In this newly created role, Johnson will be based in the company’s San Jose headquarters and report directly to PayPal CEO Dan Schulman.

"Allison is a highly experienced, much-admired marketing leader with a proven track record of building global brands, making her a natural addition to our leadership team,” said Schulman. “PayPal has made strong progress over the past several years to advance our position as the leading digital payments platform and one of the most dynamic and valuable brands in the world. Allison’s experience and vision will build on that progress and help propel PayPal forward during our next phase of growth.”

As PayPal CMO, Johnson will lead strategic marketing for PayPal and its family of brands around the world, building on the transformational work already accomplished.

"I’m proud to be joining a company committed to expanding participation in the global economy through innovative and inclusive payment products and services,” said Johnson. “I was an early convert to PayPal’s vision of fast, secure online payments. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to work with this remarkable team to accelerate PayPal’s growth as we continue to define the future of global payments.”

Johnson brings more than two decades of marketing experience to PayPal. Most recently, she was a founder and managing partner at West, a hybrid marketing and venture capital firm that worked with startups to accelerate product/market fit. Her clients included Square, Twitter, Impossible Foods, Prelude Fertility, Poynt, Better Mortgage and Braintree, prior to its acquisition by PayPal. Previously, Johnson served as Apple’s vice president of worldwide marketing communications from 2005 to 2011. During that time, she helped to reinvigorate Apple’s Mac business and launched the iPod, iPhone, iPad and the App Store with unprecedented marketing campaigns. Before Apple, Johnson was senior vice president of global brand marketing at HP, where she spearheaded the repositioning and relaunch of HP’s brand globally with the award-winning +HP campaign.

Johnson holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida.