Ajay Banga 11 notches ahead of Buffett!

Ajaypal Singh Banga, the chief executive officer of MasterCard, was named 8th in the Fortune magazine’s The 2012 Businessperson of The Year rankings.

That’s the highest ranking notched up by any person of Indian origin.

He is also 11 levels ahead of United State’s billionaire and legendary investor Warren Buffett.
Banga, 52, – he’s 8 years younger than Manvinder Singh, or Vindi, Banga, former chief of Hindustan Unilever -- has steered the electronic payments network company so successfully, it outperformed archrival Visa as a result of which, the share price has more than doubled to $4.94 on Friday from $2 in July 2010, when he was named CEO.

He had joined MasterCard in March 2009 as president and chief operating officer.

Fortune said MasterCard now generates 60% of its revenue outside the United States. After driving the prepaid cards business successfully in the emerging markets, Banga now aims to do the same in mobile payments too.

Earlier this year, MasterCard unveiled PayPass Wallet Services, a system that lets customers make payments on their phones and online without entering their card information.

Before joining MasterCard, Banga served as CEO of Citigroup’s Asia-Pacific region. He began his career in India with Nestle in 1981 and went on to pay an important role with PepsiCo.
He holds a degree in B A in economics from Delhi University and is an alumnus of  IIM, Ahmedabad.