Mastercard appoints Julie Nestor as chief marketer in Asia Pacific

Mastercard has brought in Julie Nestor from Manulife to be its new head of marketing and communications and SVP for Asia Pacific. Responsible for corporate reputation, brand messaging and stakeholder relations, Nestor will lead Mastercard’s integrated marketing and communications team while driving consumer engagement through Priceless, the brand's marketing platform.

Nestor will report jointly to Asia-Pacific president Ari Sarker and Raja Rajamannar, Mastercard's global CMO and healthcare president. She will also become a member of the Asia-Pacific leadership team as well as the global marketing and communications leadership team.

“I am delighted and thrilled to return to the payments technology space which has stayed close to my heart for so many years,” said Julie. “Mastercard is a hugely powerful organisation, while Priceless is an iconic marketing platform—people around the world know what it stands for and what it means.”

Nestor has 25 years of marketing experience across the financial services, technology and hospitality industries, including 13 years at American Express in Australia and Hong Kong. More recently she has served in several short stints as CMO. She joined Manulife only a year-and-a-half ago as Asia-Pacific CMO, where she worked to streamline agency partnership and improve creative. She had previously served as Hilton's Asia CMO for just over a year and prior to that was eBay's CMO for Australia and New Zealand.

Nestor takes over from Rustom Dastoor who spent four years in the role and oversaw Mastercard's response to customer engagement and acceleration in digital communications under Covid. A repeat member of Campaign's APAC CMO Power List, Dastoor has relocated to New York as Mastercard's executive vice president of North America marketing communications. 

Rustom Dastoor

“I am excited to get on board and get involved," Nestor added. "I love working in Asia Pacific, know the markets well, and understand the operating model. Coming into Mastercard, I look forward to bringing all I have learned across financial services, technology, e-commerce and hospitality to deepen engagement with customers and partners, and to build incredible experiences for consumers.”