Elavon Picks BofA Vet Wally Mlynarski as CEO

Wally Mlynarski has been tapped to serve as its chief executive, Elavon announced in a news release Wednesday (March 18).

According to the release, Mlynarski joins Elavon from Bank of America, where he oversaw merchant services and receivables. He had spent seven years with U.S. Bank supporting Elavon, the company said, in leadership roles that included chief product officer.

“Wally’s extensive industry expertise will play a critical role in our continued growth as we deliver scalable, tech-led and embedded payments innovation for businesses of all sizes,” said Mark Runkel, U.S. Bank’s head of payments: merchants and institutional.

“His visionary leadership — combined with his deep understanding of our business — positions Elavon to continue helping customers solve their most complex payment challenges.”

Mlynarski succeeds Jamie Walker, who is transitioning to head U.S. Bank’s newly created digital assets and money management division after serving as Elavon chief since 2017.

“I am honored to return to Elavon and help advance its position as a leading provider of premier payment experiences for our clients,” Mlynarski said. “Elavon’s commitment to delivering innovative solutions in a rapidly evolving environment empowers businesses to grow, support their customers and deliver superior service through advanced payments technology.”

Elavon recently joined forces with Microsoft to introduce Elavon Live Payments, a payments app that lets users quickly create and send invoices while allowing for PCI-compliant and secure payment processing, as well as real-time payment notifications and tracking.

As noted here last year, Elavon is the rare payment processor that is wholly owned by a bank, meaning that commercial clients accessing the full suite of services (combining U.S. Bank and Elavon’s offerings) can receive funds the same day and/or embed point-of-sale lending to reach customers that may not have been accessible otherwise.

In an interview with PYMNTS, Jordan Owen, the company’s head of merchant business banking, said broadening payments acceptance across credit and debit cards and letting firms integrate digital wallets levels the playing field between bigger enterprises and small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

“What it all comes down to is making sure that these merchants have the optimal setup to have payments work in the background — so that they can in turn go and run their businesses,” Owen said.