# Craig Gass

> Craig Gass is the CEO and co-founder of Qualpay, a San Mateo payments company he started in 2014 after a career spanning law, financial institutions, and payment operations. His public work focuses on making the machinery between a sale and its settlement easier for merchants to see and manage, while his leadership philosophy emphasizes careful analysis, hard questions, and the collective strength of an experienced team.

- **Role:** CEO and co-founder at Qualpay
- **Organizations:** Qualpay, BA Merchant Services, Merchant e-Solutions
- **Education:** B.A. in Political Science, Washington State University, J.D., Willamette University College of Law, M.B.A., University of Oregon
- **Known for:** Co-founded Qualpay in 2014 and has served as CEO through its development as an integrated payments platform., Helped combine merchant acquiring, a payment gateway, reporting, and related services in a single multi-channel platform., Led Qualpay through a strategic investment in which Synovus agreed to take a 60% ownership interest in 2022.

## Career timeline

- **Early career** — Began his career as in-house legal counsel.
- **Before 2014** — Built legal and management experience with financial institutions and payment companies, including BA Merchant Services and Merchant e-Solutions.
- **2014** — Co-founded Qualpay with a team of payments-industry veterans and became its CEO.
- **2016** — Discussed the shift to centralized omnichannel payments in a live PYMNTS conversation with Karen Webster.
- **2018** — Published practical essays on omnichannel infrastructure and managing payments in the subscription economy.
- **2020** — Qualpay settled FTC allegations concerning its processing for MOBE; the order restricted certain high-risk processing and required enhanced screening and monitoring.
- **2022** — Synovus agreed to acquire a 60% ownership interest in Qualpay and use its technology in an embedded-finance initiative.
- **2023** — Explained his transition from law to management and his team-centered leadership principles in an Authority Magazine interview.
- **2025** — Qualpay expanded its industry integrations, including a payment-processing integration with energy-software provider DRM.
- **2026** — Qualpay became an Endorsed Payments Partner of the National Waste & Recycling Association.

## Achievements

- Co-founded Qualpay in 2014 and has served as CEO through its development as an integrated payments platform.
- Helped combine merchant acquiring, a payment gateway, reporting, and related services in a single multi-channel platform.
- Led Qualpay through a strategic investment in which Synovus agreed to take a 60% ownership interest in 2022.
- Published and spoke publicly about omnichannel commerce, subscription payments, embedded finance, and fintech trends.
- Extended Qualpay's platform into industry-specific integrations for energy delivery and waste and recycling businesses.

## Latest updates

- **2026-07** — Qualpay became an Endorsed Payments Partner of the National Waste & Recycling Association; Gass said the company would support members with integrated payment infrastructure.
- **2026-05** — Qualpay's public release notes documented continued updates to reporting, webhooks, ACH support, and plugins.
- **2025-02** — Qualpay and DRM announced an integration designed to support payment processing and cost management for energy marketers.

## Links

- Website: https://www.qualpay.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craig-gass-3415473
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/qualpay

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/craig-gass
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-18