After leading Worldpay into a transatlantic £22.2bn merger with Vantiv last year, general counsel (GC) Ruwan (Roo) de Soyza will be leaving the global payment processing company in 2019.
De Soyza (pictured) is expected to leave midway through next year to take up a GC and executive committee role at a FTSE 100 technology company.
The Clifford Chance-trained de Soyza first joined Worldpay from Standard Chartered in 2012, where he was GC of the bank’s global e-commerce business. He became group GC in January 2017 when predecessor Mark Edwards left after two years in the role.
Among his most notable mandates was overseeing the £9bn buyout by Cincinnati-based Vantiv in July last year, creating a payment-processing giant worth £22.2bn. Worldpay was represented by Allen & Overy on the deal, with the Magic Circle firm led by corporate partner Duncan Bellamy.
In the 2018 GC Powerlist Bellamy said: ‘Roo is excellent, really enthusiastic. He blends the role of being a boardroom adviser along with doing business-as-usual stuff brilliantly. He’s not afraid to get his hands dirty.’
Other key initiatives during de Soyza’s tenure include the launch of My Business Mobile, a downloadable app that can turn a mobile phone into a contactless payment terminal.
He currently leads a legal team of around 25 people in the UK and counts A&O, Sidley Austin and Wiggin among Worldpay’s key advisers.
In other recent GC moves, ITV appointed easyJet group GC Kyla Mullins as its new head of legal, filling a role vacated by the experienced Andrew Garard in July.
Mullins returned to ITV having previously been its group legal director between 2000 and 2007.
