Mastercard has appointed Gabriel Swanepoel as the new Country Manager for Mastercard in South Africa. This serves as a promotion from his current role as the Vice President of Business Integration for Mastercard, Southern Africa.
As country manager, Swanepoel is responsible for further driving the company’s strategic vision, innovation, and growth agenda and building on its successful purpose-driven culture in South Africa.
Swanepoel’s ‘digital-first’ business acumen and two-decades-long career in the South Africa payments industry will further support Mastercard accelerate the uptake of digital payments and strengthen its multi-rail capabilities in cards, real-time payments, and support for digital currencies.
Since joining Mastercard in 2015, Swanepoel has been responsible for all aspects of innovation and product development from project inception to commercialisation.
He has been instrumental in positioning and executing Mastercard’s digital strategy within Southern Africa, leading the team that has introduced and made QR payments ubiquitous, as well as bringing more than 50 fintechs together to digitise person-to-merchant payments across multiple use cases in South Africa, amongst other achievements.
“Gabriel has been an invaluable member of our leadership team in South Africa for years. His local knowledge and deep experience are substantial assets for our local business. Leading a dynamic team, Gabriel will support Mastercard in doubling down on efforts to build an inclusive and digitalized economy in South Africa, while enabling our customers and partners to better prepare for economic recovery and growth,” said Mark Elliott, Division President at Mastercard, Southern Africa.
Prior to joining Mastercard in 2015, Swanepoel was the New Business and Innovation Manager for Verifone Africa, where he oversaw all-new product and business development initiatives in South Africa. He has also consulted at MTN Mobile Money Holdings, where he was responsible for innovation-related initiatives.
His entrepreneurial approach has also brought him success as one of the founders of XLink Communications, a machine-to-machine communications business, which today is one of the leading providers of card terminal and ATM communications services in South Africa.
He takes over from Suzanne Morel, who returns to Mastercard’s New York office after two years of leading the local business.
