Dan Drees

President AvidXchange Inc.

Last Reviewed: September 18, 2026

Executive Summary

Dan Drees is President of AvidXchange, the accounts-payable and payments automation company that serves middle-market businesses — the segment large enough to drown in invoices but too small to have built an automated finance function. He joined in April 2018 as Chief Growth Officer and was elevated to President in January 2023, taking responsibility for sales, marketing, operations and product, with the stated remit of driving organisational agility and operational synergy across functions that had previously reported separately. His tenure spans the company’s most consequential five years: vertical-market expansion, an acquisition programme, the pandemic response, the 2021 Nasdaq IPO, and the October 2025 take-private by TPG and Corpay that valued the business at roughly $2.2bn and ended its life as a public company. Drees came to the role with more than two decades of growth leadership at Fortune 500 institutions — General Electric, Bank of America, Ally Financial, Capital One — and most immediately from Fiserv, where he ran the fraud and risk solutions business.

Career Highlights

• Elevated to President of AvidXchange effective January 2023 after almost five years as Chief Growth Officer.
• Took responsibility for sales, marketing, operations and product, with Chief Revenue Officer James Sutton reporting to him.
• Helped drive AvidXchange’s vertical-market expansion, acquisitions, pandemic response and its 2021 initial public offering.
• Remained President through the company’s take-private at $10.00 per share, announced 6 May 2025 and completed 15 October 2025, in which TPG Capital took a majority interest and Corpay a roughly 34 per cent stake for about $550m, valuing AvidXchange at approximately $2.2bn.
• Led the fraud and risk solutions business at Fiserv from July 2017 to March 2018 before joining AvidXchange.
• Held executive roles across General Electric, Bank of America, Ally Financial and Capital One, accumulating more than 25 years of growth experience before joining AvidXchange.
• Certified Six Sigma Black Belt.

Professional Journey

Drees trained as a mechanical engineer at Iowa State University and built a career not in engineering but in growth leadership across large American financial institutions. He held executive roles at General Electric, Bank of America, Ally Financial and Capital One — a sequence that covers industrial finance, retail banking, auto lending and card issuing, and that gave him exposure to the payments and risk infrastructure of each. His Six Sigma Black Belt certification dates from this period of his career and reflects an operational-discipline orientation that recurs in how his later roles have been described.

From July 2017 to March 2018 he led the fraud and risk solutions business at Fiserv, one of the largest payments and financial technology processors in the United States. It was a short tenure, and in April 2018 he joined AvidXchange as Chief Growth Officer.

AvidXchange automates accounts payable and supplier payments for middle-market companies — businesses processing thousands of invoices a month across property management, construction, healthcare, financial services and similar verticals, where the finance function is still substantially manual. By the time of Drees’s promotion the company was serving over 8,000 buyer organisations and around 825,000 supplier customers. As Chief Growth Officer he was central to the company’s expansion into those vertical markets, to an acquisition programme that added capability and customers, to the operational response when the pandemic disrupted both invoice volumes and the physical processes many customers still relied on, and to the company’s initial public offering in 2021.

In January 2023 AvidXchange restructured its leadership, elevating Drees to President with sales, marketing, operations and product consolidated under him and a newly hired Chief Revenue Officer reporting in. Chief executive and co-founder Michael Praeger framed the change around four years of proven partnership across the organisation; Drees framed it around speed, arguing that a single accountable owner across those functions would let the company respond faster to customer needs.

The most significant event of his presidency came in 2025. On 6 May, AvidXchange agreed to be acquired at $10.00 per share by TPG, with Corpay taking a minority position. Shareholders approved the deal on 16 September and it closed on 15 October, with TPG Capital holding a majority interest and Corpay investing roughly $550m for about 34 per cent. The company was valued at approximately $2.2bn, its shares ceased trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, and AvidXchange returned to private ownership with Praeger as CEO and Drees as President.

Education

Iowa State University

Bachelor of Science, Mechanical Engineering