Javier Perez

President, MasterCard Europe

Javier Perez is president of MasterCard Europe, and a member of the MasterCard Operating Committee. Mr. Perez is responsible for the Europe Region and Global Accounts, encompassing 53 countries and serving 9,000 MasterCard financial institutions. He is also the founder of the World Food Program (WFP)-MasterCard partnership.

Before taking up his present role, Mr. Perez was president of the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region. Under his leadership, LAC achieved significant growth, and was one of the company’s fastest-growing regions. Previously, Mr. Perez was the general manager of the Customer Division for MasterCard Europe. He was responsible for all regional business developments in Europe including branding, distribution, sponsorship and products, and was a founding member of EMVCo. He joined MasterCard in 1996.

Mr. Perez began his banking career with Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA). While at BBVA, he held various top level international positions including country executive for Tokyo and Hong Kong operations; president of the bank’s Miami subsidiary, managing bank operations in Latin America and Southeast US; head of Payment Systems, Commercial Banking and New Banking Products in Spain; and International Area Head for the Asia, Middle East and Africa regions.

In addition to working for BBVA, Mr. Perez has also served in executive positions at Banca Catalana, Banco Directo, Lider Direct Marketing, Lider Telemarketing, Lider Advertising and Visa International, where he worked as general manager of Business Development for the Europe, Middle East and Africa regions, and was part of the team that worked on the Electron ATM interoperability program.

He has also participated as a member of the Board of Directors for a number of Spanish banking and insurance groups including Europay España, Visa España, Banco de Negócios, Banco de Crédito Local, Caja Postal, Banco Industrial, Banco de Crédito Agrícola, Banco de Alicante, Seguros Plus Ultra and the Spanish Prison Board.

A native of Spain, Mr. Perez has master’s degrees from the ESADE University, Spain and Thunderbird School of Global Management USA.