Philip W. Tomlinson, CEO of Total Systems Services (TSYS), will retire on July 31. He will be succeeded by M. Troy Woods, the company's president and COO.
Tomlinson has been with the company since 1974, about a decade before TSYS was spun off in 1983 by Columbus Bank and Trust Co. He became the company's president in 1992. Recently, under Tomlinson's leadership, TSYS has aggressively pursued the payments processing volume that will result from the growth of mobile payments and prepaid cards.
Woods most recently guided TSYS' diversification strategy into areas beyond traditional third party processing for bank issuers and merchant acquirers, including direct merchant acquiring.
Tomlinson will remain executive chairman of the TSYS board until Columbus, Ga., company's 2015 annual shareholders' meeting.
"Troy and I have worked together for 27 years. This transition is the result of a carefully developed long-term succession plan and the passing of the torch will be seamless. Troy has the acumen, vision and energy needed to take TSYS further along its journey to be the leading global payments solutions provider," says Tomlinson in a June 23 press release.
TSYS also recently announced the retirement of James B. Lipham as senior executive vice president and CFO, to be succeeded by senior vice president Troy M. Todd.
