New head of prepaid products at MasterCard Europe??
MasterCard has appointed Matthew Lanford as senior business leader, Europe prepaid product development, effective immediately.
He will assume regional responsibility for innovation, product development, go-to-market strategy and commercialization of the MasterCard portfolio of prepaid products, reporting to Laura Kelly, senior VP, global debit and prepaid product solutions, MasterCard Worldwide.
Laura Kelly commented on the appointment: “Europe represents a significant opportunity for the MasterCard prepaid business. Our recent work with PSE Consulting confirmed that the spend opportunity in Europe is substantial – and still in its relative infancy – projected to total US$120bn by 2015. With his knowledge and experience, Matt is well positioned to capitalise on this opportunity and bring fresh insights and strategic leadership to the region.”
Previously based in the US, Lanford managed MasterCard’s commercial prepaid strategy and suite of prepaid healthcare solutions, including the development and implementation of innovative initiatives such as real-time substantiation of healthcare purchases on MasterCard prepaid healthcare cards.
Prior to joining MasterCard, Lanford served as a director at Citigroup Corporate Investment Bank Global Transaction Services. He also managed new product development activities for Citishare, Citigroup’s global ATM and PIN POS debit transaction processing business. Lanford has 15 years’ experience in the payments industry and he previously spent three years in Europe serving in various management capacities in Budapest, Hungary, for Euronet Worldwide and Arysys, a software solutions provider of ATM, POS and card processing products.
MasterCard’s previous head of prepaid cards was Chris Reddish, who left the company last year. Last October he become group executive of prepaid card services company White Eagle (Europe).