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anTonia sTroeh
VP, Product Enablement, U.K. and Ireland, MasterCard
companies & people
Women Driving Payments Change
Antonia Stroeh is global.
The German-born, U.S.- educated payments executive started her career in New York as a consultant, moved to India to work for a payments startup and now oversees product enablement for MasterCard in the U.K. and Ireland.
Her entrepreneurial parents, who moved Stroeh and her brother to Connecticut during primary school, always wanted their children to be comfortable in different environ- ments. Stroeh’s undergraduate degree in history also shaped
her outlook.
“It challenged me to think about why the world looks the way it does. And, it taught me how to think and communicate and take apart a com- plex problem. That’s really how I ended up in consulting.”
As a consultant for a variety of industries, Stroeh says the com- plexity and fundamental need it serves drew her to home in on payments. “We’re at a lucky stage in our industry,” she says. “It’s global, it’s high-growth, it’s con- sumer-focused: a great industry for young people looking for an exciting and rewarding career.”
After two and a half years in MasterCard’s global prepaid team and leading the business in Europe, Stroeh took on a new role in which she is charged with making sure MasterCard’s products and ser- vices—across verticals—are delivered and implemented in a way that resonates with consumers.
“My job at MasterCard and really what’s important across the in- dustry is to provide the right payment experience at the right time,” she explains. “You take the market forces and innovative op- portunities and really think about meeting the consumer need.”
In a recent study across seven European markets, MasterCard found that regardless of whether consumers use prepaid, debit or credit, No. 1, they want safety and security. The second thing is con- venience—payments must be quick and effective, she adds. And, on top of that, consumers want value- added services, such as budgeting tools and earning rewards on everyday spend, and are willing
to pay for them, Stroeh explains.
Changing Lives
One of the things that drew Stroeh to MasterCard was its commit- ment to strong female leaders, including Chief Financial Officer Martina Hund-Mejean and Interna- tional Markets President Ann Cairns, among others. Another attraction was the focus on finan- cial inclusion from CEO Ajay Banga on down. “I’m proud to have contributed to this mission in some small way,” says Stroeh
of her time in prepaid.
The World Bank’s latest figures show that 2 billion adults world- wide were without bank accounts in 2014. While there’s still plenty of work to do, that’s a 20 percent decrease from the 2.5 billion without accounts in 2011.
Best Advice
“Don’t be afraid to try something new and don’t be too afraid of failure. Taking risks is important.”
“There’s really a transforma- tive change that’s taking place,” she says.
Stroeh also is excited about the explosive growth in contactless in Europe, where NFC-based mobile wallets entering the market have broad acceptance. “We’re going to see tremendous growth turning the mobile-centric model into a reality for the mainstream,” she predicts. “But it isn’t just about tap to pay in-store,” she notes. “It’s using MasterPass for online or in-app payments or MasterCard Send for P2P—it’s about integrating pay- ments into your digital life.”
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