Dive Brief:

• Newly-minted PayPal CFO Blake Jorgensen, is taking a leave of absence for medical reasons, according to a Wednesday press release.
• Jorgensen, who was appointed to the company’s top financial seat in August, will be leaving to address a “treatable medical condition.” The company did not identify the condition or detail the length of his absence in the release.
• Gabrielle Rabinovitch, PayPal’s SVP of capital markets, investor relations and treasurer, was appointed by PayPal’s Board of Directors to serve as the firm’s acting CFO in the interim during Jorgensen’s absence, effective immediately.

Dive Insight:

Jorgensen has served as the payment firm’s CFO for just over a month, officially taking on the CFO seat Aug. 3. The Levi Strauss & Co. and Yahoo! Inc. alum received a $6 million “new hire” cash bonus upon his appointment to the position, with one-half paid after his start and the remainder to be paid on his one-year anniversary with the company, CFO Dive previously reported.

Rabinovitch will assume PayPal’s CFO responsibilities effective immediately, according to a Wednesday company filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). She has held a variety of executive positions for the digital payments provider during her six-year tenure with the firm, serving as their VP of corporate finance and investor relations before moving to her current position.

She will continue to serve in her current role as SVP while acting as CFO during Jorgensen’s absence, according to the Wednesday release.

This will be the SVP’s second time assuming CFO duties for the firm — Rabinovitch previously served as interim CFO for PayPal between May and August 2022 prior to Jorgensen’s appointment, according to the SEC filing.

The payments giant appointed Jorgensen several months after his predecessor John Rainey, who had been at PayPal for seven years, announced in May that he would leaving the payments firm, with his tenure as Walmart’s CFO beginning June 6. Rabinovitch assumed CFO duties on an interim basis for PayPal following Rainey’s departure.

Rainey’s jump to Walmart followed a choppy 2021 for PayPal, which reported a disappointing fourth quarter for the year and walked back its goal of raising its number of user accounts to 750 million by 2025. While the company reported better-than-expected revenue growth for this year’s first quarter as well as sequential revenue acceleration for the second quarter — net revenue hit $6.8 billion in the company’s most recent quarter — shares have slid more than 50% this year following pullback on e-commerce and online shopping trends, according to a recent Barron’s report.

The payments provider has also made other moves to continue building out its C-Suite as it grapples with changing market pressures, appointing Expedia Group alum John Kim as its EVP and Chief Product Officer effective Sept. 26. The company’s present CPO, Mark Britto, will remain with the firm for a transition period, according to a Sept. 8 press release.

PayPal did not respond to requests for comment beyond details included in its press release and filing. However, PayPal CEO Dan Schulman expressed confidence in Rabinovitch’s ability to step in as interim CFO in a note to employees included in the release. He stated support for Jorgensen and stressed the importance of prioritizing health.  

“While we will all miss Blake during his leave, wellness is one of our core values and I believe deeply that doing what is needed to prioritize health and wellness must always take precedence. I know I speak for our entire PayPal community in wishing Blake a full recovery and good health,” Schulman wrote in the note, according to the release.