PayPal have announced that Bill Ready will quit PayPal at the end of 2019 to “pursue entrepreneurial interests outside the company”.
Bill Ready came to PayPal when eBay, who then owned PayPal, acquired Braintree where he was CEO. Bill has since held various Senior Vice President positions until ending up as Chief Operating Officer for PayPal for the past two years. As COO, Bill is responsible for product, technology and engineering at PayPal, as well as the end-to-end customer experiences for PayPal’s consumer, merchant, Braintree, Venmo, Paydiant and Xoom businesses. In addition, Bill is a senior member of PayPal’s executive team responsible for delivering on revenue and profit goals and key operational objectives for the company globally.
“Since joining PayPal six years ago, I have had the privilege of working alongside many incredibly talented people, and I am proud of what we as a leadership team have accomplished together. The transformative work we are doing has positioned PayPal for success well into the future. I am excited for PayPal’s future and committed to using the coming months to ensure a smooth transition, and support the great team we have at PayPal.”
– Bill Ready, COO, PayPal
This has come as a bit of a surprise in the payments industry where many viewed Bill Ready as a future PayPal CEO and the natural successor to Dan Schulman.
Bill will cease to be a company office as of the 15th of July, but his golden handshake package provides for severance benefits after his official departure on the 31st of December 2019. The package will include a cash payment of $1,500,000, accelerated vesting shares and a lump-sum payment of $24,000.
“Bill will always be an important part of the PayPal story. The Board and management team are grateful for his many contributions and for the customer focus, product excellence and culture of innovation he has helped to instill over the past six years. Bill will continue to work with key partners and our leadership team until the end of the year. I appreciate his commitment to PayPal and its future.”
– Dan Schulman, President and CEO, PayPal
