Handle Financial is led by a team of experts from the payments, mobile and retail IT worlds. We exist to build affordably-priced, innovative products for businesses
PayNearMe started as a cash payment network, enabling businesses and government agencies to collect cash payments from their consumers at retail stores. Today, that network reaches more than 27,000 stores, including 7-Eleven, ACE Cash Express, Casey’s General Store and Family Dollar.
The 2018 launch of PayNearMe’s debit, credit and ACH payment capabilities expanded our offering beyond cash, allowing businesses and government agencies to securely accept and manage all types of payments. With our mobile-first design, consumers get a simple and intuitive user experience that makes paying with any form of tender faster and more convenient.
Danny Shader founded Handle Financial in 2009 after a long history of building innovative, high-growth companies. Prior to Handle Financial, he led Good Technology, Inc. a wireless software company that was acquired by Motorola in 2007. Before Good, Danny co-founded Accept.com, one of the first person-to-person payments providers, which Amazon acquired in 1999.
Steve Capps is our chief innovator. As an expert in user interface design, he is relentless about making our products and services easy to use. He was a member of the original Macintosh team, key designer of Apple Newton, and an Apple Fellow. Steve is named on 65+ patents that span toys, musical instruments, hardware and software.
Mirna Daouk is our Chief Financial Officer. Prior to joining PayNearMe, she held multiple roles leadership at JPMorgan Chase including managing director and CFO of Business Banking, as well as concurrently the Mortgage Banking financial planning and analysis lead and Mortgage Banking Technology CFO.
Mirna holds an MS degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT, where she also completed PhD course and exam requirements, and received an MS-equivalent in Mechanical Engineering and a BS-equivalent in Mathematics and Physics from the Ecole Polytechnique in France.
John Minor leads the product and support teams at Handle Financial. Prior to Handle Financial, John managed network products for Jasper Wireless and worked at Motorola, where he helped the company launch its first Android phone. He began his career at Good Technology, where he served as director of technical account management and escalations.
Michael Tibbott leads the engineering team at Handle Financial, and was one of the company’s first developers. Michael has a track record of pushing the envelope. From GRiD (first laptop computer) to Apple’s Newton (helped define the PDA), Classifeds2000 (profitable e-commerce web site sold to Excite in 1998), and LivePlanet (integrating web, TV and reality with Project Greenlight), Michael is known for building and managing engineering teams that ship fast, reliable and accurate software.
Michael Kaplan leads Handle Financial’s merchant processing business (PayNearMe). Michael has over 20 years of experience in mobile and payments technology. Prior to Handle Financial, he led teams at Good Technology, Motorola, and most recently, Jasper Wireless, where he was responsible for strategic partnerships, solution engineering and carrier integrations globally.
Lauren Brown is Handle Financial’s Vice President of Legal. Prior to leading Handle Financial’s legal department, Lauren served as the company’s Associate General Counsel and Chief Regulatory Counsel, as well as AML Compliance Officer of the company’s licensed money transmitter subsidiary. In law school, Lauren completed an externship for the U.S. District Court’s Northern District of California and served as an Editor for the Santa Clara Law Review. She holds a JD from Santa Clara University School of Law and a BA from University of California at San Diego.