Samir Zabaneh
"The most successful operators aren't waiting for conditions to improve, they are taking control through strategic technology investments that enhance their operations and make their teams more productive while preserving what matters most: genuine human hospitality and connection."
Samir Zabaneh joined Nuvei as Chief Operating Officer in July 2026 after five years as chairman and CEO of TouchBistro. At Nuvei, he runs the global operations and oversees compliance, risk, and underwriting. He views CX as a discipline built on systems customers never see.
At TouchBistro, Zabaneh pushed the product beyond the limitations of point-of-sale systems. He moved it to the cloud and expanded it across reservations, ordering, loyalty, payments, labor, inventory, and profitability. Connecting front- and back-of-house data helped operators see staffing, food demand, waste, and margins sooner.
Zabaneh believes better forecasting gives restaurateurs more opportunity to "be more present with their customers." He wants technology to take administrative work off operators so they can spend more time on the floor with guests.
His view on automation is selective. When TouchBistro research showed that diners still strongly prefer human-led service, Zabaneh argued that technology should support hospitality rather than replace it. He sees the strongest use cases behind the scenes, where automation can reduce repetitive work in areas such as inventory, invoicing, and marketing, giving staff more time to focus on the in-venue experience. He described the goal as preserving “genuine human hospitality and connection.”
At Nuvei, he’s working within a similar philosophy. The company is building AI agents for onboarding and agentic commerce, using automation to reduce friction and manual work across payment workflows. Zabaneh, meanwhile, oversees the global operating model those systems sit within, aligning regional execution with compliance, risk, and underwriting as Nuvei scales.
Nuvei is a global payments technology company that helps businesses accept payments, manage payouts, issue cards, and handle fraud and risk through a single platform. Founded in 2003, the company supports more than 720 payment methods, 150 currencies, and businesses across more than 200 markets worldwide.