My Last Day as CEO of PayPal

The following is a message I shared with PayPal employees on my last day as CEO of PayPal.

Today is the last day I have the opportunity to work with each of you as a PayPal employee. It’s been just over nine years since I joined the PayPal team, and I’m so proud of all that this team has accomplished during this time through your commitment, resilience, and perseverance. Like life, we've inevitably gone through our share of ups and downs. We have so much to be proud of – and yet so many more exciting things to accomplish as we look forward.?

This week, I have more reasons than ever to value our PayPal community and the support we give to each other. I wanted to share with you that several days ago, I had emergency surgery for a ruptured appendix. It was a tremendously painful and sobering experience, but I’m grateful that my surgery was successful, and I’m now on the path to a full recovery. The situation could’ve been more dire had I not received timely and excellent medical care. I’m so appreciative of the love and support of my family, friends, and colleagues – and of our amazing PayPal community. Life is precious and the time we have together to make a difference is so valuable. And it’s often the things that happen unexpectedly that give us so many lessons.?

I have a long list of things I want to celebrate with you. Of course, our financials are an important arbiter of our shareholders, and I will talk about those in a moment – but the most impactful things we did as a team were that we always tried to take care of each other, pursued our mission and vision, and held true to a set of values that mattered to us. We didn’t just talk about our values, we acted on them.? ?

Our financial performance is obviously an important indicator of how we fared in the market and how well we did in delivering a value proposition that customers embraced. And here we have some extraordinary numbers. Based on our current outlook, we expect to end 2023 having more than tripled our revenues from $9.2 billion in 2015 to nearly $30 billion, quadrupled our EPS from $1.28 in 2015 to nearly $5.00, quintupled our TPV from $288 billion in 2015 to roughly $1.5 trillion, and almost tripled our free cash flow from $1.8 billion in 2015 to approximately $5 billion. We successfully separated from eBay and redefined our relationships with the networks and financial institutions that thought of us as enemies as opposed to partners, until we faced the situation head-on, and transformed our business model and embraced full customer choice. And yes, during this time we almost doubled our market cap.?

But this week’s medical scare has given me reason to reflect on what is truly important to each of us. It's clear, at least to me, that our lasting legacy will be the things we did and stood for in the service of others. We understood that profit and purpose are not at odds with each other. We took action to assure that every single employee within PayPal has the chance to create a healthy financial future, not just for themselves but for their families, too. We respect each other and value our differences – we choose inclusion because it strengthens our community and each other. We're not afraid to act on what we stand for, whether that is paying our people equal wages, regardless of ethnicity or gender, doing our part to address racial equity through our $535 million initiative, or helping underserved people or groups who need our voice and our power to make theirs stronger. We're also working to ensure we do our part to address global warming, for surely our planet is calling out for help. We must always try to do the right thing. I know first-hand it's not easy, but it has always felt like a responsibility and less of an optional thing to do.?

PayPal has become a community that stands for something. We're a global model for what it means to be a corporate citizen. And yes, during this period of impact, we've become a global payments powerhouse. As a result, we have the chance to build on our accomplishments to drive a better world and deliver more value for all the constituents we serve. These are immense responsibilities and an enormous list of things that you can tell your friends, family, and children that you helped make happen. You achieved all of this as a team of colleagues, and I celebrate you. As we've discussed at countless all employee meetings, life will always be about change. And change is all about how you react to it. Change is the constant. How we think about it and how we leverage it will define the awesome things you can accomplish in the years ahead. Never stand still in the face of change.?

I will step down from my role as CEO tomorrow, but the steps I took leaving the hospital this weekend have given me the perspective I needed to truly express my appreciation to all of you. You will have great leadership with Alex. He has my full confidence, respect, and loyalty — and I will do everything that I can do to help him, and the absolutely amazing and wonderful PayPal team whom I've grown to love. I will miss every one of you. Stay well, healthy, and happy, and treasure every moment ahead.?

Please stay in touch – and do great things in the world.?

Forward PayPal!?

Dan