James Oberman, CEO of Payroc is our special guest this week on episode 91 of the Leaders in Payments podcast. 

Jim grew up in the south-side of Chicago, attended the University of Arizona, married his high school sweetheart and moved back to the Chicago area after college. His first job was in public accounting where he had clients in the equipment financing industry which ultimately led him into the payments industry by financing the leases that ISOs were originating for equipment.   

Payroc is the ninth largest independent merchant acquirers in the U.S. They process about $33B a year, have over 100,000 merchant relationships; over 2,000 agents and sub-ISO partners: 40 ISV partnerships and have 400 employees. In 2016 they had 16 employees. 

2019 was a big year for Payroc. They were approached by Parthenon Capital with a strategy to bring together 4 companies: NXTGEN, Payscape, Payroc and BluePay Canada into the new Payroc. Since 2019 they have continued to strategically acquire more companies. 

Jim walks us through his fascinating journey in payments and has some great advice for those just starting their careers in payments.