Paypal’s Uniquely Integrated Communications Department with Franz Paasche

PayPal’s Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs, Franz Paasche, sits down with us to discuss the keys to a fully integrated digital communications practice.

As part of our Digital Reductionism series with The Holmes Report, we are interviewing the communications leaders behind today’s most influential brands. Our conversations are meant to uncover key learnings about how marketing and communications leaders can best take advantage of today’s digital enlightenment.

Today’s episode is with Franz Paasche, Vice President of Corporate Affairs at Paypal. 

When PayPal split from eBay, Franz built a corporate affairs function by integrating the communications practice with governmental relations and social innovation, all operating as a single entity. We get into the benefits of consolidating previously disparate communications practices and key insights for other brands seeking to integrate their own comms departments better. 

Prior to joining PayPal in 2015, Franz spent almost four years at McKinsey & Company, where he was responsible for external relations, public affairs, and strategic communications. Before that, he was a senior partner at FleishmanHillard and is one of the few comms industry leaders to hold a law degree. Earlier this year, Franz was ranked as one of the most important and influential in-house communicators in the world by Holmes Report’s Influence 100.