Ling Hai has been appointed as the new chief financial officer (CFO) of Mastercard, succeeding Sachin Mehra, as part of a broader leadership restructuring that includes six senior appointments across Asia Pacific. Hai, who previously served as Mastercard’s president for Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, brings extensive international operating experience to the role. Mehra has moved into the newly created position of chief business officer, overseeing global country operations, sales enablement and digital commercialisation.
The company has also split its Southeast Asia operations into two divisions. Beena Pothen has been appointed Division President for West Southeast Asia, covering Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, while Donald Ong will lead East Southeast Asia, covering Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines. Joyce Bo has joined as Executive Vice President of Core Payments for Asia Pacific, with responsibility for consumer products, digital platforms, acceptance, payment networks, account-to-account capabilities and digital assets across the region.
The leadership changes come as Mastercard expands beyond its traditional card network into account-to-account payments, stablecoin settlement and AI-driven transactions. The company recently expanded its settlement network to support regulated stablecoins across eight blockchain networks and is developing agentic payment capabilities. The Southeast Asia leadership split reflects the differing payment ecosystems across the region, including mature real-time payment rails in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand and rapidly expanding QR, wallet and real-time payment systems in Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines.