Source: MasterCard
MasterCard Worldwide announced today that Denzil Lawson has been appointed head of Regional Business Development for the Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa region. Lawson joined MasterCard in 2002 and last held the position of General Manager, Middle East and Levant from 2004.
MasterCard has also appointed Michael Miebach as General Manager, Middle East & Africa. Miebach joins MasterCard from Barclays where he has been Managing Director, Middle East and North Africa, and Managing Director, UAE, with responsibility for all corporate, commercial and consumer businesses in the region.
"Denzil has extensive experience in developing the business for MasterCard in the Middle East and Levant markets, launching new products and growing MasterCard's share of the payments business. In this newly created position, he will take his knowledge and successes to explore and create opportunities with customer financial institutions across the Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa footprint," said Vicky Bindra, president, Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa, MasterCard Worldwide.
Lawson has built the team and MasterCard business in the Middle East and Levant markets, developing strong business relationships with customer financial institutions and merchants. During his tenure, MasterCard Middle East and Levant opened new offices in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, established a strong position in Islamic and Premium products, introduced payment services to Iraq and Afghanistan and promoted a significant Debit business.
In his first two years at MasterCard, he led sales and business development for South Asia, Middle East and Africa. Prior to that, Lawson worked for ANZ Bank in Australia for over 12 years where he held a number of senior executive positions across the gamut of Retail Banking functions, heavily focused on Asia Pacific; South Asia and the Middle East.
Miebach has worked extensively in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. He represented Barclays as a Member of the Board of the Board of Directors in Egypt, Tanzania and Botswana. Prior to Barclays, Miebach held several senior-level positions in Citibank, involved in operations, financial control, customer service, relationship management, cards and consumer finance, corporate and investment banking. Miebach will be based in Dubai.
"Michael brings with him a wealth of experience in the financial services sector and a deep understanding of the Middle East and Africa, which offer great potential for MasterCard in our core business. We are confident that both Denzil and Michael will put us in a strong position to maximize the substantial opportunities across our high growth region," added Bindra.