Vira Platonova

Vira Platonova is the Global Head of Visa Direct at Visa, where she is
responsible for accelerating the growth, innovation and global scale of Visa
Direct, Visa's complete suite of money movement solutions. In this role, she
oversees every aspect of the Visa Direct business, leading as the General Manager across the Visa Direct Sales & Solutioning, Product & Network, and Business Strategy & Operations teams.

Previously, Vira was Visa Direct’s first-ever Chief Revenue Officer where she
spent 20 months developing Visa Direct’s Sales and Solutioning teams into a highperforming commercial organization.

Vira is a seasoned executive and a visionary leader in the field of payment systems and banking services. She has a rich and diverse background in the payment industry, spanning over 20 years of experience in managing regional divisions of two global payment system leaders. She started her career at Visa in 2007, where she held various positions in business development, marketing, and product management. In 2010, she joined Mastercard as the CEO of Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, and Central Asia, where she led the expansion and transformation of Mastercard's business in these markets. She returned to Visa in 2018 as the Senior Vice President and Group Country Manager for seventeen markets across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Southeast Europe, becoming the first Ukrainian to lead such a large and diverse region for Visa.

Preceding her time at both Visa and Mastercard, Vira held senior positions in the Credit Europe Bank, being responsible for the organizations of bank’s processing center and development of credit card business, and in the State Export-Import Bank of Ukraine, working in the payment systems and retail business department.

She began her career with professional education at the Institute of International Relations of the Taras Shevchenko National University, one of the top universities in Ukraine, with a master’s degree in international Economic Relations. She holds a PhD in Economics.

Vira is married, has two children, and is based in Miami, U.S., where she relocated from Kyiv, Ukraine.