PayPal is turning to a seasoned Silicon Valley executive to revive its fortunes.
Enrique Lores, who has led HP since 2019, takes over as chief executive this month as the payments giant confronts slowing growth, intensifying competition, and a stock price down roughly 80% from its peak five years ago.
Lores succeeds Alex Chriss, the former Intuit executive brought in less than two years ago to engineer a turnaround. Chriss was tasked with jumpstarting the business amid a slowdown in post-pandemic retail spending, as households—burdened by higher costs and interest rates—pulled back on nonessential goods. PayPal’s board concluded that the pace of change under Chriss had fallen short of expectations.
Lores, who has chaired PayPal’s board since July 2024 and will also assume the role of president, has a reputation for operational discipline. His decades-long tenure at HP saw him rise from engineering intern to top executive, including overseeing HP’s split from Hewlett Packard Enterprise in 2015, navigating a recovery in the PC market, and realigning the company’s global supply chain away from China.
PayPal faces pressure on numerous fronts. Branded checkout growth—the company’s most profitable and closely watched metric—slumped to 1% in the fourth quarter from 6% a year prior as Big Tech rivals such as Apple and Google, as well as buy-now-pay-later entrants like Klarna and Affirm, gained traction with both merchants and consumers.
While the company has been racing to reduce its dependence on checkout fees by scaling its debit card business and extracting greater value from its peer-to-peer mobile payment app Venmo, analysts caution that the strategy may not be sufficient. Lores must confront the challenge of updating the legacy payment player just as AI-powered commerce tools—such as the system built by OpenAI and Stripe embedded in platforms like Shopify—allow users to find, compare, and purchase items without leaving the chat.
In his first statement as CEO, Lores acknowledged the mandate to modernize or risk obsolescence. Additionally, he must win the confidence of shareholders who initially appeared skeptical that the hardware and supply chain veteran can lead a digital pivot. The news of his appointment, which came on the same day PayPal reported fourth-quarter profit and revenue that missed estimates, sent shares tumbling as much as 19%.
