To insiders within the digital payments industry, Mark Healy is a familiar name tied to success, risk management, and global expansion across the fintech world. It’s also why Novatti Group (ASX: NOV) sought him to lead the Company into a new era of global payments growth where the Melbourne-based fintech has established a payments ecosystem designed to help businesses pay and be paid quickly and safely. 

The appointment of Healy as CEO comes after 12 months within Novatti where he was Executive General Manager of Payments. During this time, Healy’s team propelled Novatti’s payment processing capabilities with the Company on track to report more than $4 billion in expected annual gross transaction volume (GTV) for FY23, up from the previously reported annual figure of $2.3 billion. 

Driving Novatti’s GTV has been the establishment of Novatti’s ecosystem capabilities which now encompass cross border payments, merchant acquiring, card issuing, borderless banking, blockchain payments and alternative payments. Across their suite of products and platforms, Novatti has been at the forefront of the global transition towards a cashless economy. This trend was accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic as more merchants across Australia and New Zealand enlisted Novatti’s omni-channel payment solutions which cover online payment portals, POS devices or tap-to-pay Android tech. 

Prior to joining Novatti, Healy held senior leadership roles as Managing Director, Oceania of Global Payments Inc (a Fortune 500 company), Chief Operating Officer at Ezidebit and eWAY, and Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer for the Neovia Financial (now Paysafe) Group. 

Novatti Chairman, Peter Pawlowitsch, said: “I’m delighted to announce Mark as Novatti’s new CEO. Mark already has extensive experience within the business and broader payments industry, which will be invaluable as Novatti continues its growth. 

“I would particularly like to acknowledge the structured and orderly transition delivered by Novatti’s management team to complete this appointment.”

Healy’s appointment will see him take over the role from co-founder Peter Cook who established Novatti in 2015, having pioneered many telecommunications and payments services in Australia. The business then evolved into remittance services before expanding into digital payments, culminating in the Company’s ASX listing in January 2016 as Novatti Group with Cook the inaugural CEO. 

Since listing, Cook oversaw the establishment of core partnerships with global payments companies including Visa Inc, Mastercard, Alipay, WechatPay, UnionPay, Ripple, Stellar, Apple, Samsung and Google amongst others. With these partnerships formed and facilitating Novatti’s suite of payment products backed by their regtech and compliance services, Healy was flagged internally as the leader to upscale the Novatti ecosystem to compete with global peers. 

“I’m very excited to be leading Novatti into the future. After many years of patient development, Novatti now has the ecosystem in place to achieve scalable growth,” said Healy. 

“The timing is perfect as the world continues to embrace digital payments. I look forward to continuing to execute the Company’s growth strategy and to delivering for shareholders.”

The appointment of Healy will be effective from 15 June 2023 with Cook transitioning to an Executive Director role where he will focus on Novatti’s Australian investments, sales and strategic relationships. As a significant shareholder of Novatti, Cook has also committed to retaining his shareholdings for at least 12 months where he is confident Healy’s standing within the digital payments industry will propel Novatti’s growth. 

“It has been an absolute privilege to work alongside an amazing team to build Novatti into a leading fintech. The building blocks are now in place to see Novatti scale to meet growing demand for digital payments,” said Cook. 

“I believe the Company’s most exciting years lay ahead, and will only be strengthened through Mark’s appointment.”

Keen to drive shareholder value under Healy’s leadership team which also includes newly appointed Chief Financial Officer, Dharsh Mendez, the Novatti Board of Directors have tied Healy’s incentive payments to Novatti’s share price performance. Key triggers can be met if NOV shares exceed $0.50, $0.75 and $1.00 over the next three years. Other incentives are also tied to merchant additions and active merchants using Novatti payment services.