PayPal Executive Don Kingsborough Leaves Company


Don Kingsborough, the PayPal executive who spearheaded the online payment giant’s move into the physical retail world, has left the company, with many reports saying that he left because he was feeling “frustrated” in the company.

“I think we were able to move the needle, but I have to say I leave a little frustrated in that I wish we as an executive team would have done more.”

Kingsborough’s exit from PayPal officially came in January, although he decided to stay on with the company until it was able to replace outgoing president David Marcus. His official parting from the company came just as eBay was preparing a large round of layoffs, but Kingsborough has dismissed the timing of this as purely coincidental.

Kingsborough joined PayPal in 2011 after a long career that saw him hold C-level positions at Atari and prepaid card company Blackhawk Network, and create the toy company that made the Teddy Ruxpin bear a hit in the 1980s. At PayPal, Kingsborough held an important role focused on introducing PayPal as a payment option in the brick-and-mortar world, where the vast majority of retail transactions still occur.

Over the years, Kingsborough inked deals to have PayPal accepted at Home Depot stores and another that paved the way for shoppers to be able to pay with their PayPal accounts wherever Discover cards are accepted. But both initiatives fizzled out, and are rarely talked about today. The same goes for some app-based payments products that launched under Kingsborough’s watch, which Kingsborough has said wasn’t the consumers fault.

“It could have had a bigger impact and should have had a bigger impact. I don’t think it was a consumer issue. It was more of an execution issue.”

Kingsborough may have also insinuated that some of his frustration with working at PayPal may have been due to the somewhat lackluster performance of many things he has tried to introduce at PayPal, and that both he and the company didn’t exactly stay on course when rolling them out.

“I think we didn’t stay on strategy completely and therefore we didn’t accomplish as much as we should have. We just didn’t stay focused on the things that would make a difference … on distribution and on a clear method to take people who shopped online and bring them into stores.”

Kingsborough had been with PayPal since 2011, and according to reports, Kingsborough is currently eyeing up several opportunities that have grabbed his attention over the last few months.

[Image courtesy of Logo Curio]

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