Marqeta taps ex-VISA Mike Milotich as CFO as card issuer grows on crypto

Rick Steves

“Having spent the last ten years at Visa, I had a front row seat to the rise of Marqeta and the innovations they’ve opened up globally with their modern card issuing platform.”

Marqeta has appointed Mike Milotich as Chief Financial Officer, replacing outgoing CFO Tripp Faix who has decided to step down to spend more time with family after three and a half years in his role.

Mike Milotich joins Marqeta after a decade-long tenure at Visa in various financial leadership positions, most recently serving as Senior Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Finance.

He is a 20-year industry veteran with experience in corporate finance, the majority of which falls in payments and financial services. He has also held leadership positions at American Express and PayPal.

Scale and opportunity in global money movement

Mike Milotich, Chief Financial Officer at Marqeta, said: “Having spent the last ten years at Visa, I had a front row seat to the rise of Marqeta and the innovations they’ve opened up globally with their modern card issuing platform. After spending time with Jason and the executive team, I was impressed by both how well they’d scaled to date and the massive opportunity in global money movement that lies ahead of them. I look forward to joining the team and helping to guide the next chapter of the company’s growth.”

Jason Gardner, Founder and CEO at Marqeta, commented: “After a thorough executive search, it was clear that Mike’s deep payments experience makes him an excellent fit for Marqeta. He has a keen appreciation for the possibilities in front of us as a company. We look forward to welcoming him to the Marqeta community. On behalf of our board, leadership team, and all Marqetans, I want to thank Tripp for his tireless dedication to Marqeta and the instrumental role he had in putting a corporate foundation in place that guided us through our IPO and two major private fundraising rounds. He will always be a friend, and we wish him all the best in his future endeavors.”

The card issuing platform has garnered much attention from the cryptocurrency space as the emerging ecosystem looks to enable a seamless experience for consumers.

Marqeta is powering cryptocurrency spending and rewards products for Coinbase, Fold, Shakepay, and Bakkt, with the company seeing rising interest in new card products in this rapidly evolving category.

“To see such an impressive list of innovators turn to Marqeta to build out new crypto cards and reward programs shows the flexibility of our modern card issuing platform and our unique modern architecture, which can support entirely new card constructs and power their launch at scale”, said Randy Kern, Chief Technology Officer at Marqeta.

The use of cryptocurrencies has grown considerably in the United States and Marqeta opened up new applications of its platform, to allow cryptocurrency to be spent at the point of sale, or allow consumers to earn rewards in cryptocurrency from debit and credit card spending.

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