Leading B2B Payments Company Melio Appoints Former American Express Executive to C-suite as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer
- Former SVP, Head of Global Regulatory Affairs for American Express joins Melio as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer
- Joins C-suite alongside co-founders Matan Bar, Ziv Paz and Ilan Atias
- Senior hire reflects company growth as Melio raised $256 million since its inception and increased the number of monthly active users by 2,000% last year
Melio, a B2B payments company for small businesses, has appointed former American Express executive Jonathan Polk as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer based in its New York office.
Polk’s appointment comes in the wake of Melio having raised $256 million since its inception and as the number of monthly active users grew by 2,000% in 2020 alone. He joins the C-suite alongside co-founders Matan Bar, CEO, Ziv Paz, COO and Ilan Atias, CTO, and will bring to bear his extensive experience as a senior financial services executive working in both the public and private sectors.
Melio plays a pivotal role for small businesses, helping them improve their cash flow, workflow, and optimize their business’s financial health. As the company grows and develops more ways to keep small business in business, Polk will be instrumental in helping the firm build out its operations in the U.S and his expertise will be key in navigating the booming payments landscape. Compliance is critical to Melio, which sees this as a top priority to support the innovative financial services the company offers.
Polk began his career at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where he served in a variety of senior roles in the Legal Group and the Bank Supervision Group. More recently, Jonathan was Global Head of Regulatory Affairs and International Banking for American Express Company. There he built a team responsible for managing the company’s relationships with its U.S. regulators, oversaw company banks outside the U.S., and served as CEO of American Express Bank, FSB.
Jonathan Polk, General Counsel and CCO at Melio, says, “I have been impressed with Melio’s vision for small businesses as the provider of a free digital payments solution that is user friendly and accessible. I’m excited to offer my previous experience from American Express to the team, and help take the business to the next level.”
Matan Bar, CEO and co-founder at Melio, says, “Bringing Jonathan on board to the leadership team at Melio represents a huge step in our growth as a company and our rigorous approach to sound corporate governance. His strong skill set and outstanding track record advising some of the top companies in the world on regulatory and compliance issues will be invaluable to our continued growth.”
