Visa Appoints Michelle Gethers-Clark as Chief Diversity Officer and Head of Corporate Responsibility

Newly Expanded Role Will Drive Company-Wide Approach to Inclusion and Diversity, Sustainability and Social Impact with a Focus on Inclusive and Equitable Economic Growth

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Visa (NYSE: V) today announced the appointment of Michelle Gethers-Clark as Chief Diversity Officer and Head of Corporate Responsibility. Gethers-Clark will join Visa’s Executive Committee and report to Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Al Kelly.

In this role, Gethers-Clark will lead Visa’s inclusion and diversity, social impact and sustainability efforts globally. Among her responsibilities will be ensuring Visa’s organization and culture are truly inclusive, and managing initiatives to enhance Visa’s commitment to being a responsible, ethical and sustainable company. She will also oversee Visa’s social impact efforts to drive equitable economic growth with a special focus on supporting small and micro businesses.

“As a global, purpose-led company we are guided by the belief that economies that include everyone, everywhere will uplift everyone, everywhere. Michelle has tremendous leadership experience closely aligning inclusion and diversity, social impact and philanthropic initiatives to business objectives and producing transformational results. We are very excited for Michelle to join our team and help us to continue to drive positive impact within Visa and around the world,” Al Kelly said.

Most recently, Gethers-Clark served as President & CEO of the United Way of Greater Greensboro, North Carolina, where she led fundraising and distribution of $90 million to social impact programs focused on producing positive life, health and economic outcomes for children and families. Prior to United Way, Gethers-Clark spent more than 20 years at American Express where she held various senior roles across internal audit, risk management and credit and collection operations, ultimately becoming the company’s Senior Vice President and General Manager of Card Operations. Additionally, while at American Express, Gethers-Clark led regional philanthropic and social impact initiatives, and drove the national agenda for the American Express Black Employee Network.

“It is my honor to join the Visa team and lead our strategic inclusion and diversity, social impact and sustainability efforts globally,” said Gethers-Clark. “I bring to this role a passion for partnering with internal and external team members to continue bringing to life what this work can mean for our company, our customers and our communities around the world.”

Gethers-Clark will join Visa in May and will work eventually from the company’s San Francisco headquarters.

About Visa

Visa (NYSE: V) is the world’s leader in digital payments. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, reliable and secure payment network - enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. Our advanced global processing network, VisaNet, provides secure and reliable payments around the world, and is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second. Our relentless focus on innovation is a catalyst for the rapid growth of digital commerce on any device, for everyone, everywhere. As the world moves from analog to digital, Visa is applying our brand, products, people, network and scale to reshape the future of commerce. For more information, visit About Visa, visa.com/blog and @VisaNews.