Visa announces two senior leadership appointments in Northeast Asia

07/29/2015

Visa today announced the appointment of Caroline Ada as Country Manager for Hong Kong and Macau while Tom Tobin has been appointed Group Country Manager of Northeast Asia, with effect from September 1, 2015. 

Caroline was most recently Country Manager for Visa in New Zealand and South Pacific where she led the strategy development and successful rollout of important industry initiatives including Visa payWave and Visa’s blueprint for the “Future of Digital Payments” for key innovations such as Mobile Payments, Tokenisation and Visa Checkout. In her new role, she will be responsible for building Visa’s brand and businesses as well as overseeing strategic development in Hong Kong and Macau. Caroline will be based in Hong Kong, reporting to Tom.

Tom will become Group Country Manager of Northeast Asia, replacing Jim Dixon who will relocate to Tokyo for the role as Country Manager for Japan. 

In his new role, Tom will lead the Northeast Asia team to drive core business growth in Hong Kong & Macau, Taiwan, and Korea & Mongolia. Tom joined Visa in 2012 as Country Manager in Hong Kong and Macau, where he led business development, strategy and growth of Visa’s brand in these two markets. Tom will continue to be based in Hong Kong and will report to Chris Clark, Group Executive of Asia Pacific.

 

About Visa

Visa is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable electronic payments. We operate one of the world’s most advanced processing networks—VisaNet—that is capable of handling more than 56,000 transaction messages a second, with fraud protection for consumers and assured payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank and does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers. Visa’s innovations, however, enable its financial institution customers to offer consumers more choices: pay now with debit, ahead of time with prepaid or later with credit products. For more information, visit www.visa-asia.com and @VisaNews.

 

Biography

Tom Tobin
Country Manager, Visa Hong Kong & Macau

Tom Tobin was appointed Country Manager for Visa in Hong Kong and Macau in February 2012. He is responsible for the strategic development of Visa in Hong Kong and Macau, enhancing the brand visibility and business development of Visa in these two territories.

Tom brings more than 20 years of experience in a wide variety of senior leadership roles in financial institution industry, with key strengths in retail and commercial banking. Prior to joining Visa, Tom served as Chief Executive Officer of HSBC Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos for four years, during which he oversaw the development of all business units and operations of branch offices.

During his tenure at HSBC, Tom served in different countries including both emerging and developed markets. In 2004-2007, Tom was the Head of Personal Financial Services in Singapore, where he was responsible for the retail banking network, product development, marketing, and credit risk. From 2002-2004, he was appointed Branch and District Manager for the Hong Kong Main Office. He gained extensive experience in frontline sales and services roles in the banking industry in Hong Kong.

A Canadian native, Tom earned his MBA at McMaster University and holds a bachelor degree of psychology from the University of Toronto. He is married with three children.

 

Caroline Ada
Country Manager, New Zealand and South Pacific

Caroline Ada was appointed Country Manager for Visa in New Zealand and South Pacific in 2012.  During her time leading this business, Caroline was responsible for the strategy and successful rollout of Visa payWave across critical merchant segments including deals with the largest supermarket businesses in New Zealand, which included utilization of Visanet assets. New Zealand is the third largest Visa payWave market in Asia Pacific behind Australia and Taiwan and now represents over 30 percent of all face to face transactions.  Caroline has also led the market on a number of important industry initiatives including Visa’s blueprint for the ‘Future of Digital Payments’ for key innovations such as Mobile Payments, Tokenisation and Visa Checkout.

From 2006 to 2010, Caroline worked in card acceptance and innovation roles at Visa, culminating in the position of Director of Innovation Products for Australasia. During her tenure, Caroline led the successful market implementation of Visa payWave across Australia, drove the accelerated development of EMV in both Australia and New Zealand, and managed the launch of the first Visa direct switch merchant in Asia Pacific.

She has a wealth of payments industry experience, having previously held the position of Regional General Manager and Head of Transaction and Savings Products at Suncorp Bank in Brisbane. Caroline gained extensive experience in frontline sales and services where she has held positions as Loyalty Manager at Westpac Australia and in a variety of product and sales roles at Coles Group – one of Australia’s largest retail groups. 

She holds a Bachelor of Business at Queensland University of Technology, and is married to husband Donovan, with a 3 year old Son - Robbie.