APEXX strengthens payment orchestration leadership team

WHY THIS MATTERS

APEXX Global bolsters leadership with two strategic hires amid payment orchestration boom

These leadership changes come at a time when payment orchestration is becoming a core priority for enterprise merchants operating globally. As businesses manage increasingly complex payment stacks across multiple providers, regions, and currencies, orchestration platforms are moving from optional optimisation tools to critical infrastructure.

Promoting internal talent while bringing in external expertise signals that APEXX is scaling its commercial function to meet rising demand. Combining sales, partnerships, and go-to-market under a single leadership role reflects how interconnected these areas have become in payments, particularly when working with large enterprise clients.

The addition of experience from open banking and eCommerce also highlights where growth is coming from. Merchants are looking for more efficient routing, lower costs, and higher acceptance rates, especially in sectors like travel and online retail where payment performance directly impacts revenue.

APEXX Global, the merchant-centric payment orchestration platform, today announces the promotion of Simon Hughes to Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) and the appointment of Simon Eve as Head of Sales & Partnerships.

Simon Hughes' promotion recognises his pivotal role in driving APEXX Global's commercial success. As Head of Sales & Partnerships, Hughes has overseen the most productive commercial period in the company's history, accelerating enterprise adoption of APEXX's Payment Orchestration Platform and strengthening strategic partnerships across the global payments ecosystem. In his new role as CCO, Hughes will lead APEXX's global commercial strategy, uniting sales, partnerships, and go-to-market execution as the business enters its next phase of growth.

Peter Keenan, Founder & CEO of APEXX Global, commented

"Simon has been instrumental in shaping APEXX's commercial momentum. Under his stewardship, our sales and partnerships teams have delivered exceptional results and built a powerful pipeline of enterprise merchants and strategic partners. Simon is absolutely the right person to take APEXX's commercial function to the next level, and I'm delighted to see him step into the CCO role."

Succeeding Hughes, Simon Eve joins APEXX Global as Head of Sales & Partnerships, bringing more than 20 years of payments industry experience. Eve joins from Trustly, where he spent over nine years in senior leadership roles including Head of Travel, Director - Travel & UK eCommerce, and most recently VP - Travel & eCommerce. At Trustly, he led commercial strategy and execution for Open Banking solutions across Europe, driving new business, scaling existing merchant relationships, and developing strategic partnerships across travel and eCommerce.

Commenting on his new role at APEXX, Simon Eve said

"Over the past decade I've worked closely with enterprise merchants across travel and eCommerce to help them scale using innovative payment solutions. Leading commercial growth for Open Banking across Europe gave me first-hand experience of how strategic partnerships and well-executed payment strategies can directly impact merchant performance. I'm excited to bring that experience to APEXX and help merchants unlock even greater value through orchestration."

Peter Keenan added:

"Simon Eve's experience aligns perfectly with APEXX Global's ideal customer profile. His deep understanding of enterprise merchants, particularly within travel and eCommerce, combined with his track record of scaling innovative payment solutions, makes him a fantastic addition to the leadership team. Simon's expertise will be invaluable as we continue to help merchants improve acceptance rates, reduce costs, and simplify global payments through orchestration."

These appointments underscore APEXX Global's continued investment in commercial leadership as demand for payment orchestration accelerates among enterprise merchants seeking greater resilience, flexibility, and performance from their global payment strategies.

FF NEWS TAKE

This is a classic scale move. When a company starts seeing strong enterprise demand, the next step is tightening commercial execution and aligning teams around growth. Elevating Simon Hughes into a unified commercial leadership role suggests APEXX is moving into that phase.

Bringing in Simon Eve from Trustly adds another layer. Open banking has reshaped parts of the payments landscape, particularly in Europe, and that experience is highly relevant as orchestration platforms increasingly incorporate alternative payment methods alongside cards.

More broadly, this reflects a structural shift in payments. Merchants are no longer satisfied with single-provider setups. They want flexibility, redundancy, and performance optimisation across multiple rails. That is exactly where orchestration platforms sit, acting as the control layer over a fragmented ecosystem.

The competitive landscape is also intensifying. As more players enter the orchestration space, differentiation will come down to execution, partnerships, and the ability to deliver measurable improvements in conversion and cost.