Peter Cowan GAICD

Chief Executive Officer & Non-Executive Director | Corporate Governance, Two-Sided Network Scale & Regulated Markets
Chief Executive Officer, Board Chair, and Non-Executive Director with over 30 years driving enterprise performance, payments infrastructure, and digital commerce across regulated markets. Delivers boards a distinct dual-lens capability: experience combining APRA (ADI and FAR) and ASIC (AFSL and ACL) licensing and oversight, complex regulatory remediation, and Board, Audit and Risk Committee governance with whole-of-business execution experience across a $1B AUD turnover network serving ~8.5M consumer accounts and ~800K business accounts. Qualified Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD) with extensive statutory directorship experience across multi-entity corporate structures.
Executive & Governance Leadership
PayPal Australia Pty Limited — CEO, VP Global Entity Management & Executive Director
Oct 2023 – Present
PayPal Credit Pty Limited — Chair of the Board
Oct 2023 – Present
Hyperwallet Systems Australia Pty Limited — Non-Executive Director
Oct 2023 – Present
Upplft Pty Limited — Advisory Board Member
May 2025 – Present
Prior Directorships & Executive Career
Prior Statutory Directorships — Cashcard Australia | First Data Resources Australia | BWA Merchant Services
2013 – 2014
Indue — General Manager, Strategic Sales
Apr 2015 – Apr 2016
First Data Corporation — VP, Financial Services & Product Management
1996 – 2014
Board Committee Value & Core Competencies
Risk & Audit Committee Accountable Person under FAR; ACL licensing, AUSTRAC remediation, APRA/ASIC compliance architectures, risk appetite, responsible AI and cyber resilience.
Strategy & Technology Committee Two-sided network economics, $1B P&L scaling, payments and digital modernisation, platform monetisation, and ecosystem growth.
Governance & Nominations Board Chair, Statutory Director duties, multi-entity corporate structures, and stakeholder trust.
People & Remuneration Regulated accountability mapping under FAR, executive culture, succession planning, and ethical leadership.
Education & Governance Credentials
GAICD — Australian Institute of Company Directors
Master of Marketing — Charles Sturt University
Bachelor of Commerce — University of Wollongong