Plaid, Idemia, Entrust and Ping Identity make senior hires

A cropful of senior leadership appointments across the identity and payments sector underline the shifts of AI‑driven fraud, real‑time payments and new trust requirements. Plaid, Idemia Secure Transactions, Entrust and Ping Identity have brought in new executives. The hires will  look to strengthen fraud prevention, accelerate digital payments and scale identity security.

Plaid appoints new head of fraud

Pedro Sanzovo has joined Plaid to lead its fraud and identity products, bringing career-long focus on fraud detection and risk modelling. The new GM, Head of Fraud at Plaid, Sanzovo called the company’s network intelligence the “most significant new data source to enter fraud fighting” in the past decade.

Sanzovo began the role by meeting customers at Plaid’s first Fraud Summit, where companies like HealthEquity, Credit Genie, Gemini and Albert spoke to the gap between AI‑driven fraud and what’s available on the market.

“The problems are real, urgent, and solvable with the right network data,” he said on LinkedIn. “The team [at Plaid] is exceptional and the culture is strong.”

Idemia Secure Transactions make two senior hires in payments

Idemia Secure Transactions (IST) has appointed Elyette Roux as EVP Payment Services and Anastasia Serikova as EVP Digital Payment Solutions. The company is looking to strengthen in physical cards while accelerating growth in tokenization and real‑time digital payments.

Idemia’s digital payment revenues are entering a rapid expansion phase, according to IST, driven by rising adoption of tokenized and real-time payments, while premium physical card segments such as metal cards continue with “strong momentum.”

Philippe Oliva, CEO of IST, commented: “From post-quantum cryptography to tokenization, payments are entering a new cycle of innovation that is reshaping the industry.”

Roux brings more than twenty years of experience across industrial and technology sectors, including senior roles at Nexans, Schneider Electric, Dassault Aviation and Cisco. She will lead Idemia’s payment cards, products and services business.

Serikova joins from Visa where she led Visa Direct in Europe, and will oversee the scaling of Idemia’s digital platforms, new product launches and market expansion.

Entrust hire new SVPs for AI and customers

Entrust has made Ajay Jindal the SVP of Business Process and Automation, and Erika Cowen as SVP of Customer Success. Both report to CEO Tony Ball and join the company’s senior leadership team as Entrust sharpens its focus on identity‑centric security amid accelerating AI‑driven fraud and cyber threats.

Ball said the Jindal will help Entrust “scale smarter” by strengthening processes and automation  while Cowen will elevate customer experience across the identity lifecycle.

Jindal joins from Deloitte where he oversaw large‑scale digital transformation programmes. “AI creates opportunity – but realizing its value requires strong processes, the right operating model, and disciplined execution,” he said.

“My focus at Entrust is on building its foundation to allow teams to scale, work more productively, and turn AI into measurable impact across the business.”

Cowen will oversee customer success, technical support and professional services, with a mandate to strengthen end‑to‑end customer outcomes and long‑term retention. She previously led global customer success teams at F5.

“In a world being rapidly reshaped by AI, our role is to make those [identity lifecycle] experiences more connected, more proactive, and ultimately more impactful in driving long-term value for our customers,” she said.

Ping Identity drives regional strategic partnerships with new hire

Ping Identity has appointed Antony Collins to lead partner strategy in Asia Pacific Japan (APJ), where he will drive the company’s strategic partnerships and expand its ecosystem‑led growth across the region.

Collins will focus on helping partners deliver secure identity, third‑party access, customer identity and Ping’s Identity for AI capabilities, which includes support for non‑human identities.

He replaces Robert Cipriani who has moved to ConnectWise after previously overseeing Ping’s Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ) and later APJ director of channel and alliances.

Collins brings more than 25 years of APJ experience from roles at WalkMe, ServiceNow, Dell, IBM and Financial Network Services. He said he will work closely with partners and customers to address evolving identity challenges and drive regional growth.

Ping’s A/NZ vice president Ash Diffey said Ping’s expanding strategic partnerships, combined with its focus on runtime identity and Identity for AI, create significant opportunities for customers and partners as new identity challenges emerge.

Article Topics

appointments  |  biometrics  |  digital identity  |  Entrust  |  IDEMIA  |  Ping Identity  |  Plaid