When Dana Lorberg was asked to name an inspirational executive outside of the financial services industry, she cited Steve Jobs, the Apple visionary. One quote from Jobs particularly stuck with her: "When I hire somebody really senior... they have to be really smart. But the real issue for me is are they going to fall in love with Apple? Because if they are in love with Apple, everything else will take care of itself."
Lorberg resonates with similar passion for MasterCard Worldwide, where she has worked in a variety of executive capacities during the past 22 years - from software development to information security. In her role as group executive, global network products, Lorberg has helped strengthen MasterCard's worldwide network and revenues from processing, one of the company's three major lines of business. Higher net revenue in the second quarter of 2009 was partly fueled by a 7.9 percent increase in the number of transactions processed, to 5.6 billion, from a year earlier.
"We have this fabulous global technology footprint and world renowned brands, but we can also localize these offerings and make them relevant to particular markets," Lorberg says.
As financial institutions have been under pressure to reduce IT spending, Lorberg also led the processing group in shifting from a go-to-market approach to a strategy of greater "hosted" solutions. A customer can access processing solutions on MasterCard's global network without having to tap its own IT resources.
Gary Flood, Mastercard's president of global products and solutions, says that Lorberg "is a strategic, and inspirational leader. Her "in-depth industry knowledge and financial proficiency helps keep MasterCard at the forefront of our industry," he wrote in an email.
