Benjamin Adams, CLO of Western Union. Courtesy photo

Western Union has hired former PayPal lawyer Benjamin Adams as chief legal officer.

Adams succeeds Caroline Tsai, who left Western Union earlier this year to become CLO at the IT services and consulting firm FIS. His responsibilities include leading global legal affairs, public policy and regulatory affairs, ethics and privacy efforts.

Adams said he was drawn to Western Union's more than 170-year history and its potential. It started as a telegraph company and has evolved over the decades to become the international leader in money transfers.

"I'm passionate about its mission to connect people everywhere to the global economy by enabling money to flow across borders, and how it's moving to offer other financial services to its customers," he said.

Adams is joining the Denver-based company after spending six years at PayPal, where he rose to vice president and chief commercial and intellectual property counsel. Before that, Adams spent eight years at Nokia and seven years at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.

Adams said the breadth of his legal experience has been gained supporting global financial services and consumer-facing technology solutions, which positions him well to help guide Western Union on its future course.

"I've spent a significant portion of my career outside of the U.S., living and working in places as diverse as India, Finland, Cameroon, and the United Kingdom. I am used to working in global, diverse, matrixed organizations, understanding the complexities of operating at scale, and how legal challenges can manifest differently across multiple jurisdictions," he said.

Western Union operates across more than 200 countries and territories. It has more than 10,000 employees and generates more than $5 billion in annual revenue.

"Providing an effective, accountable, and transparent global financial infrastructure that protects individuals is paramount, and so I'm very much looking forward to getting up to speed with all facets of the organization, its people, as well as key external stakeholders, and providing effective guidance that moves the business forward," he said.