FreedomPay raids Subway to bring in Mike Farrell as its new SVP, Global Enterprise Accounts

FinTech firm FreedomPay has announced the appointment of Mike Farrell as Senior Vice President of Global Enterprise Accounts.

He joins from Subway where he served as Head of Global Payments and Fraud Prevention. During his time there he oversaw payment operations and fraud strategy for almost 29,000 locations across 15 countries.

“Mike is exactly the kind of leader who drives meaningful growth within global enterprise accounts,” says Chris Kronenthal, President at FreedomPay.

"He has lived on the merchant side of the table - building payment programmes at global scale, navigating complexity across markets, and demanding the very best from his partners. He knows what enterprise merchants need because he has been one of our most sophisticated customers. That perspective is invaluable as we continue to grow our global enterprise business."

"As a global enterprise merchant, I was able to see firsthand how powerful FreedomPay's offering could be: true global scale, multi-acquiring capability and a fully resilient architecture made them best in class," says Farrell.

"I am excited to join the great team here to continue to help other enterprise merchants remove the increasing complexity that payments presents with the world's largest independent payment gateway."

2026 RTIH Innovation Awards

Payments will be a key focus area at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards.

The awards are now open for entries and celebrate global retail technology innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world.

Our winners will be revealed at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony, taking place at The HAC in Central London on Wednesday, 4th November.

Check out our 2025 winners here.

Our 2025 hall of fame entrants were revealed during a sold out event which took place at The HAC on 16th October and consisted of a drinks reception, three course meal, and awards ceremony presided over by award winning comedian, actress and writer Tiff Stevenson.

In his welcome speech, Scott Thompson, Founder and Editor, RTIH, said: “This is the awards’ fifth year as a physical event. We started off with just 30 people at the South Place Hotel not far from here, then moved to London Bridge Hotel, then The Barbican, and last year RIBA’s HQ in the West End.”

“But I’m conscious of the fact that, to quote the legend that is Taylor Swift, You’re only as hot as your last hit, baby. So, this year we’ve moved to our biggest venue yet, and also pulled in our largest number of entries to date and broken attendance records.”

He added: “This year’s submissions have without doubt been our best yet. To quote one of the judges: The examples of innovative developments across both traditional and digital retail spaces were truly remarkable.”

Congratulations to our winners, and a big thank you to our sponsors, judging panel, the legend that is Tiff Stevenson, and all those who attended our 2025 gathering.