PayPal CTO Steps Down, Position To Be Split

After almost one year in the position, PayPal’s Chief Technology Officer James Barrese will resign effective April 1, ZDNet reported Monday (Feb. 8).

According to an SEC filing, after Barrese officially steps down, the responsibilities of the CTO position will be split between two current employees.

While Sri Shivananda, PayPal’s VP of Global Platform & Infrastructure will act as the new CTO, the “payment services functions” currently handled by Barrese will be handed over to PayPal’s Global Head of Product & Engineering, William Ready.

“I am very pleased to welcome Sri to our leadership team as our next CTO,” Dan Schulman, President and CEO of PayPal said in a statement.

“Sri has demonstrated outstanding leadership qualities and has been responsible for effectively running our critically important online payments systems around the world. He has the right skillset to allow us to remain at the forefront of innovation in the payments industry.”

There is no indication as to why Barrese is leaving or why the duties of the CTO role are now being split up.

Barrese, who currently serves as both CTO and SVP, Payment Services at PayPal, joined eBay in 2001 and moved to PayPal in 2011. Prior to PayPal’s split from its former parent company eBay, Barrese was appointed as CTO last March, ZDNet reported.

Schulman added, “James has made invaluable contributions to our organization including overseeing a transformation of PayPal’s technology platform, which strengthened our competitive advantages and helped pave the path for PayPal’s growth and success. As a result of his leadership, we have significantly improved our security and performance – all foundational to being a true global customer champion. We are grateful to James for the team he has built and his long-standing commitment to PayPal. We wish James all the best with his well-deserved time off.”