Dive Brief:

• Payments processor Fiserv disclosed that President Dhivya Suryadevara had resigned, effective Tuesday, though she will stay until the end of the month for an “orderly transition of her duties,” according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
• The company said Suryadevara left the job for “good reason” under the terms of her job offer letter signed last August. “We can confirm that Dhivya Suryadevara has decided to leave Fiserv, and we thank her for her contributions,” a spokesperson said by email.
• Two executives were promoted, on an interim basis, to take over Suryadevara’s role in leading the financial solutions business. The company elevated Andrew Gelb, who is the chief operating officer for the financial solutions business, and Srini Krish, who is head of technology and operations for financial solutions, to co-lead the business, the filing said. They have each been at the company for 12 years, the spokesperson said.

Dive Insight:

The spokesperson also noted that “strategy, priorities and key actions” remain unchanged following the resignation of Suryadevara.

The executive changes at the Milwaukee-based company come in the wake of the announcement last month that Takis Georgakopoulos was promoted to the CEO post, after Mike Lyons left to lead Truist. The CEO switch came after the company has struggled to meet growth goals it set for itself.

The company had embedded unrealistic assumptions in its guidance regarding volume growth, sales activity and broad productivity improvements, Lyons told analysts last October, after third-quarter earnings fell short of analysts’ sales and net income projections. 

“We view this departure as somewhat disruptive, but not overly surprising given Suryadevara joined under Mike, and he left within 12 months of her joining,” analysts at the investment firm Robert W. Baird said in a note to clients Tuesday. “While management affirmed its commitment to the core modernization plan when Mike left, we think this departure could reignite investors' concerns over the durability of [Fiserv’s] Financial Solutions strategy.”

Georgakopoulos had previously served as a co-president alongside Suryadevara, with those co-lead appointments being effective Dec. 1 of last year. Along with her co-president role, Suryadevara was head of financial solutions, sales and operations.  

Suryadevara had joined Fiserv from UnitedHealth Group, where she had been CEO of that company’s Optum Financial Services and Optum Insight unit. She had been at the healthcare company for just under two years after serving as the chief financial officer for digital payments behemoth Stripe. Before that, she had previously served in the CFO role at automaker General Motors.

After Georgakopoulos became CEO, it was striking that Fiserv didn’t publicly announce Suryadevara’s appointment as president. That news was noted by a TD Cowen analyst, but in an unusual move a company spokesperson declined to comment last month on her appointment to that role.