ON Partners Recruits Chief Revenue Officer for ConnexPay
October 4, 2023 – ON Partners has assisted in the recruitment of George Hansen as the new chief revenue officer for ConnexPay in Minneapolis, MN. Partners Jake Espenlaub and Tara Flickinger led the assignment. “Throughout his career, George has demonstrated an unwavering focus on what is at the core of revenue growth: the customer,” said Bob Kaufman, founder and CEO at ConnexPay. “This customer-centric approach and his extensive industry experience make him a great fit for our organization, and we’re pleased to welcome him on our journey to transform business by simply connecting payments.”
“George’s appointment comes during an exciting time of international expansion for ConnexPay,” Mr. Kaufman said. “We’ve worked closely with our key partners to ensure that we are delivering exactly what the market needs, and George’s global perspective will prove invaluable as we continue to grow our reputation as the go-to payments partner of choice.”
Mr. Hansen brings over 20 years of strategic expertise in the payments industry to ConnexPay, having previously served as head of global sales and account management at PayPal. During his most recent tenure at PayPal, he focused on various aspects of the fintech ecosystem, including payments, cards, mobile wallets, payouts, FX/cross-border, risk, lending, and data services, driving revenue for the company through premier client partnerships across the business life cycle.
As CRO at ConnexPay, Mr. Hansen will lead the company’s next phase of growth, working closely with the existing revenue teams to support the firm’s revenue goals. ConnexPay experienced remarkable expansion since securing a $110 million growth equity investment led by FTV Capital in October 2022. Currently processing billions in volume, the company recently extended its global footprint by introducing enhanced capabilities to better serve the U.K. and E.U. markets, further supporting the company’s international growth. ConnexPay anticipates doubling revenue this year, following 500 percent net revenue growth in 2022.
“As the world economy shifts online, digital innovation is key to acquiring and retaining customers, and businesses of all sizes are demanding modernized payments to address their needs in the market,” said Mr. Hansen. “Through their proprietary end-to-end payments platform, ConnexPay is uniquely positioned to eliminate the burden of legacy technology and enable businesses to accept and make payments at scale, globally.”
“Technology has not only created a paradigm shift in payments, but also in visibility and control,” he said. “Firms are looking at payments holistically, with pay-ins and pay-outs more closely linked now than ever before. The impact of technology and data on payments has reached a tipping point, and I am thrilled to be coming on board with ConnexPay at this important time.”
Serving Clients Since 2006
With a primary focus on technology, consumer, industrial, and the life science sectors, ON Partners recruits C-level and board talent for public and private companies, as well as venture capital and private equity firms. Founded in 2006, the firm’s consultants work from offices in Atlanta; Boston; Chicago; Cleveland; Dallas; Menlo Park, CA; Minneapolis. MN; San Francisco; and New York. ON Partners was named one of the fastest growing search firms this year by Hunt Scanlon Media. The firm is now ranked as one of the 20 largest search firms in the nation.
Related: ON Partners Recruits Chief Revenue Officer for StarCompliance
Mr. Espenlaub serves the software, E-commerce, consumer, digital, and retail industries. Organizations he serves include public, private equity, and growth equity organizations with a focus on digital transformation. The functions he serves include go-to-market, product, technology, digital, and customer experience. Previously, he ran the technology practice at the Benefits Advisory Group.
Ms. Flickinger focuses on C-level executives across functions in PE/VC, consumer technology, and industrial/manufacturing. Based in the ON Partners’ Atlanta office, she works closely with clients to understand their hiring needs and to ensure an efficient search process, said the firm.
Evolving Role
The chief revenue officer essentially owns everything that goes to market – sales, account management, customer success, and sometimes marketing as well, according to a recent report from ON Partners. Ten years ago, there was no such position as CRO. The role was known as head of global sales or VP of sales, depending on how companies defined the role. But as executives in that position continued to see other key functional experts reporting directly to the CEO, they wanted a seat at the executive table as well.
ON Partners Recruits Chief Revenue Officer for Seeq Corp.
Daniel Bolger and Jake Espenlaub of ON Partners have helped to place George Skaryak as chief revenue officer of Seeq Corp., a provider of manufacturing and industrial internet of things advanced analytics software. “This is an exciting time of growth for Seeq, and we’re thrilled to add a sales leader with a proven track record of growing SaaS businesses to bring more value to our customers,” said Lisa Graham, CEO at Seeq. “George’s rich background in enterprise sales and passion for hiring and training sales teams will be an invaluable addition to the executive team.”
According to ON Partners, the CRO role demands different skill-sets depending on the client. “For a smaller growth company, someone who thrives in an early-stage environment and enjoys building things from scratch – hiring, putting key tools and processes in place – requires a unique person who is good at the heavy lifting required to acquire market share and evangelize,” the firm said.
That person can be different from one needed by a more established company doing $10 million to $20 million per year in revenue, who understands how to improve on and tweak the work of his or her predecessor, according to ON Partners. For a $100 million-plus organization, the CRO needs to understand how to lead large teams in a complex, matrixed environment selling across multiple market segments on a global basis. That said, certain qualities remain consistent. Every CRO must know how to hire the right team, lead good people, and have a strong sense of how to build and scale a company.
Related: ON Partners Places Chief Revenue Officer for LastPass
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
