PPRO, the leading provider of digital payments infrastructure, has appointed Lázaro Campos as its first Independent Chairman of the Board in efforts to strengthen its board and governance in the next phase of the company’s growth trajectory. Campos takes over from Tim van Delden, representative and Managing Partner of PPRO shareholder HPE Growth, who served as Chairman of the Board through the last stage of PPRO’s rise. Van Delden is now Vice Chairman of the Board. Campos was officially appointed Chairman on 25 April.

A payments infrastructure expert, Campos spent nearly 25 years at SWIFT, the world’s leading provider of secure financial messaging services, where he held numerous positions before serving as CEO.  His experience of leading and guiding large organisations will be invaluable to PPRO as the company scales up. A seasoned, non-executive director, Campos also holds board positions at Starling Bank, payments platform Payoneer, is an independent member of the Bank of England’s RTGS/CHAPS Board and Chairman of open banking platform DirectID.

“Lázaro is a highly respected and inspiring industry leader, bringing with him extensive, global payments infrastructure experience from leading SWIFT. His track record in global payments will be key in preparing us for the next stage in our evolution. I’m thrilled to have him steering the PPRO board as our first Independent Chairman and look forward to working with him,” said Simon Black, CEO of PPRO.

“Through holding numerous board positions, Lázaro also has deep knowledge of how to improve and optimise a board and make executive teams more effective. This complements his payments expertise and will help guide PPRO’s ambition to scale as the leading provider of digital payments infrastructure,” added van Delden.

Lázaro Campos commented on his new post: “Adding an Independent Chairman demonstrates that PPRO is serious about good governance and best practices, and I am excited to be contributing to the growth of such a pioneer in the digital payments infrastructure space. PPRO is perfectly positioned to solve cross-border complexity, increase access to the payment methods consumers need - wherever they are - and enable payment service providers, enterprises, fintechs and banks to expand to more markets and boost revenue.”