Thomas Priore has served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer since December 2018 and as Executive Chairman and founding member of Priority from August 2005 through November 2018. Under Mr. Priore's strategic direction, Priority has grown from a founder-financed technology startup to become the 6 th largest non-bank merchant acquirer in the U.S. by volume, according to the Nilson Report issued in March 2024. Priority is a solutions provider in Payments and BaaS industry, operating at scale with 1.2 million customer accounts across its SMB, B2B and Enterprise customers channels. Priority processes $130 billion in annual transaction activity while administering approximately $1.2 billion in account balances. Prior to dedicating his full time to Priority, he founded ICP Capital, a boutique investment banking enterprise that became a market leader in structured finance reaching over $20 billion in assets under management. From 1999 until 2003, Mr. Priore was with Guggenheim Securities where he founded the Structured Finance Trading and Origination business and managed its Fixed Income Sales and Trading division. Previously, Mr. Priore spent eight years in PaineWebber's Fixed Income Sales and Trading department, rising to Vice President. Mr. Priore is a graduate of Harvard University and holds an MBA from Columbia University.