Having started at the company in 1985, Lee is a company veteran. His previous position was chief operating officer for Asia-Pacific, a role that included strategy, planning, human resources, client support, systems and financial operations.
"Asia-Pacific is an extremely diverse region that includes some of the world's most sophisticated, fastest growing and most technologically advanced economies. With the emerging giants of China and India, as well as a number of other significant developing economies, it presents a wealth of potential opportunities for the payment industry and will be the focus for much of the company's development in the coming years," Joe Saunders, chairman and CEO of Visa, said in a written statement.
ô[Lee] has been at the heart of Visa's growth in Asia for many years and his deep experience and commercial acumen ideally suit him to lead the region's well-established and diverse management team," Saunders added.
Malaysian-born Lee was educated in Singapore. In 2003, he graduated from Harvard Business School. A trained accountant, he is a director of the Singapore Management University School of Accountancy Advisory Board. He is also on the board of Visa Processing Service, a joint venture between Visa and Yalamanchili Software Exports, which is a payments processor and software company with operations in Singapore and India.
In the three months ended June 30, 2008, $162 billion was spent at point of sale with Visa, which is 22% higher than a year earlier. ATM withdrawals increased 27% to $88 billion in the same period.
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