Our Executives

Nikhil Sahni
Executive Vice President, Strategic Localization Initiatives, Asia Pacific

In his role as Executive Vice President, Strategic Localization Initiatives for the Asia Pacific region, Nikhil leverages his extensive experience in stakeholder and regulatory engagement to formulate and implement sustainable strategies to engage with governments and policy makers. His focus is a scalable and smart approach to sustainable localization that will serve to drive the conversion from cash to digital payments across multiple markets at different stages of digital payment evolution, and varying geopolitical considerations. Given the rise of nationalism across the Asia Pacific region, Nikhil remains laser focused on sustained economic growth, infrastructure digitization and financial inclusion.

Prior to taking on this regional role, Nikhil served as the Division President of South Asia, leading the division through a period of change and setting the foundation for future growth. Joining in early 2021, he led the India business out of a regulatory embargo and through a focused strategy of state level government engagement, services expansion with customers, outreach to fintechs and passion point-based brand building, he put in place the building blocks for sustainable growth. He also oversaw the restoration of Mastercard’s business in Sri Lanka following a significant socio-economic crisis in the island nation.

Nikhil joined Mastercard from Yes Bank, a leading Indian private sector bank where he was one of the founding members. In his over 17-year career with the bank, he served in various leadership roles. Most recently, he held the position of Senior Group President, Agriculture, Government & MNC Banking and Knowledge Banking at Yes Bank. He has driven profitable growth across an array of portfolios spanning investment, corporate, commercial, SME, retail, branch and government banking. Nikhil is passionate about building and leading strong teams, is a strong advocate of women at work, and has cultivated deep partnerships across India’s public and private sectors.

Nikhil is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and holds a Degree in Electrical Engineering from Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh.