversation with PYMNTS’ Karen Webster.

See more: PayPal’s Jim Magats Says SMBs Must Meet Customers Across Connected Economy’s ‘Four Domains’

Any business — big or small — needs to know who its end customers are, but that’s easier said than done, especially for smaller companies, which need to continuously fine-tune what they want to sell, to whom and how much inventory to have on hand, Magats said at the time.