Mastercard is transforming the way millions of consumers are managing their money thanks to its innovating ethos and formidable talent base, developing technology which can bring vital financial services to unbanked people around the world. We spoke to the President of Global Technology and Operations, Robert Reeg to give us an insight

2. The digital
equaliser
Written by Tom Wadlow
Produced by George Tweed

3. T
hough it has been one of the
world’s best-established
financial operators for decades,
it is arguably the past 10 years which
has seen Mastercard’s most prolific
innovation and transformation drive,
spearheaded by a burgeoning
talent pool and demand for digital.
Innovation has been part of the
company’s culture since it was
founded. The company celebrated its
50th anniversary in November 2016.
Robert Reeg, now President of
Global Technology and Operations
for Mastercard, has been a part
of the company’s journey for 21
years and helped bring innovation
to the forefront of the minds of the
entire 10,000-strong workforce.
“Seven or eight years ago we
asked all our employees to look
at and rank us on a number of
different attributes. At the time,
innovation came in toward the
bottom of that list,” he says. “This
has been a huge focus point since,
getting across that message that
innovation is part of everybody’s
job, not just the tech guys or one
part of the group. We all have to
think how we can do things better.
“I had no idea we would grow as
fast as we have. The whole secular
shift from hard currency to digital
Mastercard is transforming the way millions
of consumers are managing their money
thanks to its innovating ethos and formidable
talent base, developing technology
which can bring vital financial services
to unbanked people around the world
4 w w w. m a s t e r c a r d . u s 5

4. access to money has changed the
way people think about how they buy
things. The safety and convenience
of electronic versus carrying around
cash or writing cheques is now
clear and Mastercard has played
a massive part in that shift.”
The dual benefits of digital
Two recent projects underline the
double-edged benefits of
payments digitisation
Reeg mentions. The
first is Masterpass,
an omni-channel
digital wallet
service that has
been rolled out
across the USA
and is available
to use at millions of
retail locations in dozens of
countries around the world.
Masterpass is a result of one
of MasterCard’s tried and tested
approaches to innovation and
recruitment of talent – investments
in disruptive technology companies.
Indian digital wallet expert
C-SAM was recently acquired by
Mastercard and its 350 mobile
software engineers have been
influential in deploying Masterpass.
“If you try to grow mobile
technology on your own it takes a
long time, so this acquisition allowed
us to enter the market very quickly,”
Reeg adds. “This is the next phase
in how digital money is going to be
managed – people need ease and
safety in making payments and
this is going to be key.”
Indeed, security is
the second major
advantage of digital
over traditional
payments. A key
area of focus for
Mastercard has been
development of biometric
verification, the company
is now piloting its Identity Check
system, or what the media has been
calling ‘selfie pay’. For transactions
up to a certain value, consumers
can take a picture of themselves
which is then verified when they go
to make their purchases. This builds
on the work already carried out on
fingerprint technology, which saw the
w w w. m a s t e r c a r d . u s 7
Number of employees
at Mastercard
10,000+

5. launch of the world’s first contactless payment card
featuring an integrated fingerprint sensor in 2014.
“Biometrics is the next frontier,” Reeg says.
“The issue you have now is people hate trying to
remember 20 unique passwords, which actually
aren’t that secure, so there is a double benefit here
of convenience and security at the same time. I
believe that in the next five years biometrics will
become the primary method of verification.”
Expanding Mastercard’s reach
The Masterpass launch and acquisition of
C-SAM is one of many examples of Mastercard
acquisitions bearing fruit in terms of yielding
expertise. Although a lot of development is
carried out in-house, the company has made
that house significantly larger via a series of
acquisitions during the past few years.
Reeg continues: “One of the most significant was
the acquisition of Orbiscom in 2008, headquartered
in Dublin. They had a product we really liked that
we have re-named ‘In Control’, that helps people
manage where and who uses their digital money.
“Even more significant than the product itself,
however, have been the people we acquired, and
they have been key in changing the landscape
of innovation at Mastercard. Their CEO Garry
Lyons became our Chief Innovation Officer.”
Another acquisition, this time in the marketing
sphere, was the purchase of APT in Virginia in
8 w w w. m a s t e r c a r d . u s 9

6. 2015. Its Test and Learn product
helps companies tailor investments
and maximise bottom-line
impact by harnessing analytics
to design, measure and calibrate
marketing, merchandising,
operations and capital initiatives.
Start Path
Acquisition is not the only route
Mastercard has taken with partner
companies, however. The Start
Path programme provides initial
support in start-up technology
companies, whether it be capital,
mentorship or office space to
help them get off the ground.
As part of the programme,
companies interested in working with
Mastercard apply for the different
cohorts. Mastercard selects
companies from those applicants and
partners with them to help them scale
up operations. By granting start-ups
access to its global ecosystem
and customer bases, it is also
widening its own knowledge base
in the process, as well as offering
another way to infuse innovative
thinking into the organisation.
Features of the initiative include
a six-month virtual programme
and two immersion weeks in
different Mastercard cities, with no
commitment required of the start-ups
to offer equity in return. Mastercard
employees from different disciplines
help mentor the companies, as well.
Honing talent
Alongside the shift in consumer
behaviour to digital payments
has been a shift in Mastercard’s
internal approach to technology
and innovation, with tremendous
emphasis on gearing the company
towards younger recruits.
“The largest part of our workforce
today is made up of millennials, so
it’s key to make sure our workforce
is aware of how quickly things are
changing in technology, so we are
best positioned to take advantage
of new opportunities,” Reeg says.
“There’s no way of saying how
many members of our team work in
innovation, as we are all responsible
for it at Mastercard. Maybe 15 years
ago you could separate technology
or innovation people from others in
1 0
ROBERT REEG
President, Mastercard Global Technology and Operations
Rob Reeg is president of MasterCard Operations & Technology (O&T). In this
role, Reeg oversees the strategic processing platform, global network and
quality of technology operations at MasterCard. Based in St. Louis, Missouri,
he serves as a member of the company’s Management Committee.
Prior to joining MasterCard, Reeg held IT and business leadership positions
with Sprint Corp., Cleveland Pneumatic, Totco Inc., and Conoco Inc.
Reeg serves on the University of Missouri-St. Louis Leadership Council, Washington
University’s Wells Fargo Advisors Center for Finance and Accounting Research,
Washington University’s Professional Degree Programs Academic Advisory
Board, and the United Way of Greater St. Louis’ Technology Committee.
Reeg received a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern Oklahoma State University.
He also served as a captain in the United States Army Reserve for eight years.

7. the business. This blending is just
going to keep on happening and
we no longer separate technology
from business – the traditional
R&D team ethos is ebbing away.”
Reeg also points to the role
CEO Ajay Banga has played in
transforming Mastercard into
a business that resonates with
millennial, tech-savvy workers.
“The motivations are different to
when I was joining workforces in
the late 1970s,” he adds. “Attracting
and retaining great talent from
schools and colleges is much
more competitive than ever before.
We know that by challenging
smart people to come in make
contributions right away, we offer
a different and more compelling
experience and a great place not
only to start, but grow a career.”
The company offers a reverse
mentoring initiative, which sees
younger employees share their
digital knowledge with more senior
colleagues, who in return provide
mentorship on the wider business
and valuable career advice.
“For someone like me, I get
coaching on the latest social media
tools, and having someone who is
straight out of college who has been
immersed in technology their entire
lives is such a help in this process,”
Reeg says. “In return I can help them
in terms of advancing their career in
the business. It’s a win-win for both
parties participating, and helps make
Mastercard a stronger company
overall with this relationship building.”
Retention and inclusion
While attracting and developing
employees is paramount for an
innovating organisation such
as Mastercard, making sure
talented workers stay on at the
company in the medium-long
term is equally as important.
Extensive paternal and maternal
assurances, financial wellness
programmes, flexible working hours,
incentive schemes and education
support are among the benefits on
offer to staff. A culture of inclusion,
tolerance and diversity is also at the
forefront of Mastercard’s approach to
the working environment, led by Chief
Diversity Officer Donna Johnson.
w w w. m a s t e r c a r d . u s 1 31 2

8. “We know that by bringing together employees
of diverse background who combine their
thoughts, experiences and background, we can
advance innovation and offer more meaningful
products and solutions to our customers and
cardholders. It’s that simple – making sure you
empower employees to share their ideas and as a
leader, you listen. Our people truly are an amazing
asset as we think about what’s next in payments.”
“I’ve been here 21 years – I never thought
I’d work anywhere 21 years,” Reeg adds.
“It’s one of those places where you wake up
in the morning and want to come into work.
We work with great people in an exciting area
where the business is always changing.”
Mastercard is also active in encouraging more
women to pursue careers in technology. “The issue
in most developed countries is that there are fewer
and fewer women going into hard sciences,” Reeg
says. “We have a programme called Girls4Tech
where we start in middle school trying to help
influence girls and show the types of careers
that they can have in technology. Many young
women come in not sure if a career in tech is for
them – but once they go through the program,
they see many more options in front of them.
It’s both refreshing and encouraging to see.”
Girls4Tech has just completed research which
identifies the top two reasons for girls aged 12-19
not wanting to pursue a career in STEM (science,
1 4
“I believe that in the next five
years biometrics will become the
primary method of verification”
Robert Reeg, President of Global
Technology and Operations

9. technology, engineering and maths)
subjects – difficulty of study and
a lack of interest in the subject
matter. This is where Mastercard’s
employees come in. Launched two
years ago, more than 5,000 girls
and 1,000 members of staff have
taken part in the programme across
11 countries. Mastercard has also
penned agreements with Be Better
and UN Women to take Girls4Tech
to China and Singapore respectively,
with the goal of reaching another
54,500 young women.
Equaliser
Mastercard’s inclusive culture
ambitions stretch far beyond its
own recruitment and outreach
programmes. The ultimate endgame
is to use digital payments technology
as an equaliser across the world,
bringing vital financial services
to unbanked populations.
By continuing to innovate
and work with disruptive, fast-
moving technology companies,
Reeg believes Mastercard and
its workforce have a crucial
role to play in the future.
He concludes: “We have the
opportunity to help shape the
world and bring more people into
the formal economy. There are
two billion un-or-underbanked
people in the world ­— and we
want them to have the same
access that anybody else has.
“This is something that we can
continue to play a huge role in and
be proud of leading. Technology
is a great equaliser and we want
to help level that playing field
for everyone involved.”
w w w. m a s t e r c a r d . u s 1 7

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