About the speaker

Mr Ajay Banga
CEO of Mastercard

Ajay Banga is chief executive officer of Mastercard and a member of its board of directors. He will become executive chairman of the board of directors on January 1, 2021.

Ajay is a co-founder of The Cyber Readiness Institute, chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce and a trustee of the United States Council for International Business. Ajay is a founding trustee of the U.S.-India Strategic Partnership Forum, a member of the U.S.-India CEO Forum and is chairman emeritus of the American India Foundation. He served as a member of President Obama’s Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity. He is a past member of the U.S. President’s Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations.

He was awarded the Padma Shri Award by the President of India in 2016, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 2019 and the Business Council for International Understanding’s Global Leadership Award. He is a fellow of the Foreign Policy Association and was awarded the Foreign Policy Association Medal in 2012.

Ajay is a member of the board of overseers of the Weill Cornell Medical College. In addition, Ajay serves as a director of Dow Inc. and is a member of its compensation and governance committees.

Prior to Mastercard, Ajay served as chief executive officer of Citigroup Asia Pacific. During his career at Citigroup, he held a variety of senior management roles in the United States, Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa. He also oversaw the company’s efforts in microfinance.

Ajay began his career at Nestlé, India, where for 13 years he worked on assignments spanning sales, marketing and general management. He also spent two years with PepsiCo, where he was instrumental in launching its fast food franchises in India as the economy liberalized.

He is a graduate of Delhi University and the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

About Liveris Academy for Innovation and Leadership 2020 Winter School Distinguished Speaker Series

Hear from the leaders of Unilever, IBM, McKinsey, Dow and others during this exclusive, thought-provoking webinar series.

The onset of COVID-19 has brought increased focus to the need for leadership, innovation and decision-making under uncertainty.

The inaugural Andrew N. Liveris Academy for Innovation and Leadership Winter School in July 2020 will welcome a number of distinguished international business leaders.

Introduced by the Academy’s Founding Donor Andrew N. Liveris AO, UQ’s talented Liveris Scholars will interview our esteemed speakers who will share their insights into these topics, including how their organisations have responded to the COVID-19 crisis, as well as what they consider to be the opportunities and priorities for global leadership in the 21st Century.

This event is only available to UQ staff and students. A Zoom link will be sent to registrants prior to the event.

Registrations close 4pm Monday 13 July 2020.