Rob Beard is the chief legal officer, general counsel and head of Global Policy at Mastercard. In this role, he oversees the company’s public policy, regulatory affairs and litigation teams around the world in addition to serving on the company’s Management Committee.

He brings more than 20 years of international experience to the role from across senior levels of the business and legal worlds. Rob joined Mastercard in 2023 following a nearly decade-long tenure at Micron Technology, where he was the general counsel and corporate secretary.

Rob originally joined Micron in 2014 as the company’s primary M&A lawyer and for several years partnered closely with the company’s corporate development team on a wide range of strategic opportunities, including significant transactions in Japan, Taiwan, Europe, China and Singapore. He played a key role in promoting the U.S. CHIPS & Science Act and in negotiating an incentive package from the state of New York for Micron’s announced $100 billion semiconductor manufacturing facility to be built in the Syracuse area.

Prior to Micron, Rob was an associate at Weil Gotshal & Manges in London, New York and Silicon Valley, focusing on M&A and capital markets transactions, and at Shearman & Sterling in London, where he focused on debt capital markets transactions. He has also taught at the University of Illinois College of Law and the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah. Rob graduated from the University of Utah and received his J.D. from the University of Illinois College of Law, summa cum laude.