Baiba Upmale
Senior Vice President, Communications, Eastern Europe Middle East and Africa, Mastercard
Upmale is the Senior Vice President, Communications, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa for Mastercard. She leads and oversees the strategic execution of the company’s internal and external communications strategy.
Upmale brings extensive experience working with global and regional brands in the Middle East and Africa, Europe and South East Asia. She has delivered a number of high profile and award-winning B2B and B2C campaigns, most recently establishing Mastercard as the most awarded brand for communications in the region.
Eleanor Cartwright
Senior Vice President, People and Capability, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, Mastercard
Cartwright is the Senior Vice President of People and Capability for the Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa region at Mastercard. In this role, she engages with stakeholders to support and grow their business, overseeing people and talent strategies, organisational activities and driving the execution of business priorities across the region.
Emilia Law
General Counsel, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, Mastercard
Law is Mastercard’s General Counsel for Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. As a member of both the EEMEA Executive Leadership Team, she plays a pivotal role in shaping Mastercard’s legal and regulatory strategy across the region, supporting the company’s growth and success. With an extensive background in corporate law, Law brings a wealth of experience from top-tier multinational organisations, including Blackstone and Novartis. Throughout her career, she has worked across Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific, navigating complex regulatory landscapes and providing strategic legal counsel across these diverse jurisdictions.
Gina Petersen
Senior Vice President and Country Manager, UAE and Oman, Mastercard
Petersen-Skyrme is Senior Vice President and Country Manager for the UAE and Oman at Mastercard. She is responsible for driving the company’s growth strategy, diversifying revenue streams, building strategic partnerships with leading public and private sector stakeholders and delivering innovative experiences across the payments ecosystem.
A strategic, passionate leader and seasoned Payments and Financial Services professional, Petersen has led teams in Australia and the Middle East for more than two decades. Prior to joining Mastercard, she served as Head of Merchant Business at American Express Middle East, where she doubled new business volume in two years.
Khatija Haque
Chief Economist, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, Mastercard
Haque is the Chief Economist for the Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa region at Mastercard. Her responsibilities include development and delivery of differentiated economic, financial, policy and macroeconomic thought leadership for customers, Mastercard and public policy.
Haque joins Mastercard from Emirates NBD, where she served as Chief Economist and Head of Research. A founding member of the research team at the bank, she played a key role in developing macroeconomic insights on the GCC and the broader MENA region.
Ngozi Megwa
Senior Vice President, Digital Partners and Enablers, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, Mastercard
Megwa is the Senior Vice President, Network Services at Mastercard, where she drives revenue growth, assurance and optimisation for Network Linked Services across the Services organisation in Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa. In her role, she leads strategic initiatives to unlock growth opportunities across multiple business lines, including fraud management, risk and cybersecurity, consulting, marketing, insights, analytics, loyalty, personalisation, core payments and new payment flows. Additionally, she oversees sales enablement, value-based pricing, and go-to-market strategies for network-related products and services, with a focus on delivering exceptional customer experiences.
Olivia Bellingham
Senior Vice President, Mastercard Direct Services, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, Mastercard
Bellingham is leading the regional Mastercard Direct Services team, covering long-tail customers across the Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa region. In this role, she is responsible for account management and business development of several hundred accounts across 30 countries.
Omoke Adebanjo
Senior Vice President, Merchants and Commerce, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, Mastercard
Adebanjo is the Senior Vice President of the merchants and commerce segment—Europe, Middle East and Africa at Mastercard and a member of the EEMEA Operating Committee. She is responsible for developing new business opportunities, driving strategic partnerships and overseeing merchant relationships in key sectors, including airlines, hotels, quick service restaurants, online travel agents, consumer packaged goods companies and retail fintechs across the Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa region.
Prakriti Singh
Senior Vice President, Acceptance, Digital and eCommerce, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, Mastercard
Singh is the Senior Vice President for Acceptance, Digital and eCommerce at Mastercard for Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa. She is a tech innovator in the payments industry with over 15 years of experience. As a thought leader, Prakriti has introduced high-performing platforms, spanning digital commerce, gateways, financial inclusion and ESG, impacting millions of consumers and SMEs.
Prakriti runs Mastercard Digital, MDES and Gateway, Mastercards’ high-demand eCommerce tech platforms processing billions of transactions and providing the backbone of commerce in the region.
Ronel Lundall
Executive Vice President, Mastercard Transaction Services, Mastercard
Lundall is Executive Vice President, Mastercard Transaction Services and is responsible for Mastercard’s expanding regulatory payments footprint by creating an efficient ‘License-as-a—service’ organisation for multiple global Mastercard products. This Dubai based role demands management of over 22 legal entities across North America, Canada, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Middle East Africa, UK and Europe regions.
Susan Koutsovitis
Senior Vice President, Product Delivery, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, Mastercard
Koutsovitis is the Senior Vice President, Product Delivery lead for Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa Mastercard.
Since joining Mastercard in 2012, Koutsovitis has been responsible for leading a number of functions, including Project Management and Product Delivery, responsible for technical implementation projects with customers across 80 markets in Eastern Europe & Middle East and Africa. She and her team are responsible for delivering products across the spectrum of the business, including core payment processing, digital enablement, security solutions, data and services, humanitarian and development.
Sylvie Vermeersch
Senior Vice President, Franchise, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, Mastercard
Vermeersch is the Senior Vice President, Franchise for the Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa region at Mastercard. Based in Dubai, she leads the Franchise team, ensuring the preservation of the integrity and value of the network. Her responsibilities include fostering ongoing trust in the Mastercard brand, exploring innovative ways to leverage Mastercard’s brands and network and facilitating healthy business growth for Mastercard and our customers across the 81 countries of the EEMEA region.
