Sam Ahmed — Group Head of Marketing In Asia/Pacific, Middle East & Africa and Senior Vice President at Mastercard

Mr. Sam Ahmed has been Group Head of Marketing In Asia/Pacific, Middle East & Africa at MasterCard Incorporated since October 2013 and serves as its Senior Vice President. Mr. Ahmed is responsible for the management of the region's marketing teams. He oversees the development of strategies and campaigns for MasterCard's advertising, sponsorships, promotions, as well as digital and consumer marketing initiatives across APMEA. Mr. Ahmed served as Vice President of Marketing & Category at Starbucks Coffee Asia Pacific. He was a key member of the Starbucks Asia Pacific Leadership Team. He was instrumental in restructuring Starbuck's Asia Pacific digital engagement strategy. He served on Kraft Foods' Global Beverage Team as Director of the Beverages Division, Asia Pacific, where he managed the regional beverage executive team and successfully led the growth in both market share and regional sales of various Asia Pacific beverage brands. Mr. Ahmed was at Fonterra Brands where he served for five years as Global Brand Director for Fonterra's nutritional brands. During his time at Fonterra, Mr. Ahmed led a three-year brand transformation strategy that won the Best Regional Integrated Marketing Campaign in Asia Pacific award at the Marketing Effectiveness Awards Asia Pacific in 2007 and was subsequently published in the Nutrition Business Journal. Mr. Ahmed graduated from the Harvard Business School Executive MBA - General Management Program and received an MBA in International Marketing from Premier College of Business Administration and Economics.