Worldline‘s Board of Directors has announced that Gilles Grapinet will step down as CEO and leave the Board, effective 30 September.
The Board has appointed Marc-Henri Desportes, currently the Deputy CEO and Head of Merchant Services, as the interim CEO. In this role, Desportes will manage the company’s daily operations and execute the Board’s strategic decisions as part of the planned succession process.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Board, along with the Nomination Committee and an international search agency, will lead the search for a new CEO. They will evaluate both internal and external candidates.
Once appointed, the new CEO will collaborate with the Board to develop a strategic plan, which will be shared with the investment community at a suitable time. The capital market day, originally set for 26 November, has been postponed to allow the new CEO to take part in the strategic planning process.
Commenting on his time at Worldline, Grapinet said: “For more than a decade, it has been an honour for me to build Worldline as one of the leading players in the global digital payment industry, delivering on our strategic and technological vision to create a leading pan-European Paytech with global reach, to overcome the historical sector fragmentation and operate at the scale of the single market for the benefit of all our business partners.
“I express my deepest gratitude to all the stakeholders, in particular to all our managers and colleagues for their remarkable commitment, which made this achievement possible over these intense years.
“As Worldline enters a new phase, I am fully confident that Marc-Henri Desportes will pursue to successfully execute Power24 to adapt to the current challenges. By leveraging all its assets and talents, I am convinced that Worldline has a very solid future ahead.”
As Grapinet highlighted, Power24 is currently a major focus for the company. Announced in October 2023, Power24 aims to accelerate Worldline’s ongoing post-integration transformation efforts.
The initiative is centred around four key pillars, one of which focuses on transforming Worldline into a product-driven organisation. To support this goal, the company has entered into several partnerships and undertaken product upgrades throughout the year. For example, in January, Worldline enhanced its ‘Worldline Metaverse Shopping Hub’ on the Spatial platform, offering new options for merchants.
Wilfried Verstraete, Chairman of Worldline’s Board of Directors, commented: “On behalf of the Board of Directors and Group employees, I would like to thank the work performed by Gilles Grapinet as Chief Executive Officer of Worldline, moving the company forward as a leading global Paytech since its IPO, having provided the Group with a full pan-European footprint, a vast customer base and a unique network of strategic partnerships with leading financial institutions.
“Power24 and all our current major development initiatives will be pursued under the steer of Marc-Henri Desportes, whilst the next strategic plan of Worldline will be actively prepared to leverage all our remarkable assets for long-term development and strong value creation for all stakeholders.”
