Former Western Union exec named CEO of $1B area payments firm

NAPLES — ACI Worldwide, which handles some 20% of the world’s payment activity and did $1.01 billion in sales in 2018, named veteran industry executive Odilon Almeida president and CEO.

A former top executive at Western Union, Almeida replaces Phil Heasley, who ran the company for 15 years and announced his retirement in late 2019. Almeida’s position is effective March 9, and he will also be appointed to the board of directors, according to a statement.

Almeida was most recently an operating partner at Advent International, supporting business development at the fund’s portfolio companies. Prior to Advent International, Almeida was President, Western Union Global Money Transfer at The Western Union Co., the release states. In that role, Almeida led a $5 billion business across more than 200 countries and helped expand the company’s digital footprint and growing digital revenues, the release states. He spent 17 years at Western Union, the release adds.

“The board of directors is immensely pleased to appoint a leader with Odilon’s industry experience and operational credentials to lead ACI’s next chapter,” says ACI Board Chairman David Poe in the statement. “He brings to ACI a proven record of driving organic and acquired growth throughout his career and has demonstrated operational and regulatory excellence. Odilon’s deep understanding of the power of digital innovation, coupled with his significant knowledge of the rapidly evolving challenges and opportunities of the payments space and familiarity with ACI’s customer segments, gives the board great confidence that he is the right leader to further ACI’s growth strategy, advance the company’s positive momentum, and deliver long-term value for our stakeholders.”

Craig Saks, interim CEO after Heasley, was named Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer, where, adds Poe in the release, “he will work closely with Odilon on developing and enabling ACI’s business strategy.”

Almeida, in the statement, says he’s honored to join ACI, which has nearly 4,000 worldwide employees.

“ACI has a tremendously bright future ahead, with exciting avenues to accelerate revenue growth and capitalize on positive trends in payments,” Almeida says in the release. “I am eager to get started working with the board, management team and ACI’s world-class employees to help customers transform their business with real-time, any-to-any payments solutions.”

ACI Worldwide powers electronic payments for more than 5,100 organizations worldwide.