PayPal, the leading online payment service in Australia and a pioneer of secure online transactions, today announces the appointment of Elena Wise as its new Head of Merchant Services.

Since 2005, PayPal’s merchant services division has grown ten-fold, with more than half of the top 100 Australian online retailers currently offering PayPal as a payment option.  Australian merchants currently offering PayPal include JB Hi-Fi, Big W, Roses Only, Dick Smith Electronics, Hoyts, Borders, Flight Centre, DealsDirect, Optus and Telstra.

Commenting on her new role, Elena said: “I am delighted to be joining PayPal at this exciting period of merchant acquisition and product innovation.  Aside from managing our growth, the main priority of my role will be to continue to provide PayPal’s 30,000 current Australian merchant partners, both big and small, with a secure and innovative online payments solution and to help grow their eCommerce offerings.”

“As more Australian businesses develop their online offerings to drive business growth both locally and internationally, PayPal enables merchants of all sizes to transact online in a safe and secure way.  I look forward to working with the team to bring the PayPal solution to new Australian merchants,” said Elena.

Elena brings with her a wealth of experience, having joined PayPal Australia from American Express, where she was Vice President, B2B, Asia Pacific and Japan.  In this role, which she held from 2005, Elena led the expansion of American Express into Business to Business payments in the Asia Pacific region.

Between 2000 and 2004, Elena was Head of Interactive Services at American Express, also in Asia Pacific and Japan, where she was the strategic lead on all interactive functions for the merchant business in the Japan Asia Pacific region.

Frerk-Malte Feller, Managing Director, PayPal Australia said: “We are delighted to have Elena on board.   We are committed to representing the interests of our 3 million active customer accounts in Australia, by improving and growing the number of Australian merchants using PayPal.”

“Elena will help us to continue to offer our merchants the ability to easily provide customers the benefits of a safe and secure payment service.  As more Australian businesses build their presence online, we are confident of the future growth of our merchant services division.”