Ajaypal "Ajay" Singh Banga (born 1960) is a business executive from India who is also Mastercard's president and chief executive officer (CEO). Banga, who had previously served as president and chief operational officer at Mastercard, was named president and chief executive officer on July 1, 2010, and a member of the board of directors on the same day. Banga took over as CEO from Robert W. Selander, who had been in the position since March 1997.

Banga was nominated to the President's Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations by President Barack Obama in February 2015. Moreover, he is the head of the US-India Business Council (USIBC), which represents over 300 of the world's major international corporations with operations in India. He is also a member of the Dow Chemical Company's board of directors, as well as the Council on Foreign Relations and the World Economic Forum's International Business Council. In 2016, the Indian government bestowed upon him the civilian honour of Padma Shri.

Career:

Ajaypal Banga began his commercial career in 1981 with Nestlé, where he worked for the next 13 years in a variety of capacities, including distribution, promotion, and general administration. After that, he spent two years with PepsiCo, where he was in charge of launching the company's fast food businesses in India amid the country's economic liberalisation in the 1990s.

Banga was the chief executive officer of Citigroup Asia Pacific before joining MasterCard. He also held senior managerial positions in the United States, Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa during his time there. Besides, he oversaw the company's microfinance activities. He joined MasterCard Inc in 2009 and assumed the role of president and CEO on July 1, 2010, succeeding former CEO Robert W. Selander.

In February 2015, he was formally accepted as a member of the President's Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations by then-US President Barack Obama. He was also a member of President Obama's Commission on National Cybersecurity Enhancement. Banga is a board member of the American India Foundation and the Partnership for New York City, as well as an active participant of the US-India CEO Forum.

Personal Life:

Ajaypal Banga was born in 1960 to a Saini Sikh family in Khadki, a small village near Pune, Maharashtra, India. Jaswant Kaur was his mother, while his father, Harbhajan Singh Banga, was an Indian army officer who had attained to the rank of lieutenant general at the time of his departure. Banga was born in Jalandhar, Punjab, but grew up on army bases all over India, completing his schooling in Secunderabad, Jalandhar, Delhi, Hyderabad, and eventually Shimla, where he completed his high school education.

He attended the famed Hyderabad Public School in Begumpet for his elementary education. Banga obtained a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree in Economics from St. Stephen's College, Delhi University, after graduating from high school. He went on to the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, where he received his MBA. Manvinder Singh Banga, his older brother, is an entrepreneur and a senior partner at Clayton Dubilier & Rice, a private equity firm. Ajaypal Banga is the father of two children, Jojo and Aditi, and is married to Ritu.

Tidbits:

Banga won the Foreign Policy Association Medal in 2012 as a fellow of the organisation.

Ajaypal Singh Banga: A Success Story

Banga is the head of the US-India Business Council (USIBC), which represents over 300 of the world's largest firms investing in India, as well as the chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce. He is also a member of the Dow Chemical Company's board of directors, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the World Economic Forum's International Business Council. In 2016, ex-President of India Shri Pranab Mukherjee bestowed the Padma Shri to Banga. Banga was elected President of the International Chamber of Commerce in 2020. Banga was born in a Sikh household in Khadki, Maharashtra, in 1961, but was originally from Jalandhar in Punjab.

His father, Lt.General (retd.) Harbhajan Singh Banga, served in the Indian Army. Banga grew up and went to school at a variety of locations around India, including Secunderabad, Jalandhar, Delhi, Hyderabad, and Shimla, where he completed his education. Banga, unlike his father, did not pursue a career in the army, instead earning a BA in Economics from St. Stephen's College, Delhi University. He graduated from Ahmedabad's Indian Institute of Management.

In that sense, Banga is a totally India-bred CEO who has risen through the ranks of a multinational corporation, whereas others like Vikram Pandit (CitiGroup) and Indra Nooyi (PepsiCo.) have received both Indian and American degrees. Banga began his career with Nestle India in 1981 as a management trainee and went on to handle a number of positions in sales, marketing, and general management over the next 13 years. Due to the liberalisation of the economy, he eventually joined PepsiCo's Restaurants Division, where he was key in the launch of Pizza Hut and KFC in India.

He joined Citigroup in 1996 as the consumer business's head of marketing in India and has since held a number of positions of increasing significance. Chairman and CEO of the International Global Consumer Group; president of Retail Banking North America; business

head for CitiFinancial and the United States Consumer Assets Division; and division executive for the consumer bank in Central/Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and India, among others.

Banga was elevated to oversee CitiFinancial's consumer assets segment in the United States in 2000. He was selected to lead Citigroup's international consumer banking and finance businesses in 2005, after taking led the retail bank in North America in 2002 — his first term in the United States. After being named to handle all of the bank's Asian businesses, comprising credit card payments and financial services, institutional banking, wealth management, and alternative investments, he went to Hong Kong in early 2008 before relocating to the US in 2009 to join MasterCard.

Banga's mission when he joined MasterCard was clear: to pursue down leader Visa at a time when both networks are thought to be profiting from customers' increased use of plastic. He collaborated with one of his most valuable clients to develop a strategy to encourage more young people to use debit cards. As a result, he rebuilt the debit card product, adding new features and integrating it to music, as well as developing a new marketing strategy with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

The results were stunning. In terms of high-tech innovation, one focus area of development that may revolutionise e-commerce, mobile, and transit fares was high-tech innovation. While the other was a group of people in MasterCard Labs who were essentially young, trendy, and inventive people who were developing new concepts and attempting to integrate them into their clients' businesses. It's a means to create new innovative ways for banks and merchants to make payments for services and goods — For example, you could be able to decipher a bar code with your cellphone and convert it into a purchase.

He is a fellow of the Foreign Policy Association and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and The Economic Club of New York. He also belongs to the Financial Services Roundtable and the Business Roundtable, where he heads the Information and Technology Initiative. Mr. Banga has also served on the boards of Enterprise Community Partners, Inc., the National Urban League, and the New York Hall of Science in the last five years, as well as being a director of the Council for Economic Education. Mr. Banga is passionate about social development issues and was dubbed the fourth "Most Powerful Indian" in the world by 'The Economic Times of India.'

His Leadership Style:

He’s very enthusiastic but he spends time to work on his passion. He says he researches something and trys to grasp both sides of the argument because, as a banker who has travelled the world for a long time, one has to comprehend either counterarguments. However, one must have a point of view, and he thinks and believes in having a point of view on an issue rather than avoiding it.

Despite the fact that Banga runs a business that is linked with plastic, he urges his employees to focus on cash and tries to maintain his workplace as relaxed as possible. He claims according to a relevant resource that he is actually rather laid-back, and encourages his coworkers to make statements that they'd never say to most managers. This he does because he works just so many hours in an industry, and they work quite so many hours in an office to be irritable with one another. It isn't the bloodthirsty army. It's a business, and they've chosen to be there. They might all leave and join another group. So if he behaves like a commander in the army, which his father was, he’ll get the soldiers, is what he believe in.

"People will regard you for your candor, decency, and sense of purpose," Ajay Banga claims.