Paycom's Chris Mallick Steps Down

Mallick was with Paycom for five years.

Late Wednesday evening, Paycom issued a statement explaining the sudden personnel change to its upper management team, adding that the company will now be managed by Paycom President Clay Andrews and Joel Hall, chief technology officer.

Paycom also stated that Mallick's departure in no way reflected changes to its payment processing business, squelching any rumors that the company had lost its merchant bank.

Christie Taylor, Mallick's assistant, has also left the company.

By mid-morning Thursday, Mallick made a statement on GFY.com countering Paycom's official statement, saying that he had not voluntarily left the company and that he has not acted as CEO for Paycom since Feb. 11.

"If you have received a reply from me at Paycom or ePassporte since Feb. 11th at 5PM PST, the reply did not come from me," Mallick said. "I would like to know if you have any such email reply. The same is true for my cellphone voice or text messages; I have not had those since the 11th either."

Mallick added that he has no intention of leaving the credit card issuing or processing industry, although he could not elaborate at this time.

"Any of you that know me, know that I will give you cold, hard, reliable and accurate facts, but only when appropriate," Mallick said. "I feel like one of my strengths is communication. I believe in it whole-heartedly and that won’t change. So you will be hearing from me soon as to this event and as to my plans for the future. I hope that when those plans are announced you will be happy and excited for me and about the prospects they will bring. Well, not everyone will be happy or excited…"

Mallick’s post set of a wave of speculation about the dismissal, which Paycom's communications director, Rand Pate, attempted to put to rest in a subsequent post.

“Sometimes a change in management is what is necessary for a company to grow,” Rand said. “Really guys, this is a management decision. It happens every day in business. It's nothing more. Business as usual.”

Mallick was not available for additional comment at the time of this posting.