Dive Brief:
- MoneyGram International has named Anthony Soohoo to the money transfer company’s CEO post, replacing Alex Holmes, effective immediately, it said in a press release Monday.
- Soohoo was an executive vice president for retail behemoth Walmart’s home division until January of last year, according to his LinkedIn profile. He also previously held top executive posts at broadcast network CBS and Yahoo, as well as a management role at tech giant Apple early in his career.
- “MoneyGram is at a pivotal moment in its journey to make secure and reliable financial services accessible for more customers across the globe, and Anthony is the right leader with the unique expertise needed to oversee the Company’s next chapter of growth,” the company said in the release.
Dive Insight:
MoneyGram is changing its CEO just weeks after a cyberattack led to a systemwide shutdown of its international money transfer services for about five days last month.
MoneyGram disclosed that sensitive customer data had been stolen during the attack. Meanwhile, some customers were left wondering about the fate of their money transfers as MoneyGram worked through a backlog of orders.
A spokesperson for the company said by email that the CEO switch wasn’t connected to last month’s outage. “This announcement is not related to the recent cyber issue,” the spokesperson said. “The leadership transition is the result of a several-months long process led by the MoneyGram Board of Directors.”
The spokesperson declined to provide an update on the cyberattack, or the impact from it.
“This leadership transition is the next step of the continued execution of our strategy to advance on our digital transformation, while capturing growth opportunities across our retail footprint,” the spokesperson said.
The company is one of the largest money transfer companies in the world, and one of the oldest, with roots reaching back about 80 years. It says some 50 million people in 200 countries and territories use its services every year to send $200 billion. In recent years, it has had to contend with a host of new digital competitors, including companies such as Remitly and Euronet Worldwide.
The company has had little to say publicly about the cyberattack, or the fallout from it, other than brief posts on the social media website X, formerly known as Twitter.
“MoneyGram is experiencing a network outage impacting connectivity to a number of our systems,” the company said on X after the attack. “We are working diligently to better understand the nature and the scope of the issue,” noting that it understood the “urgency” of the matter for its customers.
Its customers were quick to take to social media too, complaining about their wayward money transfers and inability to use the service. “Reporting Moneygram’s business practices to the @USAttorneys generals (sic) office for review,” one X user with the handle Ruben Ramirez said last month. “Please join me and hold this company accountable for compromising our sensitive data and misrepresentation.”
The company said last month that it was working with authorities on the matter.“We are working with leading external cybersecurity experts and coordinating with law enforcement,” the company said on X.
The Dallas-based remittance company segued from being a publicly-traded company to a privately-held one last year after announcing a $1.8 billion deal to sell itself to the Chicago private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners in 2022.
Holmes had been MoneyGram’s chairman and CEO since January 2016. The release didn’t say who will take his place as chairman of the board.
The company noted in the release that Soohoo was “an experienced technology executive with deep expertise leading digital transformations that enhance growth strategies.”
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