TAIPEI,
Taiwan, February 17, 2020 – Visa, the global leader in digital
payments, today announced the appointment of Michelle Jao (趙麗芳) as General
Manager for Taiwan. She will be responsible for business operations, strategy
development and management of Visa’s businesses in the market, effective from March
16, 2020.
Ms. Jao was previously
Vice President for Strategic Projects and Planning for Visa and was
instrumental in leading strategic planning and engagement in Mainland China.
A Taiwan
native, Ms. Jao brings more than two decades of multi-market experiences in
information technology and financial services to the role. Michelle joined Visa
from Lenovo, where she was Vice President, Global Service Strategy and PC Services.
Prior to that, she held various senior management positions at IBM, most
recently as Vice President and, Chief
Operating Officer, for Global Business
Services in Greater China.
Michelle succeeds
Marco Ma, who led Visa’s business in the market for the past 14 years. Under Mr.
Ma, Visa has more than doubled digital payment usage, expanded the adoption of
Visa Debit, and grown contactless payment usage to seven in ten of all
face-to-face Visa transactions. Marco also led the launch of the Visa Token
Service, making digital payments safer and more seamless through tokenization[1],
and Visa Direct, which enables convenient, safe, real-time funds delivery
directly to financial accounts using card credentials.
Shirley Yu,
Group General Manager, Greater China said: “Visa is excited to have Michelle
Jao lead our growing team in Taiwan. With proven business stewardship and a
strong understanding of the market, I am confident Michelle will propel the business
to greater heights in this era of digital disruption.”
Michelle Jao
said: “I look forward to building on Visa’s strong legacy in the market,
working closely with our Taiwan team, financial institution clients, merchants
and government partners to ensure Visa remains the best way to pay and be paid
for everyone everywhere.”
Ms. Jao
graduated from the National Taiwan University with a bachelor’s degree in
international business and a master’s degree in business administration.
[1] Token
is a unique digital identifier that replaces sensitive account information, such as the 16-digit primary
account number.