Marqeta Announces Karna Crawford as Chief Marketing Officer

Crawford will bring two decades of marketing acumen to Marqeta honed across leadership roles at J.P. Morgan Chase, Verizon and Ford, as adoption and scale of the Marqeta platform continues to grow globally.

OAKLAND, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Marqeta (NASDAQ: MQ), the global modern card issuing platform, announced today that it had appointed Karna Crawford, a veteran marketing executive who has held leadership roles at J.P. Morgan Chase, Verizon and Ford, as it’s Chief Marketing Officer. Crawford will be a crucial member of Marqeta’s senior leadership team driving the company’s global marketing efforts, including marketing and brand strategy, demand generation, product marketing, and communications.

“Karna matches big picture brand vision with a keen eye for data and understanding how customers and prospects interact with a product,” said Todd Pollak, Chief Revenue Officer at Marqeta. “Marqeta has a big part to play in a major evolution in financial services toward embedded finance, and Karna was a clear choice to help us bring this story to an even bigger stage.”

Marqeta was founded in 2010, and quickly became regarded as the global standard for open platform issuing and processing, bringing much needed innovation to an industry historically dominated by legacy players. The company has empowered some of the world’s most innovative companies to bring game-changing payment card products into the world, and has been recognized in the past as one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies in the World and on CNBC’s Disruptor 50 list.

Crawford, who has held leadership roles at J.P. Morgan Chase, Verizon and Ford, joins Marqeta at a time of increasing demand and scale for its platform and solutions. The company processed more than $160 billion in total payments volume in 2022, representing more than 80x growth since 2017. Marqeta’s modern card issuing platform has more than 370 API endpoints and with the acquisition of Power Finance in January 2023 is now set up to power consumer and commercial debit, prepaid and credit programs.

“Marqeta has the solutions to fuel the embedded finance rocketship, and from my first conversations with leadership I knew that the opportunity to tell this story was huge,” said Karna Crawford, Marqeta CMO. “Working for some of the most iconic brands in the world, I’ve been able to leverage data, technology and insights to deliver hyper targeted marketing that drives growth and builds brands that connect with wider audiences. I’m looking forward to driving the Marqeta story forward as the company enters into a new chapter of its growth.”

About Marqeta
Marqeta’s modern card issuing platform empowers its customers to create customized and innovative payment cards. Marqeta’s platform, powered by open APIs, gives its customers the ability to build more configurable and flexible payment experiences, accelerating product development and democratizing access to card issuing technology. Its modern architecture provides instant access to highly scalable, cloud-based payment infrastructure that enables customers to launch and manage their own card programs, issue cards and authorize and settle transactions. Marqeta is headquartered in Oakland, California and is certified to operate in 40 countries globally. For more information, visit www.marqeta.com, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements expressed or implied in this press release include, but are not limited to, quotations and statements relating to changing consumer preferences; increasing consumer adoption of certain digital payment methods, products, and solutions; which payment, banking, and financial services products and solutions may succeed; technological and market trends; Marqeta’s business; Marqeta’s products and services; and statements made by Marqeta’s senior leadership. Actual results may differ materially from the expectations contained in these statements due to risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, the following: any factors creating issues with changes in domestic business, market, financial, political and legal conditions; the effect of and uncertainties related to the global COVID-19 pandemic on U.S. and global economies and demand for Marqeta’s services and products; the uncertainties and direct and indirect effects of the significant military action against Ukraine launched by Russia, including threats of attacks against U.S. financial institutions as retaliation against financial institutions for sanctions imposed against Russia; the risk that Marqeta is unable to further attract and grow its customer base; the risk that consumers will not perceive the benefits of Marqeta’s products and services, including digital payment and banking products and services; the risk that Marqeta's products and services do not operate as intended, including digital payment and banking products and services; the risk that Marqeta’s products and solutions will not achieve the expected market acceptance, including digital payment and banking products and services; and the risk that competition could reduce expected demand for Marqeta’s products and services, including digital payment and banking products and services. Detailed information about these risks and other factors that could potentially affect Marqeta’s business, financial condition and results of operations are included in the “Risk Factors” disclosed in Marqeta's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, as such risk factors may be updated from time to time in Marqeta’s periodic filings with the SEC, available at www.sec.gov and Marqeta’s website at http://investors.marqeta.com. The forward-looking statements in this press release are based on information available to Marqeta as of the date hereof. Marqeta disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by law.