Jerry McElhatton turns simple ideas into massive successes

As MasterCard International’s CTO and senior executive vice president of global technology and operations, Jerry McElhatton only worries about two things: his customers (banks that issue credit cards) and his customers’ customers (consumers who use credit cards). That translates into two areas: performance and security. The point-of-service terminal has to work and so does the card.

In 2003, those simple goals translated into some big projects under McElhatton’s purview, which includes a global staff of approximately 2,700 with a $100 million payroll. But his biggest win has been a five-year, $160 million upgrade of MasterCard’s global payment processing platform, which accounts for as many as 40 million transactions per day, completed in 2003. Last year, for the first time, MasterCard surpassed its competition to become the No. 1 card issuer in the United States.