April 3, 2012 
Rob von Behren
The exodus continue from Google Wallet with Square adding Rob von Behren to an unnamed position. With the recent moves from other key Google Wallet leaders, Jonathan Wall and Marc Freed-Finnegan, one has to wonder what is going on at Google to make key people leave.
From NFC Times:
One of the chief issues creating the rift appears to be how open the wallet would be to app developers and service providers. That, along with some other differences on strategy, put some long-standing members of the Google Wallet team, who had argued for more openness, at odds with vice president of payments and wallet head Bedier.
“When I left the Google Wallet project in January, I fully expected to stop working in payments but to remain at Google,” von Behren said. “After meeting the team at Square, however, I decided to do the opposite. Square is doing some great things in the payment space. They have a strong leadership team and a culture that fosters innovation.”
The big question is whether Square is going to add NFC to is payment framework. Square COO Keith Rabois has stated bluntly that NFC is not a priority for merchants or for Square but adding von Behren seems to contradict that stance.
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