Ari Sarker

In his capacity as president for Asia Pacific at Mastercard and a member of the Global Management Committee, Ari Sarker oversees all of the company’s activities in the region including business strategy and operations, product development, sales and marketing, and relationships with governments, regulators, banks and merchants.

Ari is an active proponent of the company’s financial inclusion commitments, and an active champion of inclusive growth efforts across a number of Asia’s emerging economies. He also spearheads managing and identifying new equity investment opportunities designed to establish Mastercard as a natural partner of choice for firms in the dynamically evolving fintech landscape.

Ari has been with Mastercard since 2011 and has held an array of leadership roles across geographies. Prior to his current role, he helmed Mastercard’s business for South Asia, including India. He started his journey at Mastercard as head of Network Processing for AP & MEA, in which capacity he actively advocated for the need to build an open payments market environment. In this role, Ari was instrumental in driving significant engagement and deepening the partnership models with domestic switch operators and regulators, thereby enabling a much more vibrant ecosystem overall.

Before joining Mastercard, Ari spent over 12 years with GE in a variety of senior roles in accounting, audit, corporate finance, and private equity across several key markets in the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific.

Ari holds a number of Board positions, including Independent Board Director with Airtel Payments Bank Limited in India, Advisory Board Member of the Singapore Management University Lee Kong Chian School of Business (SMU-LKCSB), and Board Member of the US-ASEAN Business Council (USABC).

He is a B.Com (Hons) graduate from Delhi University, an MBA from Cardiff University, and is a qualified chartered accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.