Just four days after Visa CEO Charles Scharf told analysts that he had nothing to report about Visa’s search for a new CFO, the company announced on Monday (Feb. 2) that NBCUniversal CFO Vasant M. Prabhu will be moving into the Visa post as of Feb. 9.
Prabhu, who will report directly to Scharf, will succeed Byron Pollitt, who previously announced his plans to retire. He will be responsible for Visa’s financial strategies, planning and reporting, in addition to all finance operations and investor relations, the company said.
At NBCUniversal, Prabhu oversaw the media company’s finance function as well as the operations and technical services division — including the company’s information technology functions. That could be crucial for Visa, as it increasingly pushes advanced technology like tokenization to secure payments and continues to move beyond plastic into mobile and digital payments such as Apple Pay.
“I am very excited to be joining Visa at such an important time in the company’s history,” Prabhu said in a prepared statement. “The payments industry is growing and changing every day, and I look forward to being part of a team that is driving innovation throughout the industry.”
Before joining NBCUniversal in 2014, Prabhu was CFO (and also oversaw IT) at Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide for a decade, and became vice chairman of Starwood in 2010. He has also been CFO for supermarket chain Safeway and held senior leadership roles at McGraw-Hill, PepsiCo, and Booz Allen Hamilton.
“After a thorough global search, we are thrilled to have Vasant join the Visa leadership team,” Scharf said. “Vasant is a seasoned executive with a wealth of experience across a wide range of global businesses. His financial leadership, operational abilities, strategic focus and global mindset will be extraordinarily valuable to us, as we continue to grow our business around the world.”
Scharf also praised outgoing CFO Pollitt, who shepherded Visa’s transition from a bank association to going public. “We will continue to benefit from the great work he has done during his tenure with Visa,” Scharf said.