Mastercard has appointed Raj Seshadri as president of its data and services organization, succeeding Kevin Stanton, who starts a new role as chief transformation officer.
In a role that will help Mastercard's global data and services products reinforce core payments, Seshadri will bring her experience of four years as president of U.S. issuers at Mastercard. In that role, she grew the company's regional credit, debit, commercial and prepaid card programs and other services for banks and credit unions.
“From day one, we’ve benefitted from Raj’s analytical perspectives to rethink and re-establish our contribution as a trusted partner to our issuing customers," Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga said in a Monday press release. "And, the results speak for themselves, as we substantially grew our core, including consumer credit, in a very competitive market.”
Seshadri joined Mastercard in 2016 from BlackRock, where she was a managing director leading the company’s iShares U.S. retail ETF business. Prior to that she was global chief marketing officer of iShares.
In his new role as chief transformation officer, Stanton will lead a team to assess the changing economic and global trends such as localization and nationalism, consider the impact on traditional business models and to help shape strategy and assert the company’s role in policy for the future.
For the past two years, Stanton served as chief services officer. He was named president of Mastercard Advisors in 2010 following a six-year tenure as president of the company’s Canada region.
“For more than 20 years, Kevin has taken on new challenges, delivering opportunities for growth at every turn," Banga said. "He took the vision of what advisors could be and evolved it into a thriving data and services team that adds value beyond the transaction.”
Additionally, Linda Kirkpatrick will assume the role of president, U.S. issuers, replacing Seshadri. She currently serves as executive vice president of U.S. merchants and acceptance, responsible for key merchant and acquirer relationships and business development across a number of sectors.
Kush Saxena will become executive vice president of U.S. merchants and acceptance. He will manage U.S. merchants and acquirers, pricing and interchange, and business developments efforts for co-brand, prepaid, commercial, transit, healthcare and the public sector.
