04:05 INTERVIEW
I didn’t even know there was a payroll industry. I was accustomed to just getting paid on time, the money just got deposited and I never thought about it. That was the extent of my exposure to payroll at the time. I didn’t realize the complexity associated with compliance, that payroll could be inaccurate. I never experienced it personally. The company, iiPay, was very small, headquartered in the UK, and a Dallas based private equity acquired it. I joined as chief operating officer in May 2016 and was immediately struck by the quality of young talent they had working there. I saw great opportunity to take this talent, leverage it, and do something great. While some think the great market differentiator for successful organizations is technology, for example, or they believe it’s something else, I believe that if you’ve got
I didn’t even know there was a payroll industry. I was accustomed to just getting paid on time, the money just got deposited and I never thought about it. That was the extent of my exposure to payroll at the time.
dollar software firm decided to purchase us, I thought that was going to be it for me. I planned to retire, although I was pretty young. Shortly after, I kind of got the startup bug. I started to lead some small technology companies and served on boards for others. Then, I was in the gym one day and a colleague from a private equity company stopped and said, “Curtis, we have this amazing company and we’d like for you to be a partner.” And I asked, “What’s the industry?” And he said, “Payroll?” And I said, “Payroll? What?”
Lab’s successor, when my wife and I decided (and I say “we,” but she actually decided) to move closer to our family in Louisiana, meaning I would have to leave that position. I took one call from a recruiter Plano, Texas, with the opportunity to become president and CEO of that company. And I became the CEO and a member of their Board of Directors. It was publicly traded and was an amazing experience serving some of the largest telecom companies in the world. When a multi-billion about a company headquartered in
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GLOBAL PAYROLL MAGAZINE ISSUE 15
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