Raja Rajamannar

Chief Marketing & Communications Officer; President, Healthcare
MasterCard
US

@RajaRajamannar

 

Raja Rajamannar is responsible for building the Mastercard brand — overseeing the brand refresh that saw the company drop its name from the iconic interlocking circle logo — driving business and advancing sustainable competitive edge for the company.

He joined the credit card company in 2013, bringing with him more than 25 years of extensive experience as a global executive in the consumer products, financial services and healthcare. Since then, he has overseen the successful rebranding of Mastercard in 2016 – the organization’s first major rebrand effort in 20 years – and led the integration of both marketing and communications to create one global function.

He explained his philosophy for marketing and communications at Cannes earlier this year, observing that "consumers hate interruption…. They are paying money to keep these pesky marketers out. We have to realize that advertising is not the way going forward." That belief has signaled a shift towards more sponsorships and expanded experiential marketing.

Prior to Mastercard, Rajamannar served as chief transformation officer of the health insurance firm Anthem. He had also served as chief executive, international and chief innovation & marketing officer at Humana, and earlier spent 15 years with Citigroup including a stint as global chief marketing officer, cards and payments. He has been named one of the “World’s Most Influential CMOs” by Forbes magazine, and was recognized by AdWeek as one of the “Top 50 Most Tech Savvy CMOs in the World.”