Mastercard Inc, the US-based multinational payments and financial service provider announced major changes to its top-level leadership and management team.
As per the statement released by the firm, its board of directors has decided on a successor for Mr. Ajay Banga – current Chief Executive Officer as Mr. Banga has decided to step down from the role after serving in the capacity as head of the firm for a decade now.
Mr. Banga will be succeeded by Mr. Michael Miebach who is currently serving in the capacity of Chief Product Officer and has been a part of Mastercard’s family for nearly a decade now. Michael joined Mastercard as the President of the Middle East & Africa region in 2010 and has been serving in his current role as Chief Product Officer since 2016.
Earlier in his career, he served as Managing Director at Barclays Bank for nearly three years prior to which he spent nearly 13 years serving in various senior-level roles under US lender Citi Group. Mr. Banga succeeded Robert W Selander as CEO of Mastercard on 1st July 2010 and took on the role of President of the firm alongside the role of CEO and member of the board of directors on the same day.
As part of the transition of power, Michael Miebach will inherit the role of President from Mr. Banga on 1st March 2020 but will take on the role of Chief Executive Officer on 1st January 2021 to ensure a smooth transition in roles. However, Mr. Banga will still remain a part of Mastercard’s family and will take on the role of Executive Chairman effective from 1st January 2021.
As part of his new role as President, Miebach has entered into a compensation agreement which gives him an additional boost to his annual base salary by US$ 750,000 alongside a one-time equity grant whose estimated target value is placed around US$ 6.25 Million.
Speaking about the appointment of his successor, Mr. Banga said, “During the course of Michael’s 10 years at Mastercard, he has been a key architect of our multi-rail strategy-including leading the acquisition of Vocalink and the pending transaction with Nets-to address a broader set of payment flows” and added that it has been a privilege to serve as the head of multinational financial services giant in reference to his current role as CEO and for being a part of its transformation as a company from payment service provider to financial services giant.
It should be noted that this announcement from the firm comes shortly after it revealed its warnings on 2020 revenues taking a hit owing to the coronavirus outbreak. As per the statement from the firm, if the impact of the virus outbreak on the firm is limited to just the first quarter of 2020 then, the annual year over year net revenue growth for 2020 is expected to be in the low end of the low teens’ range.
