Solaris’ Roland Folz Joins CloudPay as New CEO

Payroll provider CloudPay has appointed Roland Folz as its new chief executive.

Folz, who had been CEO of financial services firm Solaris, will take up his new role immediately, CloudPay said in a news release Monday (Aug. 14).

“In his new role as CEO, Folz will lead CloudPay into the next phase of profitable growth following the successful expansion of the company in recent years,” the release said. “Together with the board and leadership team’s support the business will deliver a world-class, end-to-end pay experience for its global customers by turning pay from an operational function to a business advantage.”

In addition to his time with Solaris, Folz has held leadership roles at companies such as Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Telecom and Mercedes Benz Bank, where he spent four years as CEO.

“I am delighted to be joining CloudPay,” Folz said. “With our market leading portfolio of services, highly talented global team and impressive customer base of leading brands, we will continue to transform the payroll and payments market globally.”

Folz is taking the helm at CloudPay at a time when consumers are increasingly expecting their pay to arrive more quickly thanks to the advent of earned wage access (EWA).

“Just a few years ago, payday was a concrete date every two weeks, but now some employees can make it every single day,” PYMNTS wrote last month. “It is popular among those who have the opportunity, as 56% of those with EWA said they had used it.”

For employees, the benefits of EWA are clear, with nearly 75% of Americans saying they are stressed about their finances. Many live paycheck to paycheck and must rely on high-risk options like payday loans to deal with unexpected expenses. EWA does away with this need by ensuring that workers’ money is available as they need it.

Meanwhile, businesses are becoming more aware of EWA’s benefits. Nearly two-thirds said EWA can be a low-cost way of attracting and retaining employees, given its popularity among millennials. In addition, corporations that offered EWA said their employees approved of it, and that it helped them bring in new talent.

“If the work is now on-demand, then the worker must also now be paid on-demand — it’s got to be an on-demand equation from beginning to end,” Ingo Money CEO Drew Edwards told PYMNTS last year.

“To do the work and go back home, and then wait to get paid next Saturday, is not the way these workers think,” he added. “In the gig world, that offering means you won’t attract the driver, the web designer or the freelancer.”