Mastercard Adds Liz Oakes To New Payments Platforms Team

Mastercard announced on Friday (Dec. 21) that it has appointed Liz Oakes as the new executive vice president of market development for its new payment platforms team.

Oakes will work with a variety of entities – governments, regulators, central banks, schemes, and retail and commercial banks. In a collaboration with regional Mastercard teams, she will handle the strategic development of real-time payments programs around the world.

David Yates, the president of new payments platforms for Mastercard, said he’s very excited about the hire.

“Liz brings a proven skillset to the company, including specialist expertise in clearing and settlement, and the development of innovative payment solutions in wholesale, corporate and retail banking,” Yates said. “We are delighted to welcome her back to Mastercard and look forward to her contributions to an already strong team.”

Oakes came to Mastercard from McKinsey & Company, where she worked as an expert associate partner in the firm’s global payments practice. While there, she worked with financial institutions, and with payments businesses and investors on strategy. She also designed and implemented payment systems and handled regulation, including PSD2 and open banking. Before that, Oakes was with KPMG, offering payments advisory services to clients. She also worked at Vocalink, which is now part of Mastercard.

Oakes is well-versed, Mastercard said, in the development of enhanced data and capabilities for real-time payments and the implementation of the ISO 20022 XML messaging standard.

Oakes said she is ready to meet the challenges of her new role. She will be based in London and will report directly to Yates.

“I am delighted to re-join the organization at such a pivotal moment in the development of payment infrastructures globally to meet the needs for faster, more efficient systems and flexible architectures that adapt to an open banking and API environment,” she said.