FIS Hires Former Walgreens Exec James Kehoe as New CFO

FinTech giant FIS Global has announced the appointment of James Kehoe as its new chief financial officer (CFO), who began his new role Monday (Aug. 21).

Kehoe takes over from Erik Hoag, who ends his 16-year tenure but will remain with the company as a non-executive officer through the end of the year.

Commenting on the news in a Tuesday (Aug. 22) press release, FIS CEO and President Stephanie Ferris highlighted Kehoe’s accomplishments as an “internationally experienced CFO with a distinguished record of success.”

“As a results-driven leader, he brings a dynamic, forward-thinking mindset to create innovative business and financial strategies that unlock top- and bottom-line growth,” Ferris said. “We look forward to working with James to advance our strategic roadmap and achieve our long-term objectives.”

Kehoe, who previously served as CFO and senior corporate leader at several large and international public companies, held the position of executive vice president and global CFO at Walgreens Boots Alliance prior to joining FIS. He has also and served as global CFO and a board director for Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, the largest Japanese pharmaceutical company.

Kehoe joins the global financial services technology at a time when the rising interest rate environment is creating increased competition for deposits, resulting in consistent demand for balance sheet and treasury management solutions, Ferris said on a Aug. 2 call with analysts to discuss FIS’ second-quarter earnings results.

Ferris also acknowledged a “secular shift towards digital that has permeated money movement broadly” on the call, adding that for banks to enable that money movement, there’s a constant need to embrace next-generation cloud-native technology with modernized digital user interfaces.

“The competitive lines are blurring as upstart FinTechs, global technology companies, and even retailers encroach on the traditional banking landscape with digital-first offerings,” she said.

The Q2 results also come ahead of FIS’ pending sale of a stake in Worldpay that showed increasing demand from banks to digitize their services and capture accounts.

Hoag, still CFO at the time, explained that backlog has remained stable and is underpinning revenue growth. Worldpay revenue increased 1% organically with “similar sub-segment trends” seen within FIS, he said.