Square nabs Salesforce exec, reaches $6B+ in payments

Sarah Friar jumps on Square team as SVP of finance, strategy as Apple moves into mobile wallet space

Ain't nothing gonna break Square's stride, that's for sure. The San Francisco-based mobile payment service announced today that it has hired Sarah Friar as its new Chief Financial Officer. 

Up to this point, Friar has been the senior vice president of finance and strategy at Salesforce.com and now she will be the number's woman for the fastest-growing mobile payment service changing how small businesses function. 

Before joining Salesforce, Friar worked at Goldman Sachs in corporate finance, M&A and equity research, as well as at McKinsey in various global branches.

Square stated that this new hire will help the company grow its product offerings and prepare for its international expansion later this year. That sounds very promising -- I wouldn't mind walking into a boutique in Guadalajara and using my Square account rather than having to convert all my dollars to pesos. 

Square also used this announcement as a prime moment to state that the company now processes “over $6 billion in payments on an annualized basis” and that “over 1 million individuals and businesses are able to accept credit cards with Square.”

In recent months, everyone has been jumping into the mobile payment app service -- from Visa and Mastercard to PayDragon and LevelUp. Talk also started this week around Apple’s new Passport feature in the upcoming iOS 6 release. This new service that stores various cards, coupons and tickets could threaten Square but they have created a loyal base that gives them a great advantage.

"Square was founded on a commitment to help people start and grow their business," said Friar, in a statement. "I'm thrilled to join a company driving meaningful economic growth while revolutionizing the payment experience for consumers."

In the past year, Square has grown from 80 employees to more than 300 and recently added several VP-level executives including Alyssa Cutright (VP, International) from PayPal, Jesse Dorogusker (VP, Hardware) from Apple and Ricardo Reyes (VP, Communications and Brand Marketing) from Tesla.