Visa (NYSE: V) has confirmed the appointment of Dr. Saeeda Jaffar as Group Country Manager, and SVP for its operations across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region.
Dr. Jaffar will reportedly be joining the digital payments leader to manage and oversee its presence in six different countries. She’ll be working out of Visa’s Dubai office.
In her new senior management role, Dr. Jaffar will be reporting directly to Andrew Torre, Regional President for the Central Europe, Middle East & Africa (CEMEA) region. She’ll officially be a part of the CEMEA Leadership Team.
Dr. Jaffar has joined the Visa team with extensive financial services and payments experience. She has spent several years as Managing Director for the Middle East at Alvarez & Marsal. She previously held key leadership roles in the Middle East for Bain & Company and McKinsey & Company, working cooperatively with private and public sector customers.
Dr. Jaffar possesses a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering from Boston University, and a Masters of Science and a Doctorate in Chemical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She earned these qualifications through the HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum EDAAD Scholarship.
Dr Saeeda Jaffar stated:
“The past year has brought tremendous change to commerce in the Middle East with consumers and merchants shifting to digital with greater speed and urgency. As we continue the path towards recovery, Visa’s mission to help individuals, businesses and economies to thrive is more important than ever. With digitization high on the regional government agenda, I am looking forward to further helping establish Visa as a partner of choice, while unlocking growth opportunities for new and existing clients and partners across the GCC.”
As covered recently, M2P Solutions, the API Infrastructure firm that launched operations earlier in 2021 with Abu Dhabi as one of its headquarters, has received its Visa Ready-certification which should help the company with working cooperatively with banks that are based in the MENA region. The company will be able to offer innovative payment solutions via the Visa network
