Leadership

Devin McGranahan is President, Chief Executive Officer, and Director of The Western Union Company, a global leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement.

After more than 25 years of business and leadership experience, Devin joined Western Union as its CEO in late 2021. Previously, he was Senior Group President, Global Business Solutions at Fiserv, Inc. In that role, he oversaw the company’s global merchant acquiring and processing businesses. During his tenure he was responsible for the launch of the Carat enterprise merchant omni-commerce platform, the development and launch of the Clover Connect integrated software vendor (ISV) platform, and the launch and acceleration of Clover Business Solutions, Fiserv’s digital-direct merchant platform. These capabilities propelled Clover to become the largest cloud-based SMB merchant platform in the market and grew the omni-channel business to over $1 billion in revenue. 

Devin previously spent 20+ years at McKinsey & Co., where he served as a Senior Partner, engaging with leading financial services companies on a broad range of strategy, payments, and business-building opportunities. He also held a variety of other senior management roles at the firm, including co-leading the North America Financial Services Practice and being a co-chair of the senior partner selection committee.

Devin holds a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School, a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

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As Chief Legal Officer, Ben Adams oversees Western Union's global legal affairs, public policy and regulatory affairs, ethics, and privacy efforts, and offers strategic advice to executive leadership and the Board of Directors. Ben also serves as Chair of the Western Union Foundation, whose mission is to create economic opportunity for youth and people who migrate by empowering them with the education and resources needed to succeed in today’s global economy.

Joining Western Union from PayPal, where he served most recently as Chief Commercial and Intellectual Property Counsel, Ben brings an extensive understanding of the complex legal questions and business challenges often faced by global payments companies. While there he also held the roles of Chief Counsel for Product and Technology and Chief International Counsel. Prior to PayPal, Ben held senior legal positions at Microsoft and Nokia, and began his career in private practice.

Like many among Western Union’s Executive Team, Ben is a global citizen, having lived and worked in diverse countries including India, Finland, Cameroon, and England.

Ben works with business and legal non-profits, currently serving on the Board of Directors of the Western Union Foundation and OneJustice, and also served as a Peace Corps Volunteer. He holds a Juris Doctor degree from Georgetown University Law Center and a Bachelor of Arts degree from The George Washington University.

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As President, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Giovanni Angelini leads a region of more than 120 markets. He also drives the Company’s global retail strategy process.

In his prior roles, as Senior Vice President, Head of Global Own Operations and Independent Channels and Senior Vice President, Global Money Transfer Consumer Network, Giovanni was responsible for Western Union’s consumer-to-consumer retail network across more than 200 countries and territories. Previously, he held the role of Senior Vice President and General Manager, European Union.

Earlier in his career, from 1996 until early 2002, Giovanni was a Senior Manager at Bain & Company in Italy. From 2002 to 2011 he served as General Manager of Angelo Costa Group (a Western Union former Master Agent) where he successfully led the expansion of money transfer services into eight new European Markets. Following the acquisition of Angelo Costa by Western Union in 2011, Giovanni became CEO of Angelo Costa and Finint, and then Head of Independent Channels, Europe at Western Union.

Giovanni has served as a member of the Board and the Executive Committee of STC Bank in Saudi Arabia.

He graduated magna cum laude in Economics and Business from Sapienza University of Rome.

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As Chief Risk and Compliance Officer, Cherie Axelrod coordinates Western Union’s Compliance, Risk and Internal Audit teams and enables a consistent approach for managing risk across the organization. Cherie has more than 30 years’ experience in finance, compliance, auditing, operations, risk, and project management in financial services and telecommunications. She joined Western Union in 2012 and during her tenure has been the Chief Auditor, Deputy Chief Compliance Officer and U.S. Settlements Lead, and held leadership roles in Global Compliance Risk, Consumer Fraud, U.S. and Mexico Global Field Operations, Project Management, and several other compliance areas.

Prior to joining Western Union, Cherie was the divisional CFO for the Consumer & Small Business division of Qwest, and also worked for GTE Hawaiian Tel in the Far East and Pacific Islands.

Cherie has an MBA from Chaminade University, and a BS in Industrial Management / Industrial Engineering from Purdue University. She is based at Western Union headquarters in Denver.

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As Chief Financial Officer, Matt Cagwin is responsible for leading Western Union’s global finance organization, including financial reporting, financial planning and analysis, tax, treasury, and investor relations. As a member of the Executive Team, he also provides guidance on the Company’s operations and strategic direction.

Prior to joining Western Union, Matt served as Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer—Merchant Acceptance of Fiserv, Inc./First Data Corp. from 2018 to May 2022 and as Senior Vice President, Corporate Controller, and Chief Accounting Officer of First Data from 2014 to 2019.  Prior to joining Fiserv/First Data, Matt spent 10 years at Coca-Cola Enterprises in various roles, with his last three years as Vice President, European Controller and Strategic Initiatives, based in London.  Matt started his career in public accounting at Arthur Andersen and KPMG.

Matt has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Accounting from Florida State University. He is based at the Company’s global headquarters in Denver.

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As President, North America, Rodrigo Garcia Estebarena is responsible for Western Union’s business across the region, driving the company’s market development and growth across all products, channels, and customer segments. Prior to overseeing North America, Rodrigo served as President, Latin America and The Caribbean, where he also led that region’s 52 countries and territories.

Rodrigo has more than 25 years of financial services experience, in positions of increasing regional seniority. He joined Pago Fácil (a Western Union-acquired company) in 2004 as Senior Manager, Marketing Payments, Argentina, and went on to lead several marketing and business development teams at the company.

Rodrigo joined Western Union in 2004 and since that time has held several roles of increasing responsibility. Most notably, he served as Head of Mexico, Caribbean, and Central America, responsible for the Western Union business in Mexico across these areas of Latin America, including the expansion of the core remittance business under the Western Union, Vigo, and Orlandi Valuta brands, and the development of new channels and products.

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As Senior Vice President, U.S. Consumer Services, Sofia Graniello is responsible for the development and growth of Western Union’s U.S. consumer-focused services, including Prepaid, Bill Pay, Quick Cash/Quick Collect, Corrections Pay and Retail Money Order. Her consumer financial services experience crosses retail banking, wealth management, cards and lending, covering customer experience, product, strategy, operations and general management.

Prior to joining Western Union, Sofia spent 13 years at Citi in various leadership roles across its consumer business. Most recently, she was General Manager, Mass Market Cards & Benefits, and also served as Chief Operating Officer for Citi’s U.S. Personal Banking business. Prior to her time at Citi, Sofia was a management consultant with Booz & Company in its Financial Services practice.

 Sofia earned an MBA from Columbia Business School, a master’s from New York University and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Savannah College of Art & Design. She is based in New York City.

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As Chief Technology Officer, Ben Hawksworth leads all facets of Western Union’s technology organization, including its platforms, infrastructure, engineering, and data and innovation strategies.

Ben brings a wealth of experience gained over 25 years of technology and business leadership across multiple large-scale and high-transaction volume FinTechs and Financial Service businesses, including virtual lease-to-own, payments, and commercial & retail banking.

Most recently Ben was the Chief Technology and Product Officer for the virtual lease-to-own leader Progressive Leasing, where he led Technology, Product, Information Security, and Risk. Prior to Progressive, he served as Chief Information Officer for First Data’s (now Fiserv) Global Business Solutions business unit, where he led platform strategy, engineering, project, and portfolio management across the global regions of First Data’s merchant business. Earlier, Ben held senior technology leadership roles at Vantiv (now FIS), and Fifth Third Bank, where he drove strategies for a next-gen payments platform, cloud banking platform, multiple front-office and back-office transformations, and enterprise-wide workforce models.

Ben holds a BSBA in Management of Information Systems and an MBA from The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business. He lives with his family in Park City, Utah.

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As Head of Ecosystem, Sam Jawad oversees the development and expansion of Western Union’s banking ecosystem businesses, as the Company focuses on providing a broader set of banking and financial services products to its customers around the globe.

Most recently, Sam was the EVP and Global Head of Banking at ACI Worldwide, where he oversaw all aspects of the P&L, initiated and led ACI's banks modernization strategy, and led and managed global investment efforts. Prior to ACI, Sam was the founding CEO of a Canadian Banks joint venture in digital payments, and was also the President of Chase Paymentech Solutions, Canada and globally. He also held several senior management positions in both card issuing and merchant acquiring and was CEO of First Data Loan Company.

Sam is a board member of Smooth Commerce Inc., and an advisor to Dream Payments. He has served on the Board of Wealth One Bank, on the Visa Canada Advisory Board, and on the Canadian Bankers Association Payments Committee. He also serves on the Board of Big Brother Big Sister Toronto and the SickKids Hospital Business Advisory Board. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business from Concordia University.

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As Chief Strategy and Development Officer, Ramya Narayanan partners with leaders inside and outside of Western Union to support and monitor strategic initiatives aligned with the Company’s business objectives. This includes the exploration of expansion opportunities, mergers and acquisitions, and defining our strategic direction for global retail.

Ramya’s experience includes more than 13 years at American Express, where she held a variety of general management and enterprise strategy roles. Most recently, she led the Enterprise Strategy and Execution team. During her tenure there, she drove revenue growth, cost efficiencies, and profitability through a results-oriented approach to innovation, strategy, and execution. Ramya also led American Express’s $1B revenue OPEN business focusing on small business owners.

Prior to her time at American Express, Ramya led the overall strategic planning processes at Automatic Data Processing, served as an Executive Director at the League of Artisans, and as a Principal Consultant at PwC.

Ramya earned a Master of Business Administration in General Management from the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University; a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison; and a Bachelor of Engineering in Industrial Engineering from the College of Engineering at Anna University in Chennai, India.

A native of India, Ramya speaks English and Tamil, and lives with her family in NYC.

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As Chief Marketing Officer, Bob Rupczynski is responsible for driving Western Union’s overall brand and customer strategy. This includes building product value propositions, delivering customer market positioning, managing pricing strategies for profitable growth, and enabling end-to-end customer experience journeys, including ongoing loyalty.

Bob brings more than 20 years of experience driving consumer marketing strategy. He previously served as Global Vice President, Consumer and Network Marketing, at PayPal, where he played an integral role in building the company’s consumer brand. He managed partnerships, financial integrations, and Customer Relationship Management across the portfolio. Previously, as Senior Vice President of Global Media, Data, and Marketing Technology at McDonald’s, he was the architect of the brand’s global loyalty platform. Prior to that, Bob led the Media, Data, and CRM teams at Kraft Heinz, where he built a platform that enabled portfolio companies to deliver advanced marketing capabilities.

Bob works out of Western Union Headquarters in Denver.

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As Chief Operations Officer, Andrew Walker is responsible for the development and delivery of Western Union’s global operations. Andrew partners across our customer-facing business units, our operations team, and our delivery teams to offer compliant, frictionless service and product delivery for our customers, agents, employees, and partners. He also develops the necessary infrastructure and foundational business systems to deliver retail and growing digital services in the most efficient and cost-effective manner.

Previously, Andrew was Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer at USAA, where he was responsible for core company operations including information technology, cyber security, privacy, corporate real estate, digital channels, enterprise portfolio management, and procurement. He had previously served as Chief Procurement Officer at USAA, where he oversaw the enterprise’s procurement lifecycle.

Prior to USAA, Andrew spent 11 years with Nationwide, capping his tenure as Bank President, when he led the development and execution of strategic options for the future of banking at the company. He also served as the enterprise’s Chief Procurement Officer and IT Chief Financial Officer.

Andrew graduated with a Bachelor of Science, Accounting, from Herbert Lehman College, New York. He completed a program from the Bank Administration Institute at Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University, focused on innovation, marketing strategy, and leadership for the banking industry.

He is also a former member of the IBM Board of Advisors.

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As Chief People Officer, Karen Whalen leads Western Union’s global human resources organization, including organizational effectiveness, talent acquisition, total rewards, DEIB, learning & development, people relations, HR business partners, and HR service delivery.

Before joining Western Union, Karen served for more than five years as EVP and CHRO for West Corporation (formerly Intrado), a cloud-based communications technology company. Prior to that, Karen was SVP of Human Resources for First Data (now Fiserv). During her more than 20+ year tenure with First Data, Karen held progressive leadership roles across Operations, Finance, and Sales before shifting into Human Resources.

Karen holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Management and Marketing from Cornell University. She is based at the Company’s global headquarters in Denver.

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