PayPal Chooses Zong Founder David Marcus As Its New President

PayPal Inc. has promoted David Marcus to be its president, effective April 2, the unit of eBay Inc. announced March 29.

Before joining PayPal, Marcus founded and headed Zong, a mobile-payments company PayPal bought in August (see story).  Since joining PayPal, Marcus has been its vice president of mobile.

"He's going to lead PayPal with that 'founder's perspective' to bring start-up energy to PayPal's unmatched global reach and digital payment capabilities," John Donahoe, chief executive of PayPal's parent eBay, said in a blog post.

PayPal has lacked a permanent president since Scott Thompson left the job abruptly in January to head Yahoo (see story).  Donahoe has served as PayPal's interim president since Thompson's departure.

Marcus was one of a handful of executives that Donahoe singled out in an earnings conference call in January. "We have a strong bench of management talent, and we won't skip a beat as we manage the transition at PayPal," Donahoe said during the January call.

Marcus helped develop PayPal Here, a product PayPal announced in mid-March (see story).  PayPal Here allows small merchants to use smartphones accept card payments using an add-on magnetic stripe reader or the phone's built-in camera.

"I'm honored and excited to be asked to lead this unique business and help make the digital wallet an amazing experience for merchants and consumers worldwide," Marcus said in a March 29 press release.

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