Ajaypal “Ajay” Singh Banga is an American business leader who is presently employed by MasterCard Inc. as the company’s president and CEO (CEO). Additionally, he serves as the co-chairman of the American India Foundation and is a fellow at the Weill Cornell Medical College, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Inc., the Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics, the Economic Club of New York, the US India CEO Forum, and the World Economic Forum’s International Business Council. Banga, an army brat, spent his formative years in many Indian cities. In 1981, he started working for Nestlé after receiving his MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He worked for the business for the following 13 years before moving on to PepsiCo and Citigroup. He was promoted to his present role at MasterCard in July 2010. Banga has won numerous honors in celebration of his remarkable career, including the Indian civilian honor Padma Shri, which the Indian government bestowed upon him in 2016.
Career of Ajaypal Banga
Ajaypal Banga began his commercial career in 1981 with Nestlé, where he worked for the following 13 years in a variety of roles in sales, marketing, and general management. After that, he spent the next two years working for PepsiCo, where he helped the firm establish its fast food franchises in India during the 1990s economic liberalization of the nation.
Banga worked as the president and chief executive officer of Citigroup Asia Pacific before joining MasterCard. He also held a number of other high management positions during his time there across the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East, and Africa. He also oversaw the company’s microfinance initiatives.
He began working for MasterCard Incorporated in 2009, and on July 1, 2010, he succeeded Robert W. Selander as president and CEO of the business.
He was formally approved in February 2015 by former US President Barack Obama to the President’s Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations. He was also a member of the Commission on Strengthening National Cybersecurity established by President Obama.
In addition to serving as the chairman of the boards of the American India Foundation and the Partnership for New York City, Banga is an active participant in the U.S.-India CEO Forum.
Individual Life of Ajaypal Banga
Ajaypal Banga was born in 1960 to a Saini Sikh family in the small hamlet of Khadki, Maharashtra, India, which is close to the metropolis of Pune. Jaswant Kaur, one of the Indian army’s officers who had attained the rank of lieutenant general at the time of his retirement, and Harbhajan Singh Banga were his parents. Banga’s parents are from the Punjabi city of Jalandhar, although he spent his childhood in army camps all across India, attending schools in Secunderabad, Jalandhar, Delhi, Hyderabad, and ultimately Shimla, where he completed his high school education.
He attended the esteemed Hyderabad Public School in Begumpet for his early education. Banga studied in St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University, after finishing high school, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts (Honors) in Economics. Later, he studied at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, where he received his MBA. Manvinder Singh Banga, his older brother, is a successful businessman and a senior partner at Clayton Dubilier & Rice, a private equity firm.
Ajaypal Banga has two kids, Jojo and Aditi, from his marriage to Ritu.
Estimated Net Worth
As of 2022, Ajay Banga’s estimated net worth was at least $184 million. Over the past 13 years, Mr. Banga has sold MA stock valued at over $69,986,261, and he currently owns over 60,000 units of Mastercard stock worth over $90,493,072. In addition, his salary as Chief Executive Officer of Mastercard is $23,250,000.
Trivia
Banga, a fellow of the Foreign Policy Association, got the medal from that organization in 2012.