SimplePay’s Chief Operating Officer Rich Tanksley has resigned from his role as COO. Rich, who joined SimplePay in June 2014 will retire into an advisory capacity as a member of the SimplePay Advisory Board.
Rich is leaving the payments startup to head the Nigerian operations of Swiss media giant Ringier, at Pulse Nigeria.
Tanksley joined SimplePay in June 2014 as a representative of Seedstars, a Swiss startup venture fund that invested in SimplePay.
“We are grateful to the contributions that Rich has made to SimplePay,” said Founder and CEO, Simeon Ononobi, “He created amazing operational infrastructure that will help us take SimplePay to the next level. We are happy to still have him around in an advisory capacity.”
Following Rich’s exit, SimplePay is bringing in a new senior International team from Geneva to work on products, finance and business development.
Rich’s exit from payments to media might seem left field, but on closer scrutiny, it really isn’t. His social media accounts reveal that he “turns up” regularly at events and social functions in Lagos. Rich has even taken to acting of late, starring in a Nollywood flick titled “Husbands in Lagos” that was shot in 2014 by iROKO’s ROK Studios.
