Meet the Experts

A financial historian and a legal scholar, I study central banking, financial regulation, and public finance, with a particular focus on the history and policies of the U.S. Federal Reserve System. I am the author of the book "The Power and Independence of the Federal Reserve" (Princeton University Press 2016), co-author of a leading textbook on financial regulation ("The Law of Financial Institutions"), and author and editor of several other books and articles on central banking, financial regulation and bank corporate governance. I received a law degree from Stanford Law School and a PhD in history from Princeton.

I am the Dean of Cambridge Judge Business School and a former Guggenheim and Fulbright Fellow. I combine my training as a sociologist at Yale and as a business economist in my native Spain to methodically identify and quantify the most promising opportunities at the intersection of demographic, economic and technological developments. My research, op-eds, and commentary have been featured in numerous outlets, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, the Economist and Financial Times. I am also the author of the bestselling book "2030: How Today's Biggest Trends Will Collide and Reshape the Future of Everything" (August 2020).

In my current roles, I focus on private capital investments and financial technology. Previously, I served as Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions and Director of the Office of Financial Institutions Policy at the United States Department of the Treasury. I also served on the board of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC). I have held various leadership positions throughout financial services in general management, portfolio management, trading, marketing, research and analytics. I have a JD from the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an MSt from Oxford University. I am a Harry S. Truman Scholar and a member of the American Law Institute.

I have been a faculty member of the Wharton School since 1995 and served as Senior Financial Economist at the Securities Exchange Commission from 2005 to 2007. I have a BA from Yale University and a PhD from the University of Chicago. Most of my work, both theoretical and empirical, is in the area of consumer financial services, mutual funds and consumer credit. I have also published work on corporate and political voting, option pricing, short selling and cross-border taxation.

I am a Professor of Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania, where I also hold appointments in multiple departments in the Wharton School and the Schools of Medicine, Arts and Sciences, and Engineering and Applied Science. I have published over 300 articles, supervised two dozen PhD students, and am a co-inventor on patents. My current research focuses on developing scalable machine-learning methods for data mining and text mining, including deep-learning methods for natural language processing and analysis of cell phone data and social media to better understand the drivers of physical and mental well-being.

Combining a passion for business with an engineer's logic, I have a knack for translating econometric analyses into plain English. I travel the world explaining the economic forces shaping the future, consulting with client executives and presenting at conferences from London to Singapore and throughout the United States.

I am responsible for leading Visa’s Global Urban Mobility, Seller Loyalty, Seller Onboarding, Visa Digital Ticketing, Merchant Initiated Transactions and Lifecycle Management teams. Our goal is to simplify, expand, and enrich connections between sellers and their customers, and we design, develop and deploy products and solutions on a global scale with regional customizations that enable our seller partners to succeed. I graduated from Warner Pacific College with a Business Administration degree and was honorably discharged after 6 years of service in the US Navy.

I serve as the Global Head of Business Development for Visa's Emerging Products Organization. My team focuses on identifying, developing and commercializing relationships with strategic non-financial institution (non-FI) partners capable of extending the reach and utility of Visa's payment network on behalf of consumers, issuers and acquirers globally. Throughout my 20-year career, I have held a variety of strategic development and hands-on operating roles in the financial services, consumer technology and media fields.

I work in partnership with public authorities and international organizations to accelerate financial access and inclusion, including partnering with government officials around the world to advance policies that foster the growth of electronic payments. I have held several positions at the United States Department of Commerce and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Washington, D.C. I have a BA from LeMoyne College and an MA from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. In 2001, I was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study the North American Free Trade Agreement at McGill University.

I have more than 20 years of experience leading data and analytics teams for multiple organizations. Currently, I serve as Vice President of Global Data and Business Intelligence at Visa, where I oversee the use of data at Visa to foster a data-driven culture. Prior to joining Visa, I spent 10 years at Disney leading several different teams in the data and analytics space.

I lead Visa’s Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Platform team, which turns data into value for Visa and its clients by delivering data assets and platforms as a service. My team includes data engineers, scientists and technologists, all of whom are committed to ethical principles including responsible AI and using data for good. I hold bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and computer science, as well as a master’s degree in computer applications and I have been granted several patents for digital and mobile real-time intelligence, analytics and document retrieval systems.

I am the Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer for Visa’s European operations and have more than 30 years of experience in financial services, bank operations and management consulting. Prior to joining Visa, I served as Chief Operating Officer for the Bank of England and held leadership roles with Santander UK, Experian, Discover Financial Services, Morgan Stanley and McKinsey & Company. I graduated from the University of Oxford with a BA in economics and history. I am a Kennedy Memorial Trust Scholar from Harvard University and have an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Warwick University.

As Global Head of Risk Strategy and Operation, I assess how key security trends are transforming the payments landscape, determine the technology, processes and analytics necessary for Visa and its partners to keep pace and develop the roadmap necessary to realize our mission to be the most trusted payments network in the world. Previously, I have led initiatives within Visa's Global Product Commercialization group, providing insights on emerging payments trends and delivering innovative solutions that enable our partners to deliver seamless and secure payment experiences to their customers.

I lead a team of experts in the fields of payments, economic policy, technology and security working to advance digital equity and inclusion, unlocking growth through trade and fostering an open future for payments. I represent Visa on the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council (GFC) on Economic Growth and Recovery and am a past member of the GFC on Trade and Investment. Prior to joining Visa, I led the World Bank’s investment policy portfolio on international investment agreements (IIAs), regional integration and services, and was a coordinator for investment policy in Eastern, Central and Southern Africa. I have a PhD and Master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and hold a Bachelor’s degree in economics and political science from McGill University.

I lead Visa’s Security Architecture and Engineering team, which is comprised of cybersecurity engineers who defend Visa’s global ecosystems. Since joining Visa in 2015, I’ve played an instrumental role in maturing its cybersecurity program and leading key initiatives including 100% data protection, zero trust architecture, cloud security, artificial intelligence for threat management and vulnerability management. I hold three patents in user authentication and cloud security and co-authored the O'Reilly publication "Cloud Security and Privacy — an Enterprise Perspective on Risks and Compliance". I hold a Master of Computer Engineering from Clemson University and am a founding member of the Cloud Security Alliance, where I chaired the Trusted Cloud initiative.

I lead the Transaction Security team, which is responsible for designing and building leading-edge fraud prevention solutions while increasing authorizations and improving customer experience in a rapidly evolving ecosystem. Previous to this role, I was the SVP, Regional Risk Officer for Visa’s CEMEA region based out of Dubai, UAE. In that role I, oversaw all risk-related functions including credit settlement risk, enterprise risk management and payment system risk, which includes data security, brand protection and cyber investigations. I hold a Bachelor of Science in International Business as well as an MBA from United States International University in San Diego, California.

I lead the fundamental research team at Visa that drives innovation in areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), security and privacy, and blockchain. My team works closely with academia to advance the science of payments and with Visa’s product management and engineering teams to incorporate research breakthroughs into Visa’s commercial offerings. I am passionate about AI technologies and their applications in fintech and the payments industry to deliver unique value to everyone in the ecosystem. I hold a master’s degree in Pattern Recognition and Artificial Intelligence from the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a PhD in Computer Science for the University of California, Los Angeles.