PayPal Hires Former Visa Executive to Run Asia Pacific Operations

PayPal President Scott Thompson is back from his summer sabbatical in time to welcome an important new-hire. He announced on the company blog on Thursday that he had appointed Rupert Keeley to run PayPal's business in Asia Pacific, which is its fastest-growing business in the world. Keeley was previously Group President of the Asia Pacific and CEMEA regions for Visa Inc.

PayPal opened its international headquarters and technology development center in Singapore in 2007, to serve customers outside of the U.S. and Canada, and in 2010, planned to double its headcount in Asia.

There is speculation that PayPal will make some acquisitions in Asia; Keeley had been Visa's Global Head of Strategy and Corporate Development where he set the company's global corporate strategy and led strategic merger and acquisition activity.

In his announcement, Thompson said cross-border trade remained a significant business as merchants in Greater China, the manufacturing hub of the world, sell to its more than 100 million active accounts in 190 markets worldwide. In addition, the ecommerce markets in Australia and Japan present both established and new domestic opportunities, "and with millions of new Internet users coming online in Southeast Asia and India, we're introducing them to the benefits of online shopping with our nine million merchants across the world."