Visa Names CFO Vasant Prabhu Vice Chairman

With an expanded position at Visa Inc., Chief Financial Officer Vasant Prabhu will take on the vice chairman role for the global payments technology company. Prabhu is also an executive vice president and an executive committee member, Visa said in an announcement.

“I have extraordinary respect for Vasant,” Visa CEO Al Kelly said in the announcement. “He is a strong strategist with a deep knowledge of our business, and is very well regarded in the industry. This expanded role will enable us to leverage his expertise in new and meaningful ways.”

Through his expanded role, Prabhu will have an “active role” in representing the company at industry forums and serve “as a valuable voice with key constituents on business issues of strategic importance to Visa and its clients.” He will also give strategic counsel on geographies as well as major initiatives that are important to the future growth of the company.

Prabhu served as chief financial officer at NBCUniversal Media, LLC prior to arriving at Visa, where he oversaw the company’s finance function in addition to its division for operations and technical services. Before joining NBCUniversal in 2014, Prabhu was Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.’s chief financial officer since 2004. He was named vice chairman of Starwood in 2010.

Prabhu was responsible for all financial, information technology and a range of corporate functions at Starwood. He also served as executive vice president and chief financial officer at Safeway Inc., and he also held senior leadership roles at PepsiCo, Inc., Booz, Allen & Hamilton and The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. The executive has a bachelor’s in engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology as well as an MBA from the University of Chicago.

In 2015, at the time he arrived at Visa, Prabhu said in a prepared statement, “I am very excited to be joining Visa at such an important time in the company’s history.” Prabhu continued, “The payments industry is growing and changing every day, and I look forward to being part of a team that is driving innovation throughout the industry.”