Zapp enables near real-time payments on people’s mobile phones through their existing mobile banking application, to allow secure payments to happen between consumers and retailers.

Mark Stevenson joins Zapp as Chief Marketing Officer (from o2) and Stuart Neal joins as Chief Commercial Officer (ex-Barclays).

The senior executives join the 150-strong Zapp team, under the leadership of CEO, Peter Keenan and will be instrumental in continuing to build support for Zapp in the retail and financial communities ahead of its launch to consumers.

Diverse expertise

The strengthened senior leadership team at Zapp combines deep and diverse experience that positions the business for rapid success at launch in 2015.

Mark Stevenson, Zapp CMO spent seven years heading up o2’s sponsorship portfolio, and led the launch of o2’s highly successful Priority Moments. Mark has deep expertise in commercial, digital, partnership, strategic marketing and sponsorship.

Stuart Neal, Zapp CCO has previously worked for hungry start-ups like Boku, the world's leading Direct Carrier Billing business. He is passionate about bringing a ‘super slick’, digital-first check-out process to merchants, which will entice new customers and convert more sales. Stuart’s focus at Zapp includes building a consortium of merchants and banks within a commercial framework.

Further building cross-industry support
Zapp is an open payments platform and has assembled a broad group of financial institutions, retailers, billers and payment providers to form the largest coalition of support for a new payment method ever announced in the UK. The new executive appointments will continue to expand Zapp’s alliance of partners.

Banks that have already announced their support for Zapp ahead of its 2015 launch include HSBC, first direct, Nationwide, Santander and Metro Bank, collectively representing over 18m bank accounts. Sainsbury’s, Asda, House of Fraser, Thomas Cook and Shop Direct are among the major British retail brands backing Zapp mobile payments as a way to deliver secure, convenient mobile payments to their customers. In addition, Zapp has agreed partnerships with payment innovators including WorldPay, Optimal Payments, Realex and SagePay. Together this group represents 60% of UK merchants being able to take advantage of Zapp payments.

Peter Keenan, Chief Executive Officer of Zapp, said, “Zapp will transform the way we pay in 2015 and I’m excited to welcome Mark and Stuart to the team to be part of the revolution. The chance to create a new national payments method comes along once in a generation, and I’m pleased the opportunity proved irresistible to execs of their calibre. They bring glittering CVs and proven track records in bringing new consumer innovations to market. We are now forging ahead with our plans to launch Zapp and deliver the massive cost, security and convenience benefits of a digital first, mobile based payment method.”