BOSTON, MA, January 5, 2023 - Akoya announced today that Paul LaRusso has been named Chief Executive Officer and will remain a member of Akoya’s board of directors, succeeding Stuart Rubinstein in the role who, in early 2022 shared his desire to retire by year end with the board.

“On behalf of the board, I am thrilled to have Paul join as the CEO of Akoya,” said Dave Fortney, Chairman of the Board at Akoya. “Paul brings significant experience enabling consumers to safely share data with trusted parties and has extensive knowledge of the data aggregation and digital finance spaces. Paul has been a very active member of the Akoya board since it was established in 2020 and I look forward to working closely with him in his new role.”

LaRusso will join Akoya on February 15 from JPMorgan Chase, where he most recently served as the Head of Data Aggregation for Consumer & Community Banking. In this role, he led the industry in building out the infrastructure to deliver greater control and protection for consumers sharing their financial data. He was responsible for Chase’s data access channel and APIs which support hundreds of millions of API calls a month for millions of consumer and small business customers sharing data with thousands of third-party apps. Through his leadership, Chase fully eliminated screen scraping in October 2022. LaRusso was also responsible for negotiating agreements with several leading aggregators and fintechs, standing up Chase’s own aggregation services enabling customers to access their held away finances and driving partnerships with Open Banking industry groups and regulators.

“I’m honored and excited to lead Akoya, a company that is playing a critical role in the open finance industry,” said LaRusso. “Akoya is accelerating the availability of secure access to data while delivering more control and visibility for consumers. I look forward to continuing the mission of giving consumers more control over their data and providing a secure and reliable network for the entire financial services industry.”

During his 14+ year career at Chase, LaRusso held additional leadership positions including the Head of Product for Digital Servicing, responsible for Chase’s online communications and servicing products used by 40 million active users and Product Owner for Mobile where he led the strategy and rollout of Chase’s first mobile banking apps.  LaRusso is also the Board Co-Chair of Financial Data Exchange (FDX) and has served on the board of directors of Akoya.

Prior to joining Chase, LaRusso worked in the mobile industry for Verizon and Sprint. He holds a bachelor’s degree (B.A.) in International Relations and Spanish from Bucknell University, and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Georgetown University.

 “I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to lead a talented team of professionals who have already made a significant impact in improving how consumers provide third parties with access to their financial data,” said Rubinstein. “This journey is far from over, but I feel the time is right to turn the business over to a new leader who is well positioned to drive Akoya through its next stage of growth. I feel confident that the business is in great hands with Paul LaRusso, and I look forward to following its success.”

About Akoya

The Akoya Data Access Network is simplifying data access for open finance. Through a single integration with Akoya, financial institutions, fintechs, and data aggregators can enable multiple API connections and avoid continued maintenance and development efforts. Akoya handles all data-sharing relationships on behalf of network participants and removes the myriad of internal and external costs required to develop and manage multiple third-party agreements. Akoya optimizes for security, transparency, and scalability, and offers a passthrough model that does not copy, store, or hold any financial data or personal information. The network is an interoperable solution available to the entire financial services industry. To learn more visit Akoya.com. 

Media Contact: Olivia Fahey, Olivia@akoya.com