Ajaypal Banga

Ajaypal Banga was born in 1960 in Khadki, a small town near the city of Pune, Maharashtra in India in a Saini Sikh family. His parents were Jaswant Kaur and Harbhajan Singh Banga, who was an officer with the Indian army and had risen to the rank of lieutenant general at the time of his retirement. Banga’s family hails from Jalandhar in Punjab but he grew up in army bases all across India, attending schools in Secunderabad, Jalandhar, Delhi, Hyderabad and finally in Shimla, where he finished his high school education.

He received his primary education from the prestigious Hyderabad Public School in Begumpet. After he graduated from high school, Banga enrolled at St. Stephen's College, Delhi University, from where he received a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree in Economics. He later attended the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, from where he earned an MBA degree. His elder brother, Manvinder Singh Banga, is also a businessman and a senior partner at the private equity fund Clayton Dubilier & Rice.

Ajaypal Banga is married to a woman named Ritu and has two daughters, Jojo and Aditi.

Ajaypal Banga started his business career in 1981 with Nestlé, where he spent the next 13 years of his life, holding various positions in different fields including sales, marketing, and general management. After this, he worked for PepsiCo for two years and led the company in launching its fast food franchises in India during the economic liberalisation of the country in the 1990s.

Prior to joining MasterCard, Banga was employed as the chief executive officer of Citigroup Asia Pacific. During his tenure there, he also held various other positions in senior management in the United States, Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa. He guided the company’s efforts in microfinance as well.

In 2009, he joined MasterCard Incorporated, and took over as the company’s president and CEO, effective from July 1, 2010, replacing the former CEO Robert W. Selander.

In February 2015, then US President Barack Obama formally accepted him as a member of the President's Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations. He also served as one of the members of President Obama’s Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity.

Banga is an active member of the U.S.-India CEO Forum and a chairperson of the board of directors of the American India Foundation and the Partnership for New York City.

A fellow of the Foreign Policy Association, Banga received the Foreign Policy Association Medal in 2012.