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Sumit Mittal

From a Promising Future in MasterCard to the Genesis of Own Company, Sumit Mittal Imparts Inspiration To All Ambitious People

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Amidst the evolving self-centric mode of lifestyle, it is very difficult to find people who are concerned about the well-being of others. Among the crowd of people full of aspirants striving to reach the epitome of success, someone trying to bring about a change in society is a very remarkable event and worth an applause. Such is the inspiring story of entrepreneur Sumit Mittal.

Early life

Born to an army father, Mr. Mittal had a very humble upbringing. He looked up to his father for advice who was himself full of creative ideas even though he worked in the Army. Mr. Mittal remembers the golden words of his father –“You have to give your best no matter what the outcome is” and he has stuck to that saying both in his studies as well as his career.

Mr. Mittal was surrounded by engineering professionals in his family, be it his father or brother/cousins and hence it was but natural to pursue a course in Engineering in the so-called “follow the family tradition”. His journey gives scope for a wide array of hope and determination to all the motivated people who have the zeal to be successful in life.

Education & Career

Having pursued his Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical field, Mr. Mittal went on to pursue Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management in Delhi, and he went ahead with his prospective career as a Credit Analyst at GE Capital – State Bank of India JV where he conducted credit appraisal on credit card portfolio.

Mr. Mittal was the founder member team at SBI Credit Card and is a trained six sigma professional. Following the big shot in GE Capital, the foresighted man moved on with his endeavor in MasterCard starting as the Manager in Finance, and due to his hard work and agility, he was transferred to Mastercard Dubai office to head the Franchise Department for entire South Asia, Middle East & Africa Region.

During this time, he also pursued an MBA from Warwick Business School, UK attaining an additional degree in Management besides his PGDBM. Then Mr. Mittal rose to the position of VP & Country Manager of Kuwait/Qatar/Oman where he spearheaded the growth of Mastercard business in Kuwaitsignificantly capturing share from archival Visa in favor of Mastercard. During this time, Mr. Mittal was awarded the Sales Champion Award for the Middle East & Africa region for exemplary sales performance and breaking the stronghold of the competition.

He also got various other awards during his tenure at Mastercard Dubai. After spending 8 years in Dubai Mr. Mittal moved back to India office and became the Head of Global Account for South Asia division looking after all Global banks. Little did he know that his stint of Middle East wasn’t over and he was offered the role of Senior Business Leader in MEA, Dubai, where he spent another 3 years before he called quits to the corporate life in 2017 and moved on to establish himself as an entrepreneur.

The turning point in life

Being part of the chaotic world framework, he was struck by the realization that the greatest threat in the contemporary era is the anger issue. Unable to comprehend the emotional upheaval, moreover the inability to channelize the anger in the correct direction has driven the mass to various mental problems stranding them of peace and sanity in their life.

Start of Entrepreneurial Journey

To combat such serious problems, Sumit Mittal with his caliber and phenomenal talent came up with the genesis of his start-up Crestline Biz Solutions, the parent company of VentAllOut–a social platform enhancing “Freedom of Expression” where people can share their frustration without being discovered and judged.

People can write their opinion and comment covering a wide array of topics from politics to current affairs, confession, relationship & grievance. VentAllOut is a health-tech platform that aims to provide a podium for people to express their emotions, opinions, and sentiments, anonymously, on varied topics of interests, promoting healthy discussions and active networking based on content preference.

It is created to break the barrier in reaching out to a like-minded community, anonymously and thereby, enabling users to express themselves candidly on any topic that might be bothering / concerning them. Furthermore, to provide last-mile support, users may also reach out to experts on the panel and discuss their issues or problems and get timely advice. 

Besides VentAllOut, his true creative mind with the inclination towards sales and business management encouraged him to conceptualize Shoppyfier, a deal discovery platform listing all the offers customers can avail in a particular brand or shop.

Coming with a backup of great energy and potential, Mr. Mittal has always excelled in his life and while he goes through his journey as an entrepreneur he does sneak time out to indulge in the hobbies of traveling and entertaining himself to a round of golf. Mr. Mittal is married and has three lovely children who keep asking questions about the venture……. probably inheritance already coming to play!!!

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Ajaypal Banga: Mastermind Behind The Mega Success of MasterCard

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Knowing about successful professionals is always inspiring. There are people in leadership and management niche who have created a path that is a dream of many to follow. One of such outstanding, talented professionals is Ajaypal Singh Banaga – The President and MasterCard CEO.

As a person, Ajaypal Banga is a gem but his life story is tremendously inspiring. Let’s know more about his success story.

Personal life of Ajaypal Banga

Ajaypal is born in 1960 in a small town near Pune, Khadki, where his father was working. Banga originally was from Jalandhar (Punjab). His father retired Lt. General, Harbhajan Singh was an army person. Thus, he got the chance to study all over India. He has been in schools in Secunderabad, Jalandhar, Delhi, Hyderabad, and Shimla.

Mastercard CEO- Ajaypal Banga
Image Source: Google

Ajaypal had no interest in an army career. Therefore, he preferred to study Economics. He went to St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University. Later, he completed his MBA from the IIM, Ahmedabad.

In fact, his entire educational journey was completed solely in India. He proved that you need not have to have degrees from other countries to climb the ladders of success.

Career

Ajaypal Banga began his career with Nestle India in 1891. He involved as a management trainee and resided in the company for 13 years. Doing different assignments including sales, marketing, and general management.

After Nestle, he joined PepsiCo’s Restaurants Division. Where he contributed significantly to the launch of Pizza Hut and KFC in India. Due to the lessening of government regulations related to the economy.

Earlier Achievements in Career

His career journey spanned many positions. In 1996, he was the head of marketing in India for the consumer business in Citicorp. In 2000 he served as head of CitiFinancial and the U.S. consumer assets division. In the next two years, in 2002 he became President of a retail bank in North America. Also, he was the head of Citigroup’s international consumer-banking and finance businesses.

In 2008, he moved to Hong Kong. Where he oversees all the bank businesses in Asia including credit cards and consumer banking, alternative investments, etc. He joined MasterCard in the US in 2009. In 2010, he took over as a Mastercard’s CEO.

Innovative Mastercard Journey

After joining Mastercard, one of his best clients helped him finding ways to encourage a number of youths to use debit cards. For that, he redesigned the debit card product with a bunch of features. For example, connecting it to the music. After so many trials, he fashioned a creative branding tactic with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. This marketing method turned out to be a game-changer.

Challenge accepted

At that time, the areas of high-tech innovation, altering driving e-commerce, mobile and transit fares were challenging a bit. The other challenge was a group of young people in MasterCard Labs.

These creative people were honing new ideas and were trying to implant them for their clients. One such idea was scanning a bar code to make a purchase. He considered all the factors and his policies welcomed the best for Mastercard’s growth.

Prestigious Memberships

He showcased the best management skills at Mastercard. At that time, Ajaypal was also a part of a few prestigious associations-

  • The Economic Club of New York and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
  • President’s Advisory Committee for Trade policy and negotiations (Barack Obama appointed him)
  • Foreign Policy Association
  • Financial Services Roundtable
  • Business Roundtable – Chairman, Information and Technology Initiative.

Later Successes…

He also served as the boards of trustees of Enterprise Community Partners, Inc., and as a director of the Council for Economic Education. ‘The Economic Times of India’, awarded him as the fourth “Most Powerful Indian” in the world. It was the resultant of his keen interest and constant involvement in social issues. He received Padma Shri in 2016.

With Banga’s leadership, Mastercard has achieved various pinnacles. Presently, it is definitely one of the dream companies people aspire to be a part of.