Marqeta promotes Simon Khalaf from chief product officer to CEO

Khalaf’s goal as CEO is to move Marqeta “from hypergrowth phase into a sustainable and profitable growth phase,” he told MarketWatch. That means being extremely focused on picking markets and segments where the company can win, and also in conducting regular operating reviews, in his view.

He said he sees benefits to working with a team he knows well and sees opportunities to tackle areas of the business that weren’t under his purview as CPO. For example, in his prior role he didn’t have the capacity to do focused investments meant to expand the company’s go-to-market reach.

“We’ve demonstrated strong product-market fit,” he said, but now he’ll have the chance to add resources on the sales and marketing side.

Marqeta, which enables businesses to issue debit and credit cards to customers and workers, will continue to tackle opportunities in “embedded finance” under Khalaf’s leadership. Companies that aren’t traditionally in the finance industry increasingly have been looking to embed financial products into their flows, and Marqeta helps enable that. An example of that would be a retail marketplace that also provides financial products to those who participate in the marketplace.

Gardner is moving out of the CEO role and into the position of executive chairman. Khalaf, who will become the CEO effective Jan. 31, said Gardner will spend time working with customers in that new role, and also advise on people and operational matters.

Khalaf’s appointment is “likely to remove one overhang on the stock,” Barclays analyst Ramsey El-Assal wrote.

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Marqeta also announced Thursday afternoon that Todd Pollak, previously the chief commercial officer at Ancestry, will join the company as chief revenue officer.