MasterCard’s Gary Flood On The Global Mind

What does the concept of the “Global Mind” entail?

At The Innovation Project 2013, we’re determined to find out.

First coined by former Vice President Al Gore around eight years ago, the Global Mind is the result of technology connecting people and information from all around the world in ways they’ve never been connected before. The potential payments ramifications of such connectivity are huge, and can fundamentally change and alter the way people pay for any and everything around the world.

To parse out this Global Mind concept, Gary Flood, President, MasterCard Global Products and Solutions, and a panel of five industry leaders at IP2013 will join former Vice President Gore to determine how payments are changing every day. Market Platform Dynamics CEO Karen Webster spoke with Flood about the upcoming conversation, and learned some of his preliminary thoughts on the Global Mind concept.

“When you think about technology and you think about the willingness of people to try new things and adopt new technologies, I think we’ve made major advancements,” Flood said. “A cornerstone for MasterCard is conducting commerce, and you have a lot of people who have a tough time with time these days. So the ability to leverage what is being provided to help them make very informed decisions in a very transparent way with pace and confidence is wonderful.”

“The ability to do that domestically is, of course, very important. But the ability to do that across borders is even more compelling,” he added.

Flood’s comments on the potential for worldwide payments change tied in perfectly to the conversation he’ll be facilitating between Gore and five other key leaders in the payments space. Flood and Gore will be joined by: Roger Hochschild, President and COO of Discover; Jeff Jordan, Partner Andreessen Horowitz and former CEO of PayPal; Michael Joseph, Director of Mobile Money at Vodafone; Karl Metha, CEO of Visa PlaySpan and White House Technology Fellow; and Troy Woods, President and COO of TSYS.

According to Flood, the incredible mix of experience, talent and specialization will make for a remarkable conversation on global payments’ future.

“You have a variety of backgrounds, you have different types of experiences, maybe some a little more domestic, some a bit more global – different types of economics, so I think it sets us up for a very good discussion,” Flood said.

“These are companies that solve problems. They inform people, and they help make life easier for people.”

To hear more from Flood and Webster on Gore’s “Global Mind” concept, MasterCard’s worldwide strategy, the discussion brewing at IP2013 and more, listen to the full podcast below.

*If you have trouble with the audio player above, click here.

Gary Flood

President of Global Products and Solutions for MasterCard Worldwide

Gary J. Flood is President of Global Products and Solutions for MasterCard Worldwide. In this role, he leads the development of innovative products and services that benefit consumers, merchants, business partners and governments around the world. Mr. Flood has responsibility for Global Network Products, MasterCard Labs, Emerging Payments, Core Products, MasterCard Advisors, and Worldwide Marketing and Communications. He is also a member of the company’s Executive Committee.

Prior to his current position, Mr. Flood was Executive Vice President of Global Account Management for MasterCard Worldwide. In this capacity, Mr. Flood oversaw all of the company’s efforts to support its largest global customers. This included managing the customer relations staff, whose representatives work directly with customers on a variety of bankcard initiatives, such as account acquisition, portfolio acquisition, account retention, portfolio profitability, and competitive positioning, as well as co-branding and affinity opportunities. His efforts, as well as those of his team, greatly contributed to the company’s significant increases in customer satisfaction and volume growth.

Previously, Mr. Flood was Senior Vice President of Consumer Card Product Management and Development, where he spent four years directing all MasterCard consumer credit programs in the United States. During this time, he developed the MasterCard premium card platform; initiated programs in secured, college, and Hispanic segments; and developed and managed enhancement support and services for credit products.

Since joining MasterCard in 1986 as Regional Marketing Director, Mr. Flood has consistently earned positions of increasing responsibility both in the customer management and the product management and development areas. Before joining MasterCard, he was National Sales Manager for Citicorp’s Merchant Business.

Mr. Flood holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing from St. John’s University.