Visa has named Mike Milotich as senior vice president of investor relations, effective immediately.
He takes over for Jack Carsky, who retired in December 2017.
Before his time at Visa, Milotich held a variety of finance roles at PayPal and American Express. He joined Visa in 2011, and most recently led the corporate finance team.
In his new role, Milotich will be responsible for leading Visa’s outreach to the investor community and proactively communicating Visa’s vision, opportunities and plans to investors.
“With a business as dynamic as ours, it’s critical that our strategy and financial results are well understood by the global investment community. I’m pleased to announce we have found an experienced leader within the walls of Visa to take on this role,” said Vasant Prabhu, chief financial officer of Visa Inc. “Mike brings rich insights and experience in the payments industry and has a deep understanding of Visa’s business and financials. I can’t think of a better person to help our investors understand Visa.”
Milotich will be reporting to Vasant Prabhu, who last month made news with his comments regarding cryptocurrency, saying that digital tokens are for criminals and speculators who have no idea what they are doing.
In the interview, Prabhu said of the bitcoin craze that cryptocurrency was the preferred payment method for every “crook and dirty politician” and speculators who have “no clue.”
The executive said that he gets worried about how many ill-informed retail investors get into the cryptocurrency market because they don’t know what they are doing. “The people asking me are the ones who scare the hell out of me,” he said. “You know, guys like the limo driver to the airport . . . They have no idea what they are doing.”
“With a currency issued by the Federal Reserve, I know who stands behind it,” he added. With cryptocurrency, “Who’s good for the money? Who the hell knows?”