Payment technology provider Stax Payments has appointed Mark Sundt as Chief Technology Officer.
Mr. Sundt brings more than 30 years of experience as a technology leader to his new role, with a deep background in payments and business transformation with innovative technology solutions. Early in his career, he worked at Microsoft, moving into technical and leadership roles for 17 years. As CTO of Clearent from Xplor, he helped grow its transaction processing from $2 billion to over $20 billion annually.
Most recently, Sundt worked at IBM helping financial services clients create roadmaps for adopting Large Language Models (LLM) and generative artificial intelligence through Design Thinking workshops. He plans to bring his expertise to Stax clients, helping them leverage generative AI to improve user experience while implementing the latest technologies, such as conversational AI.
“What really drew me to Stax was its mission to enable businesses to scale and grow through the power of integrated payments, and maintaining that value will be a key part of my role,” Sundt said. “I look forward to my journey at Stax, simplifying complex problems with great people as we delight our customers with solutions that offer the fastest path to revenue with embedded payments.
Sundt will assume responsibility for all technology and engineering functions at Stax. One of his priorities will be to use generative artificial intelligence to transform internal productivity and the depth at which Stax can interact with its customers and partners.
“Mark’s proven track record of technological advancements aligns perfectly with Stax’s commitment to innovation,” said Paulette Rowe, CEO of Stax. “With Mark on board, we will advance our payments capabilities and achieve new successes in the evolving technology landscape, while simplifying and improving our customers’ payment journey.”
These leadership changes follow a series of new executives joining the Stax team, including Rowe as CEO, as well as Stax’s acquisition of Atlantic-Pacific Processing Systems.
Sundt succeeds Chris Staymates, who will return to his role as Stax’s Chief Innovation Officer and continue as a member of the Executive Leadership Team. He will be responsible for the development and growth of new products that help partners and merchants deliver a more convenient and engaging payment experience.