PayPal legal chief to step down

Louise Pentland has been with the company since 2015

PayPal executive vice president and chief business affairs and legal officer Louise Pentland is to step down from her role, effective December 31.

In an SEC filing, the company states that it and Pentland entered into an agreement on November 10 that includes an intended separation date of July 31, 2022.

Pentland joined PayPal as chief legal officer (CLO) in 2015, the year it became an independent company, having previously spent more than 16 years at Nokia where her final role was executive vice president and CLO.

In a LinkedIn post on her latest move, Pentland says: ‘This has been my dream job. I am stepping down to seek renewal and create space to do that. My landing place may very well be at PayPal and, through my discovery, I will continue to be a part of the incredible work we do here. None of us are maximizing our potential if we continue in the same role forever.’

She adds that her successor in PayPal’s legal function will be Bimal Patel, saying that she hired Patel in January of this year and that she will be ‘handing over the baton on January 1, 2022.’

According to his LinkedIn profile, Patel previously spent three years at the US Department of the Treasury as deputy assistant secretary for the Financial Stability Oversight Council and later as assistant secretary for financial institutions. Before that he was an attorney with O’Melveny & Myers and a senior adviser at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

A PayPal spokesperson says Pentland will continue to serve as a counselor and adviser supporting the company’s ongoing activities and initiatives until mid-2022. She confirmed that Patel is succeeding Pentland in the legal role.