Mike Duffy, President of Chase Paymentech, Dies at 54

Michael Duffy, president of Chase Paymentech, passed away Thursday night. He was 54.

Dan Charron, the executive vice president of client services, has assumed the role of acting head of the Dallas-based merchant acquirer subsidiary of JPMorgan Chase. It is unclear whether he will fill the role permanently.

Duffy "was a brilliant leader, pioneer in the payment industry and fierce competitor," Gordon Smith, JPMorgan Chase's CEO of consumer and community banking, wrote in a memo sent to employees Friday. "His passion and tenacity were exemplified in so many aspects of his life, from his battles against personal illness to how he led his team and established Paymentech as a global industry leader."

Charron, who worked with Duffy for 13 years and has previously stood in for him when he took time off for health reasons, "will be a terrific leader to honor Mike's legacy and continue Paymentech's special culture and remarkable growth," Smith wrote.

Duffy's career in the payments industry spanned 25 years. He served as chief operating officer and president and CEO of Paymentech prior to the company becoming a fully owned subsidiary of JPMorgan Chase in 2008.

Under Duffy's leadership, Paymentech became the first merchant acquirer to resell and fully integrate PayPal's online payment service onto its proprietary processing platform in 2005. The processor was an early adopter of other alternative payments methods, including those of the online credit provider Bill Me Later, later acquired by PayPal parent eBay in 2008 and Google Checkout, later combined with Google Wallet.

Before joining Paymentech, he was the chief financial officer of Litle & Co., which Paymentech acquired in 1995.

Charron has overseen Chase Paymentech's network of customer and business partner relationships and all related account executive teams and is also responsible for its enterprise business operations, including merchant boarding and retention and various help desk operations.

He also leads Paymentech's mergers and acquisitions strategy and previously served as its chief development officer.