Jacobs Named Green Dot Chairman
Green Dot Corp. has announced the appointment of William I Jacobs as chairman of the board of directors, effective June 23, 2016. Jacobs takes the helm following the company’s May decision to split the roles of chairman and CEO—both of which had been held by Steve Streit—after a lengthy proxy battle with shareholder Harvest Capital Strategies, which in January of 2016 began a public campaign to make changes to Green Dot leadership, including ousting company founder Streit. Streit retained his role as CEO during Green Dot’s annual shareholder meeting on May 23, but two other board members resigned and were replaced by Harvest nominees. When announcing it would split the CEO and chairman roles, Green Dot said its board would appoint an independent chairman after the annual meeting.
Jacobs joined the Green Dot board as an independent director in April 2016. Previously, he served as the chairman of the board of directors of Global Payments Inc., a payment processing services provider, since June 2014. He also served as lead independent director and a business advisor for Global Payments since August 2002. From 1995 to 2000, Jacobs held various senior roles at MasterCard International.
“As a long-tenured executive in the payments space and an experienced board member, Bill brings significant operational and governance expertise to our company and its many stakeholders and we feel lucky to have him serving as our chairman,” Streit said.
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