Our Executives

J.K. Khalil
Executive Vice President, Division President of East Arabia

J.K. Khalil is the Division President of East Arabia at Mastercard, one of the largest clusters within Mastercard EEMEA.

As a member of the EEMEA executive leadership team, J.K. re-imagined the technology landscape in his markets, building out prime examples of Mastercard’s multi-rail strategy in Saudi Arabia, and helped establish and build-out our strong e-Commerce share position in KSA and Bahrain, and subsequently across all of East and West Arabia.

Over the last 5 years, J.K. was also the architect leading his team to deliver landmark wins for Mastercard, first with Saudi National Bank’s exclusive partnership, followed by our global exclusivity with First Abu Dhabi bank more recently. Additionally, J.K. drove the orchestration of a robust Cross Border Payments and remittance vertical across Arabia that is one of the largest globally; and paved the way for new technologies through the AI Center of Excellence with the Ministry of AI in UAE. Finally, he spearheaded the work on Fintech partners and Enablers; and led from the front on our broad and deep government and policy engagements across the Middle East.

In a prior role at Mastercard, he led the Middle East marketes at Mastercard Advisors, the world’s largest data-driven strategy consulting and payments consulting practice that enables banking, merchant and government partners around the world.

Before Mastercard, J.K. was a principal consultant with Strategy& (formerly Booz & Company), where he was co-lead in their financial services practice and focused on wealth management, risk and digital verticals in particular. Before joining Booz & Company in 2012, he was part of Barclays Bank’s Leadership Program where he was the MENA MD’s chief of staff.

In 2021, Khalil was recognized in Arabian Business’ Young Achievers List (formerly known as 40 under 40), profiling young leaders who are making their mark in the GCC and the wider region.

He holds an MBA with Distinction from the University of Chicago (Booth) and is the President of the GCC Alumni Club chapter. He also holds a Computer Systems & Networks Engineering Degree from the St. Joseph University in Beirut. He is a YPO and LIFE member, and is also an avid angel investor and board advisor with a focus on MENA tech startups.