Michele Shepard Joins as Chief Commercial Officer and Balaji Devarasetty Joins as Chief Technology Officer

Paya, a leading integrated payments and commerce solution provider, today announced the addition of Michele Shepard as Chief Commercial Officer and Balaji Devarasetty as Chief Technology Officer. With these leadership appointments, Paya continues to strengthen its position within integrated payments and enhance its go-to market strategy and solutions suite.

“The addition of Michele Shepard and Balaji Devarasetty to our executive team positions Paya to drive continued growth through accelerated innovation and expanded distribution of our leading, enterprise-grade integrated payments platform,” said Jeff Hack, Paya CEO. “The ability to attract this caliber of talent speaks to the momentum of our business and the enhanced brand visibility Paya has created since becoming a public company almost a year ago and will serve us well as we focus on expanding our leadership position within attractive end markets. Both Michele and Balaji have a proven track record of developing high performing talent and cultures, delivering exceptional results for both customers and shareholders,” Hack concluded.

As Chief Commercial Officer, Michele Shepard will focus on developing and executing forward-thinking customer engagement strategies across sales, marketing, and customer success. Michele’s previous experience includes leading high-performing sales, marketing, and business development teams, as well as developing and implementing successful go-to-market strategies at high growth vertical software companies Insurity and Vertafore. Michele also served as a senior sales leader at Gartner, focusing on tailoring sales to targeted vertical end markets.

In his role as Chief Technology Officer, Balaji Devarasetty will oversee product and platform development to support Paya’s growth trajectory. Most recently, Balaji was Head of Technology at Bakkt, a leading digital asset platform. Balaji’s previous experience includes leading high-growth financial technology and integrated payments teams and he served as the Chief Technology Officer for Integrated Payments at Vantiv.

Darrell Winfield, Paya’s Chief Information Officer, continues in his role, focusing on Paya’s long-term innovation agenda and product roadmap. Additionally, Darrell will take responsibility for further developing relationships with key clients and prospects across Paya’s verticals.

Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements made in this press release are "forward looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When used in this press release, the words “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “possible,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “would,” “will,” “approximately,” “shall” and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, conditions or results, and involve a number of known and unknown risks (such as Paya’s inability to achieve its growth objectives or integrate and benefit from new executives), as well as uncertainties, assumptions and other important factors, many of which are outside our control, that could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws.