Erik Gutwasser is Division President Mastercard Nordics and Baltics and a member of Mastercard’s European Leadership Team. He is responsible for leading the overall Mastercard business in the eight Nordic and Baltic markets, making sure that the close partnership with local players continues to drive and develop one of the most innovative payment landscapes in the world. Driving the localization of Mastercard’s multi-rail strategy is an important part of his role, that has become even more relevant as a result of the acquisition of Nets Corporate Services as well as the P27 partnership (the world’s first real-time, cross-border payment system in multiple currencies).
In his role, he leads a strong team with offices in four markets, focused on leveraging Mastercard’s global strength and innovation power to make a positive difference for the people living in the Nordics and Baltics.
Erik joined Mastercard in 2013 as Head of Mastercard Advisors and has held several customer centric roles including country manager roles, constantly working on growing and establishing new partnerships. Since 2018 he is responsible for Mastercard in the Nordics and Baltics.
Erik has over 14 years’ experience within consultancy and business strategy where he has been working for one of the leading global managing consultancy firms. He is also part of the board for Doconomy – a Nordic sustainability FinTech.
Erik has a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering and Management from Linköping Institute of Technology. Additionally, he has been studying at Stockholm University and at the University of Technology Sydney.
Catherine Langlais is an Independent Non-Executive Director at OSTC, a derivatives trading and education business in the UK, since May 2020.
She was previously, until her retirement in January 2020, the General Counsel and Executive Legal Director of Euronext group (combining the Euronext exchanges in Belgium, France, Ireland, The Netherlands, Norway, and Portugal).
After a few years in a French credit institution, she had joined Matif SA, the French Derivatives Exchange, in 1990 as Head of Legal Department. Following Matif merger with the Paris Securities ‘Exchange at the end of the 1990s, she was actively involved in the creation of Euronext group in 2000 and its listing in Paris. She was thereafter involved in the merger with the New York Stock Exchange in 2007 to form NYSE Euronext, and after its acquisition by ICE in 2013, in the subsequent separation and IPO of Euronext in 2014, followed by the enlargement to Dublin and Oslo exchanges. Her responsibilities within the Euronext Group included supervising all legal and regulatory matters, coordinating the interactions with the Euronext College of Regulators, and advising the Managing and Supervisory Boards.
She graduated from the Paris XI-Sceaux University in International Law and from the Paris IV-Sorbonne University in Anglo-American civilization and literature. Mrs Langlais has been a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur since 2009.
Mark Barnett is President of Mastercard Europe and a member of the company’s management committee since 1 June 2020. He is responsible for the overall success of the only true multi-rail payments technology company, across a region that encompasses 53 countries and serves over 950 million people through partnerships with retailers, financial institutions and businesses.
In this role, Mark leads a business focused on doing well, doing good and making people’s lives easier by delivering simple and secure ways to pay and by fostering a culture where he drives new technology and innovation to position Mastercard as the partner of choice.
Mark joined Mastercard in 2003 and has held various roles. Prior to his current role, Mark was the President of the Mastercard UK, Ireland, Nordics and Baltics Division.
Mark has over 20 years’ experience in the retail banking and payments industry. Most of his client work has been at board level; developing payments strategy, designing innovative new products, advising card schemes and processors, supporting government payment initiatives and implementing major transformation programs.
Mark has an MBA from Imperial College Business School, University of London, and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics, also from London University.
Ineke Bussemaker has more than 30 years of experience in commercial banking leadership roles. Acknowledged as an inspirational and progressive people manager, she has throughout her career maintained focus on the synergies of new technologies with traditional banking products and payments to introduce and cultivate major innovations in financial services. At the beginning of 2020, she made a career switch to become Dean of the Faculty of Business and Economics at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. In this role she builds on her business management skills to achieve a digital transformation in education and to prepare young business and finance professionals for tomorrow.
Her banking career covers 5 banks across 5 countries from payment services to corporate and investment banking in product development roles, technology innovations and executive management roles.
In her most recent banking role she was CEO for NMB Bank Plc in Tanzania. Prior to this she was Head of Payment Services at Rabobank, the Netherlands, where she also chaired the Dutch banking community in the migration to SEPA and was a member of the European Payments Council. She worked for Citibank in the Netherlands, UK and Denmark.
NED roles include: member of the Board of Women’s World Banking Inc and Chair of the Supervisory Board of Invest International BV.
Ineke has an MBA from RSM, Rotterdam School of Management, and a Bachelor degree in Mathematics from Leiden University.
Bruno Baugnies is Senior Vice President, Operations and Technology at Mastercard Europe. In this role, he is responsible for managing the regional operations and technology teams and technology portfolio throughout Europe.
Prior to this role, Mr. Baugnies served as Group Head, Global Network for Europe. Stationed in Waterloo, Belgium, he was responsible for driving increased penetration of network processing and expansion across the processing value chain via partnerships and alliances. He also managed and identified new equity investments with the division heads and country heads across the region.
Previously, Mr. Baugnies worked at Europay International from 1992 to September 2000. There he held various positions where he was responsible for the organization and supervision of all IT development projects, from the business requirement phase to system implementation, for all systems operated by Europay.
In December 1985, Mr. Baugnies received a certificate in computer science from The Institute of Cinematography and Radio in Brussels, Belgium. He has more than 30 years of experience in the areas of computer technology, financial services and payments.
Vivian Zhou is the Executive Vice President & Corporate Treasurer at Mastercard. She is a seasoned business leader with over 20 years of financial services experience. In this role, she leads a global organization that is responsible for all treasury activities, credit risk management and enterprise risk management.
Prior to joining Mastercard in August 2022, Vivian held various senior leadership positions at American Express including Head of Balance Sheet Strategy and Planning overseeing core treasury functions for all banking entities of the company, and Head of CCAR Enterprise Management leading the company’s comprehensive capital analysis and stress testing program. Her most recent role was the Head of Investor Relations.
Earlier in her career, Vivian worked at KPMG in its Assurance Practice and Transaction Advisory Services Group. She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Vivian holds a Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Science degree from Binghamton University.
Jennifer is a Vice President of Global Customer Delivery for Mastercard. In this role, she is responsible for the end-to-end technical implementation of the company’s products and services worldwide to issuers, acquirers, merchants and other partners. Jennifer serves on the company’s management committee.
Prior to assuming this role in 2017, Jennifer was responsible for customer delivery, expert sales, and prepaid account management in the United States and Canada. Earlier in her tenure, she led the management, development and commercialization of consumer and commercial products for Mastercard Europe, as well as roles in strategy and development.
She brings more than 30 years of global experience in payments and financial services, with positions at Experian, American Express, and First USA/Bank One. Her background includes credit underwriting, product pricing and profitability, analysis and modeling, marketing and product management. Before joining Mastercard in 2007, Jennifer was the chief credit officer at African Bank in South Africa.
She is also the author of a comic book series published in South Africa that educates children on good financial habits and life skills.
Jennifer serves on the board of directors at Fair4All Finance and at ICM Mobility Ltd. She holds a Bachelor of Science in statistics from Lehigh University and a Master of Science in statistics from Iowa State University.
Ilya Riaby is Executive Vice President, Mastercard Switching Services, Europe. He and his team are responsible for securing and growing Mastercard switching business in the European Economic Area, cultivating and developing business opportunities with existing and new customers, and executing Mastercard switching strategy.
Mr. Riaby joined Mastercard in August 1998 as Regional Business Manager for Russia and Ukraine. Prior to his current role, Mr. Riaby held positions of key account manager for Sberbank (Savings Bank of the Russian Federation), Head of Sales Russia and General Manager Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Armenia.
Before joining Mastercard, Mr. Riaby was Director, Means of Payment at Most-Bank, one of the pioneers in the Russian card market. He started his career at the Bank for Foreign Economic Affairs of the USSR (Vnesheconombank), the first bank in the USSR to sign a license agreement with Mastercard.
Mr. Riaby holds a Master's degree in finance and credit from the State Academy of Finance, Moscow.
Giulio Rindi is the Chief Financial Officer for Europe. In this role, Mr. Rindi is responsible for overall financial decision support to the business, financial planning and analysis, accounting and financial reporting, internal controls, performance tracking, business development finance, investment optimization and local oversight of real estate, sourcing, treasury and tax for the region.
Previously, Giulio Rindi was Mastercard Chief Financial Officer for Latin America & Caribbean since January 2018. He joined the region after spending almost two years as the CFO for Middle East & Africa.
Giulio brings with him over 20 years of international consulting, auditing and finance experience working across financial services, travel, manufacturing and distribution, technology and payment industries.
Giulio joined Mastercard in 2011 as Divisional Finance Officer managing UK & Ireland. In 2013 he took a broader role becoming the Divisional Finance Officer for Western Europe, managing 18 countries across Iberia, France, Benelux, Nordics and the Baltics.
Prior to joining Mastercard, Giulio served as Finance Director, Global Foreign Exchange Services at American Express. He joined American Express in 2006 in London and during his tenure held a series of positions of increasing responsibilities in the Business Travel and Payment sector. Giulio served on the Board of Directors of UVET American Express.
Giulio started his professional career in Germany as an Auditor in BDO International and in 2001 joined the Pirelli Group where he became Group Controller of the Telecom Cables & Systems and led the finance function through the sale of the business to a private equity group. He moved to the NewCo, which is today named Prysmian Cables & Systems Group and is listed at the Milan Stock Exchange.
Giulio graduated from Bocconi University in Milan, Italy with a major in International Business. He attended Executive Leadership Programs at Harvard and London Business School and volunteered for the Prince’s Trust foundation in the UK and other organizations in the UAE and the US.
Raj Seshadri is president of data and services at Mastercard, responsible globally for a unique range of capabilities that help customers make smarter decisions with better outcomes. These include analytics, insights, consulting, loyalty, engagement, innovation and ‘test and learn’ services. They reinforce the value of payments, enhance business performance and elevate consumer experiences for issuers, merchants, processors, acquirers and public-sector institutions.
Raj serves on the company’s management committee and originally joined Mastercard in April 2016 as president of U.S. issuers. In this role, she managed and substantially grew the company’s core business, services and partnerships with banks and credit unions in a very competitive market.
Previously, she was a managing director at BlackRock, leader of the iShares U.S. retail ETF business and the global chief marketing officer for iShares. Earlier in her career, Raj led Citigroup’s global strategy team and Citibusiness small business banking. She also held leadership roles at U.S. Trust, McKinsey & Company and AT&T Bell Laboratories.
She serves on the board of directors of Raymond James Financial Inc., the management board for the Stanford Graduate School of Business, the board of trustees of Mount Holyoke College and the global board of the American India Foundation. Raj is a member of the Partnership for New York David Rockefeller Fellows Program and has previously served as an adjunct professor at the Columbia Business School.
Raj received a bachelor’s degree from Mount Holyoke College in physics and mathematics, a Masters of Business Administration from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in physics from Harvard University.
Pilar Aurrecoechea is senior vice president, Account Management, Banco Santander, within International Markets. In this role, she is responsible for growing the business within the account as well as bringing new innovations to the bank to be implemented jointly. Ms. Aurrecoechea has over 25 years’ experience in payments and financial services.
Ms. Aurrecoechea rejoined Mastercard on July 1 of 2015, after 18 months as the Financial Services global director for Telefonica Group. In addition to developing and launching Telco financial products at Telefonica, both for B2B and B2C customers, she was the president of the Board of the joint ventures between Mastercard and Telefonica in Latam: Zuum and MFS as well as board member of Yaap, JV between Telefonica, Banco Santander and Caixa in Spain.
Prior to moving to Telefonica, Ms. Aurrecoechea was Mastercard Spain and Portugal country manager for two and a half years. Before that, she worked at Visa Europe as senior vice president of Consulting for four years, as the head of Payments for Caja Madrid for eight and a half years, and at American Express for 10 years.
Ms. Aurrecoechea earned a Bachelor of Mathematics from the University of California, San Diego and a Master of Business Administration from San Diego State University.
Peter Bakenecker is Mastercard’s Division President for Central Europe Division. Since joining in 2006 Peter held various management positions, including Head of Product, Business Development as well as Digital Payments for Europe. For many years he was part of the Mastercard Advisors’ management team for Europe, AP and MEA, where he had the opportunity to design and build payments technology solutions in various geographies for different industries.
Before joining Mastercard, Peter was with Batten & Company as well as Roland Berger Strategy Consultants as part of their financial services practices.
Peter holds an MBA in Banking & Finance from the University of Essen/Duisburg and the University of Technology in Sydney. He completed executive programs at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Peter, his wife and two sons live in Munich. He is passionate on traveling and exploring new parts of the world together with his family.
Paolo Battiston is Executive Vice President, Services, Europe. In this role, he is responsible for Data & Services, and Cyber & Intelligence Solutions businesses. Prior to this role, he was Executive Vice President, Digital Payments & Labs, Europe and led the implementation of digital payments in Europe.
Previously, Mr. Battiston was Division President for Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Malta, defining strategies for product innovation, marketing and sales, as well as managing relations with financial institutions, big merchants and governments. Mr. Battiston also served in different roles and positions at Mastercard, first as Account Director for the primary Italian banking groups, before becoming responsible for credit card development for big European banking groups. He was general manager of Mastercard Italy from 2008 to 2013.
Prior to joining Mastercard, Mr. Battiston was at Accenture and McKinsey & Company, where he developed operational projects and industry strategies in the telecommunication and financial sector in Italy and abroad for several years. He graduated cum laude in Electric Engineering at Politecnico di Milano and obtained a Master’s degree in Information Technology at CEFRIEL in Milan.
Eimear Creaven is Division President, Western Europe. In this role, she leads Mastercard’s business in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. She is responsible for leading strategy and operations with our partners including financial institutions, merchants, digital players and corporates; driving transformational change across physical and digital payments, using our multi-rail network.
Prior to this role, she spent three years in the U.K. & Ireland division, leading our consumer issuing business. She also spent a year working with the European Market Development team to lead our efforts working with global and regional merchants, focused on retail; travel and entertainment and e-commerce players.
Eimear joined Mastercard in 2012 as Chief of Staff to Ann Cairns, President of International Markets. In this role, she supported the company’s executive team in a broad range of strategic and operational activities.
Prior to joining Mastercard, Eimear was a Director with Alvarez & Marsal in London for three years where she managed and led teams of professionals advising banks in the UK, Iceland, Ireland and Greece through the fallout of the banking crisis. Before that, she held various roles with Allied Irish Banks, based in Dublin and New York for seven years.
Eimear holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the National University of Ireland, Galway and a MBA from INSEAD in France and Singapore.
Payal currently serves as the Senior Vice President, Social Impact, International Markets at the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth. She joined the Center in April 2018, oversees the Center’s philanthropic investments around the globe and manages the Center’s international team across Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.
Previously, she was Head of Global Community Programs for Standard Chartered Bank. In this capacity, she designed the Bank’s new community investment strategy and oversaw all programs related to education, girls’ empowerment, global health, emergency response, and disaster relief. Payal joined Standard Chartered in July 2008 as the Head of Public Affairs for the Americas.
With a professional background in international philanthropy and politics, Payal has worked for a wide range of public sector organizations including the World Affairs Council, the Global Philanthropy Forum and the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Payal also worked on foreign policy for the Office of President William J. Clinton. In 2014, President and Secretary Clinton appointed Payal to be a program advisor to the Clinton Global Initiative; she continued in this role until CGI ceased in 2016.
Payal has extensive experience in financial services as well. Prior to joining Standard Chartered, she worked on the launch of the AT&T Universal Savings and Reward Card for Citi.
Payal serves as a trustee for Women Win and is a fellow at the RSA and the Institute for Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability. In 2020, she was appointed to the Advisory Group for the WE EMPOWER G-7 program of UN Women and the Working Group on Financial Health of the UN Secretary General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development.
A Texas native, Payal has a BA with honors from Stanford University and an MBA and an MPA from New York University.
David Dechamps is Senior Vice President, Digital Partnerships for Europe. In this role, he is responsible for the development of Mastercard’s strategy with key digital partners for the European markets. These include OS providers, device manufacturers, Fintechs and top e-commerce merchants.
Prior to this, David Dechamps was the Benelux General Manager at Mastercard Europe. In this role he was responsible for all sales, marketing and operations in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, which included close cooperation with the financial institutions as well as developing new solutions for retailers and cardholders.
Since he joined Mastercard in 2002, David held various positions as Head of Sales Products & Solutions and Vice President Prepaid Product Sales responsible for selling Mastercard’s prepaid solution across Europe.
David has worked in the electronic payments sector for over 20 years. During that time he has worked for a bank, a vendor and a card network, giving him a valuable ability to understand the different perspectives in the payments industry.
David holds a degree in Commercial Engineering and a Masters in Telecommunications.
Kelly Devine is the Divisional President, UK & Ireland at Mastercard. In her role Kelly is responsible for the strategy, direction and overall success of all aspects of Mastercard’s business across the UK and Republic of Ireland.
Prior to this role Kelly was SVP for Account Management and Business Development for the UK & Ireland, leading Mastercard’s consumer issuing relationships, including those with high street retail banks such as Lloyds, HSBC, RBS, Santander, TSB, Tesco and Bank of Ireland.
Kelly joined Mastercard in 2015 to lead the division’s commercial payments business. Before joining Mastercard, Kelly spent ten years at American Express, latterly as VP of Customer Experience responsible for selling and delivering consulting services. She’s held roles in Business Development, Salesforce Effectiveness and Product Management, as well as Chief of Staff for the Vice Chairman.
Kelly began her career as a consultant at PwC, after gaining her degree in Economics from the London School of Economics.
Max Lanckriet is currently Executive Vice President Customer Delivery Europe. In this role, he leads the team that is responsible for delivery and implementation of Mastercard programs and projects across Europe. The Customer Delivery group consists of various sub-teams such as: the in-market delivery teams, the Mastercard EU Academy group, the Europe Customer Implementation team, the EU Product Delivery team as well as the PTS and MPGS delivery teams.
Max has been working for +20 years in the financial services industry with a strong focus on ACH, asset management, B2B and card payments. He joined Mastercard in 2002 and held various positions ranging from Product Management Processing Solutions, Business Development Lead, CD lead for Western Europe and Product Delivery lead for Europe. On top, Customer Delivery was also the home of the MCDS direct sales group for several years.
Prior to joining Mastercard, Max gained experience in payment technologies as the Head of Electronic Banking for SME’s at KBC bank. On behalf of KBC, he joined Isabel, the multi-bank SW start-up in Belgium where he held various positions as Head of Product Management, Marketing Director and Advisory Board Member. Afterwards, he joined and co-founded CDS, a software provider for asset allocation & portfolio management where he was heading up the product management and development teams.
Max holds a master’s degree from the University of Leuven, a master’s degree from the Vlerick Business School as well as a degree from the INSEAD Business School.
Jason Lane is Executive Vice President of Market Development for Mastercard Europe. Mr. Lane is responsible for business development, acceptance development, merchant relationship management, customer economics and Mastercard Direct Services business.
Over the last years, Mr. Lane has held positions of increasing responsibility across various business functions at Mastercard. He has extensive international experience, gained both during his tenure at Mastercard, and previously in the consulting, retail and insurance industries.
A native of South Africa, Mr. Lane received his law degree from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
Valerie Nowak is the Chief Product & Innovation Officer for Mastercard Europe, responsible for product strategies and implementation plans for Mastercard’s Consumer, Commercial and Merchant Digital solutions, along with Consumer Insights and Experience across our 30+ Europe region markets.
Previously, Valerie Nowak was Chief Finance Officer for Mastercard Europe, playing a key role as financial advisor and business partner. As a member of the European management team, she was responsible for all financial aspects of the region (including financial planning, budgeting and forecasting as well as accounting, statutory & regulatory reporting and internal controls) and supporting the team in making key decisions around business strategies.
Since she joined MasterCard in 2001, Valerie held various roles of increasing responsibility in Finance.
She led the Customer Economics team in Europe where she oversaw and managed all pricing and interchange activities across Europe. In this role, Valerie has been a key asset in the context of the upcoming EU regulation where she has worked to ensure MasterCard compliance from an Interchange perspective and to protect MasterCard revenue & growth in developing a new Pricing framework.
Valerie was also the general manager of MasterCard Belux from 2015 through 2017, responsible for developing and executing MasterCard strategy in Belgium and Luxemburg. This includes reinforcing MasterCard’s position in the Belux market, driving forward our strong relationships with our customers and delivering innovative and emerging payment experiences for consumers that are both safe and simple to use.
Valerie started her career at Lhoist SA where she worked as SAP functional analyst.
Valerie Nowak holds a degree in Commercial Engineering at the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management.
George Simon is Executive Vice President, Market Development & Division President, High Growth Markets at Mastercard.
In this role, Mr. Simon has overall responsibility for Mastercard operations, sales, products & services and marketing; and leads the company’s efforts in driving digital innovations and development of electronic payments across 12 markets, including Russia, Turkey, Israel and CIS countries.
Prior to his appointment, George Simon was President for the Central Eastern Europe division responsible for overseeing Mastercard’s operations and customer related activities in 19 countries. He started his career at Mastercard as EVP, Customer Delivery Head for Europe and was responsible for the delivery of products and services to all European customers and successfully managed Mastercard Academy.
Before joining Mastercard, George Simon held various international assignments in developing and implementing cards strategies for business growth at Citigroup for 16 years. He led Cards Businesses in UAE, Belgium and the Czech Republic and served as regional head of Cards Acquisitions covering 10 markets in Western Europe.
Mr. Simon has a BSc in Chemistry, Mathematics and Physics from St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi, and holds an MBA from Saïd Business School, Oxford University.
Howard is responsible for all People & Capability (Human Resource) activities across Mastercard’s Europe region. Reporting into the International Markets (IMK) business, Howard works with the European Senior Management Team and Global People Function leadership, in support of the broader ‘People and Talent’ agenda, ensuring Mastercard continues to build ‘world class People & Capability practices’ throughout the region.
Howard first joined Mastercard’s UK & Ireland Division in Q4 2013, with the goal to attract, develop and engage the best Talent, in line with Mastercard’s ambitious plans and growth strategy.
Howard was promoted to the region Europe People & Capability role in 2015, with a focus upon leadership development, succession and diverse Talent building, acquisition integration, organisational change and building an environment and brand, “where the Best People choose to be”.
Howard and his family relocated from Brussels to London in 2013, in order to join Mastercard in Canary Wharf/Angel Lane offices, having completed several international HR assignments through 15 years in Chicago, Zurich, Brussels and Warsaw. Howard’s earlier HR career was predominantly built within the Healthcare & Pharma sectors, working with US multi-national organisations, although the ‘Growth’ company trend continues on with Mastercard.
After gaining his degree in UK, Howard completed a postgraduate HR qualification at Westminster University and then went onto complete his Master’s degree in HR Strategy at Oxford. Howard is a Certified People Coach with the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and a Fellow with the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD).
Howard is married to Harriet, who teaches in a local school and they have a daughter, two sons and an ever-hungry brown Labrador, all living in South East England.
Roberto Tittarelli is Executive Vice President, Market Development, New Payments Platforms. In this role, he leads sales and business development for the European New Payments Platforms.
Roberto is a member of the European Senior Management Team and NPP Management Committee.
Prior to this role, he was Executive Vice President, Core Product & ACH, Europe. He was responsible for developing and executing core product business models and strategies, and ACH propositions following the acquisition of Vocalink, both for the European region.
Mr. Tittarelli joined Mastercard in January 1995. Previously, he was general manager Southern Europe from 2002 to 2008, where he directed Mastercard activities in Italy, Iberia, Greece and Turkey. Prior to this, he was head of business development for Mastercard activities in Italy and Greece and account and new technology director for Mastercard activities in Italy, where he managed the introduction of new technologies and e-commerce in the payment sector. Mr. Tittarelli was also the recipient of the Mastercard International 2005 Sales Champions of the Year for Europe.
Mr. Tittarelli brings more than 20 years of expertise in retail banking and the payment industry from his previous positions as director of Payment Office Solutions for American Express Italy and head of Credit Operations at TopCard Card Division at the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro in Italy. He also has extensive experience as a corporate management consultant, advising such companies in Organization, Business strategy and Marketing.
Beatrice Cornacchia is the creative force leading the company’s brand strategy across multiple markets. After starting her journey with the company in 1991, Cornacchia went on to head strategic sales functions and numerous marketing teams in a succession of key roles including Head of Consumer Marketing, Europe; Head of Issuer and Merchant Marketing, Europe; and Head of Marketing, Italy and Greece.
Most recently, Cornacchia held the position of Senior Vice President, marketing and Communications, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (EEMEA).
As a reflection of her impact in the role, in 2022, she was listed among Arabian Business’ ‘50 Inspiring Female Business Leaders’ in the region and Campaign Middle East’s ‘Marketing Game Changers’. Additionally, in 2021 she was included in the top ‘Women of Influence in the Arab World’ by Arabian Business.
Through strategic brand engagement and captivating story creation, Cornacchia balances Mastercard’s growing positioning as a tech company with an aspirational approach that taps into its heritage of creating ‘Priceless Possibilities’. Her exceptional brand-building work over the past few years has included launching the company’s innovative symbolic and sonic identity across the EEMEA region, and during the pandemic resulted in enhancing Mastercard’s positioning as a trusted voice for safe, secure, and seamless transactions.
Cornacchia’s efforts included the rollout of an evolved ecommerce thrust, and diligently leveraging data and tech expertise to inform stakeholders on contactless adoption as part of a winning campaigns at the Middle East PR Association (MEPRA), Dubai Lynx and Holmes Report SABRE Awards amongst others. One of the most publicized award-winning initiatives – the Astronomical Sales campaign that tied 97% discounts to a rare solar eclipse – contributed to a sustained, dynamic progression of differentiating Mastercard’s marketing and communications.
Cornacchia is systematically leveraging the underlying concept of Priceless – the deep emotional connection that fills people’s life with meaning and purpose – to empower Mastercard’s consumers in the region to pursue their passions with priceless possibilities. Cornacchia’s secret sauce for marketing combines great content with the science of data analytics, precision targeting and an innate understanding of human emotions.
As the latest milestone in her Mastercard journey, Beatrice was elevated to the position of Executive Vice President, Marketing and Communications, Europe from 1 May 2023.
Chris Mullett is the Chief Financial Officer for Europe. He and his team are responsible for all aspects of financial management of the European business, including financial reporting, planning and analysis, accounting and controls, objective setting and performance tracking, and business development finance. The Chief Financial Office for Europe also oversees local real estate, sourcing, treasury and tax matters.
Prior to his current role, Chris spent two years as CFO for Mastercard Technology, based in St Louis, USA and three years as Controller for Asia-Pacific, based in Singapore.
Before joining Mastercard, Chris was with Hewlett Packard Enterprise for a total of 11 years in a range of roles in both Europe and Asia, finishing as the Asia-Pacific CFO for Enterprise Services. Chris also spent four years with Hertz Europe as Assistant Controller. Chris began his career at Arthur Andersen in Manchester, UK in the Audit and Advisory practice covering a broad range of clients in the manufacturing, travel, retail and energy sectors.
Chris is an Accounting & Economics graduate of Sheffield University in the UK, and a Chartered Accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
Erlend Van Vreckem is Mastercard’s General Counsel for the Europe Region. In this role, Erlend coordinates the legal, compliance, regulatory and public policy support for Mastercard’s businesses across Europe. Erlend deals daily with a wide number of complex and challenging matters, engages with senior governmental stakeholders on industry-wide subjects, leads large commercial transaction negotiations, is involved in anti-trust and regulatory matters, and supports litigation and settlement negotiations. In addition, Erlend has been driving the one team culture with passion, where all team members understand the need to partner and enable the business by leveraging the vast experience, skills and diversity in the team to provide creative solutions for complex matters.
Prior to joining Mastercard, Erlend was the Legal & Corporate Affairs Director for Anheuser-Busch InBev’s operations in the BeNeLux and France where he was responsible for representing the company at senior governmental levels and engaging with major retailers on the sale and distribution of consumer products. Erlend started his career as a general counsel for a global technology and consulting company (now part of FIS) focused exclusively on the financial services industry, where he negotiated large scale system integration transactions with financial institutions worldwide and with the major (fin)tech players.
Erlend holds a Law Degree and Post-Graduate Degree in IT Law from the Catholic University of Leuven and a(n employer-sponsored) MBA from INSEAD (Paris).
Bartosz Ciolkowski is General Manager for Southeast Europe, which includes Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Israel, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania and Serbia. Ciolkowski is responsible for implementing strategy in the region, developing electronic payments, and working with business and government partners.
Ciolkowski joined Mastercard in 2005. He previously held the role of General Manager for Poland, where he significantly contributed to the dynamic development of the electronic payments sector through the introduction of innovative solutions and products, as well as the expansion of the acceptance network. He played a pivotal role in establishing Cashless Poland Foundation and in Mastercard’s investment in the Polish Payment Standard (PSP), the owner of BLIK.
He also managed Mastercard business in the Czech and Slovak markets.
Ciolkowski is currently a member of the supervisory board of the Polish Payment Standard and a member of the supervisory board of the Cashless Poland Foundation.
Bartosz is technology and innovations enthusiast, with a mission to coach startups, helping them to scale. He recently joined the Board of Endeavour in Poland. He also actively supports diversity and inclusion, being a co-founding member of Champions of Change Club and supporting member of the Polish chapter of 30% Club.
Bartek is a happy father of 3-year-old Helena. He is passionate about cycling on a road bike and MTB, and a pet lover. He is a graduate from the Faculty of Economics of Poznan University of Economics and Business, with specialization in the field of economic policy and strategy.