Former Mastercard CEO and payments industry veteran Gilles Novel has joined mx51 as the company’s new director of product.
Novel brings more than two decades of experience in the payments industry to this role, most recently serving as Vice President/Head of Acceptance at Mastercard. Prior to that, Novel held senior payments roles at Verifone, Optus and Idemia (Morpho).
The appointment comes ahead of what is expected to be a year of major partnerships and growth for mx51. Since raising $32 million in 2022, the company is on track to double in size by key customer and financial metrics.
In his role as Chief Product Officer, Gilles will be responsible for defining and implementing the mx51 product vision and strategy.
Commenting on the appointment, Victor Zheng, CEO and co-founder of mx51 said: “With this appointment, mx51 now has one of the most experienced teams in the payments sector in Australia.”
“We welcome Gilles to the team. His extensive in-country payments experience will be instrumental in delivering on our planned partnerships and securing greater local market share, as well as expanding into other global markets.”
New mx51 Product Director Gilles Novel said: “It is exciting to join mx51 at such a significant stage in its growth. In such a short period of time, the company has grown from a startup to a force within the Australian payments sector.
“Given the caliber of payments industry talent within the company, it is an honor to be appointed to a leadership role at the company. I look forward to helping mx51 charge through the coming year and reach new levels of growth.”
mx51 enables banks, acquirers and merchants to stay ahead of the rapidly evolving changes in payment technology and consumer behavior. Its product serves two distinct markets. For banks and acquirers, the mx51 payment-as-a-service platform provides a future-proof payment solution that effectively leverages their existing legacy technology infrastructure.
Merchants, on the other hand, struggle with different payment technology solutions that don’t communicate with each other. mx51 addresses this pain point by integrating an ecosystem of embedded payments and value-added services into a unique white label merchant portal experience. The platform is regularly updated with new modules and capabilities, which combined with robust self-service features and deep customer insight enables banks and acquirers to consistently provide merchants with a best-in-class experience.