MasterCard's APAC marketing chief resigns

Sam Ahmed, chief marketing officer of MasterCard APAC, has resigned to take up a new position with another brand, Campaign Asia-Pacific has learned. 

Ahmed, who will remain in Singapore, said his new position will be made public later this month. He added that he has had a wonderful experience at MasterCard and departed on the friendliest of terms. "I leave MasterCard with great passion for their brand and what they do," he said.

Ahmed came to MasterCard in October 2013 as group head of marketing for Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa. 

As a strong proponent of a unified social digital strategy, Ahmed merged nine separate MasterCard in-house digital agencies into a single digital lead agency to improve consistency by 2014, helping him to be named to Campaign’s 40 under 40 that year.

The Harvard Business School graduate previously held regional marketing roles at Starbucks, Kraft and Fonterra.  His deep brand marketing experience helped him to secure the APAC chairmanship of the World Federation of Advertiser’s CMO forum last summer.

Ahmed said his tenure at MasterCard was shaped by three main influences: the exponential growth of e-commerce, the need to provide a faultless customer experience and shaping the brand around its 'priceless' ethos.

"Being part of the 'priceless' brand construct really was a fantastic journey," he said.