PayPal exec scooped up by Square to lead international expansion

Following the release of PayPal’s Here — a dongle-based competitor to Square’s popular credit card system — it looks like one of the company’s execs is jumping ship to Square to head up its push into international markets. Joining Square as VP of International next week, Alyssa Cutright has been at PayPal for 12 years, most recently as its VP of products for North America, but was also previously in charge of localizing PayPal’s services for international markets with the core payments team.

While Square is the incumbent in the mobile credit card payment space, PayPal is already ahead in terms of international access, with Here service available in Canada, Australia, and Hong Kong at launch, in addition to the US (the only country where Square is currently available). Despite the similarities in the two companies’ offerings, PayPal has pointed out that “although Alyssa held a product role with PayPal, she was not involved in the creation or launch of PayPal Here.” Even so, it’s been a long two years for vendors and credit card users in international markets since Square’s release, and hopefully this acquisition speeds the planned expansion along.