Blackhawk Network Appoints Nick Samurkas as Chief Operating Officer

Veteran payments executive assumes newly-added role

Branded payments provider Blackhawk Network today announced that Nick Samurkas has been appointed as the company’s first chief operating officer. In this newly-added role, Samurkas will be responsible for overseeing day-to-day operations and solutions delivery processes across the company.

Samurkas holds more than 20 years of experience in the payments industry in senior management roles. Before joining Blackhawk, he served as chief operations officer at Moneris, one of North America’s largest providers of payment processing solutions. Prior to that, Samurkas led the Canadian business at Chase Paymentech, where he oversaw sales, account management, operations and product teams. He is also the former senior vice president and chief operating officer of Global Payments Asia Pacific, where he established and managed operational centers in the Asia Pacific region.

“We are delighted to welcome Nick to Blackhawk’s senior leadership team,” said Talbott Roche, Blackhawk Network CEO and president. “The new chief operating officer role supports our ongoing effort to enhance operations and delivery functions as we continue to grow our business both domestically and internationally. Nick’s strong skillset in payments coupled with his extensive global experience make him the perfect choice to lead our operations group and drive our aggressive growth strategy.”

As chief operating officer, Samurkas is now based out of Blackhawk’s corporate headquarters in Pleasanton, California and reports directly to Roche.