EY's Lynn Kraus appointed first CEO of Australian Payments Plus

Former EY Oceania Advisory managing partner and diversity advocate Lynn Kraus has been appointed as the first CEO of Australian Payments Plus.

Professional services firm Ernst & Young is set to lose its former Advisory national managing partner Lynn Kraus to Australian Payments Plus, when she takes over as inaugural Chief Executive Officer of the amalgamated payments organisations in the middle of February next year. Kraus has been with EY for more than a decade in a number of high-profile executive and leadership roles.

First proposed last year and waved through by the ACCC in September, Australian Payments Plus (AP+) sees the nation’s leading domestic payment platforms – eftpos, BPAY and NPP Australia – join together under the one umbrella to better compete with the growing scale of overseas multinationals, with the further aim of reducing costs and enhancing innovation and efficiency.

“I believe there is a unique opportunity to create an organisation that better serves the needs of Australian payments users today, and well into the future,” Kraus said. “Bringing together three fantastic businesses to respond to the impacts of regulatory and technological change will deliver more efficient and coordinated payments solutions for Australian consumers and businesses.”

According to recent research by Capgemini, the number of non-cash transactions, or digital payments, now stands at above 700 billion – over 100 digital transactions on average in a year for each person on earth. Asia Pacific is the segment’s largest market.

Stating that her main priority will be to harness the existing infrastructure, brands and talent to create a more competitive Australian payments organisation, Kraus will bring more than 25 years of finance and consulting experience to the endeavour, including more than half of that spent in leadership roles at EY. Currently she is a partner in the firm’s Strategy & Transactions team.

Prior to 2020, Kraus was the managing partner of EY Oceania’s Advisory service line and member of its executive leadership team, before which she served as Oceania managing partner for Markets. In addition, she led EY’s Sydney office for more than six years, and was the regional People leader, during which time she launched the firm’s inaugural Diversity & Inclusiveness Council.

“Lynn is a fantastic leader with an exemplary track record in strategic thinking and execution,” commented AP+ chair Catherine Brenner, who added that Kraus’s expertise in stakeholder management and business transformation would help drive the integration. “The AP+ Board and I know that she is the right person to lead AP+ and work with the team of payments professionals.”

Meanwhile, AP+ has rounded out the independent director portion of its board with the recent appointments of Greg Cooper, John Murphy, and RedBalloon founder Naomi Simson – the latter who kicked off her entrepreneurial career as a marketing exec for KPMG. Murphy is currently the CEO of Azurpay, while Cooper headed Schroder Investment Management for more than a decade.