MICHAEL J. BROWN co-founded Euronet in 1994 and has served as its chief executive officer ever since. He is also chairman of Euronet’s board of directors and the Company’s President. An accomplished entrepreneur with 30+ years of combined experience in the computer software and digital payments business, he is actively involved in the day-to-day operations of Euronet while overseeing the company’s business strategy, financial performance and the growth of the business across all markets.

Mr. Brown’s guidance has been instrumental in developing Euronet’s global cash/digital payments network and diverse products and services that provide Euronet with resiliency to changing market conditions and continual year-over-year growth in the global payments marketplace.

Following early successes in his career with Kansas City-area companies Informix and Visual Tools, Mr. Brown founded Euronet in 1994 in Budapest, Hungary, by installing the first independent, non-bank-owned ATM network in Central Europe. Beginning with 300 ATMs, Euronet’s ATM network now includes more than 53,000 ATMs in over 60 countries. In addition to cash access, the company’s ATM segment (Electronic Funds Transfer or EFT) provides advertising, ticket sales and other services on its ATMs, outsourcing of ATM services for financial institutions, payment processing and point of sale (POS) services, and value-added services such as dynamic currency conversion (DCC) and tax-free shopping for merchants.  

After Euronet’s IPO in 1997, the first Central European company to go public on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange, Mr. Brown guided the company through several strategic acquisitions that grew its ATM network and capabilities and expanded its overall products and services.

In 2003, Euronet acquired UK-based epay, a leader in selling mobile phone top-ups using scratch-off cards. As the mobile phone market matured, epay’s services were moved from cards to Euronet’s ATMs and, eventually, a completely digital process that could be executed on one’s smartphone. Additional services, such as in-store and digital-based gift cards, were added to the epay portfolio. And now, the epay business segment has established itself as a global leader in branded payments (gift cards), mobile activations and numerous other daily transactions that connect brands with consumers in stores and online.   

In Euronet’s second notable acquisition, the company diversified into the remittance payment market by acquiring Los Angeles-based Ria Money Transfer in 2007. Under Mr. Brown’s guidance, Ria has greatly expanded its cash pickup locations worldwide while, in recent years, moving aggressively into the digital payments space for remittance payments. Now, with a global network that includes approximately 540,000 cash pickup locations and connections to more than 5 billion digital wallet and bank accounts, Ria stands as the second-largest money remittance company in the world.

Mr. Brown also has spearheaded several technical initiatives across Euronet to establish the company as a leader in the evolving digital payments landscape. The company’s Ren payments platform, the same technology that powers Euronet’s global payment processing centers, is now available to financial institutions, central banks and fintechs who are building the next generation of payment networks, including mission-critical, real-time payments networks in India and Africa and large card-issuing projects in Latin America. Ria’s payment rails are also available to the same customers through Euronet’s Dandelion cross-border payments platform. With Dandelion, leading financial institutions can deliver and settle regulated real-time payments through a single API connection with businesses, other banks and the billions of Ria’s connected wallet and bank accounts in approximately 140 countries and territories.

From the first ATM in Hungary to now, Mr. Brown has grown Euronet to approximately 10,000 employees and 67 offices worldwide. He has also brought financial inclusion and convenience to businesses and consumers through a payments network spanning 200 countries and territories.

A lifelong Kansas Citian, Mr. Brown is an active supporter and past and present board member of many Kansas City-area charities. He received a Master of Science in molecular and cellular biology at the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 1997 and a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1979.