Senior Vice President & General Manager, Asia/Pac

MasterCard Appoints Alfredo Gangotena as Senior Vice President & General Manager, Asia/Pacific

Auckland, 19 April 2004 – MasterCard International today announced the appointment of Alfredo Gangotena as senior vice president & general manager, Asia/Pacific, based in Singapore. In this capacity, Gangotena will be responsible for strategic planning, acceleration of growth and development of innovative businesses and partners across the region, reporting to André Sekulic, MasterCard’s president, Asia/Pacific, Middle East & Africa.

Prior to joining MasterCard, Gangotena was the Chief Executive Officer of Priceline.com in Asia, operated by Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa. He joined the Internet venture in 2000 from the German multinational conglomerate, Henkel, where he was President and CEO, Asia Pacific from 1995 to 2000.

“Alfredo is not only a strong strategic thinker with excellent leadership skills, he also has a distinguished track record of successes. He embodies the characteristics that make him uniquely suited for MasterCard’s senior management team in Asia/Pacific,” said Sekulic. “He has brought successes to top-of-mind brands from all over the world, I am confident of his capabilities to further strengthen MasterCard’s position as a leading global payment brand. He brings new blood and fresh perspectives to our business.”

At Priceline.com, Gangotena built a solid management team of 65, which concluded negotiations with 34 international airlines and more than 6,000 hotels region wide. He successfully launched Priceline in Hong Kong and Singapore in 2003, and paved the way for forthcoming launches in Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, and Korea. After the first three months, Priceline achieved positive gross margins and the company is on track to break even a year ahead of schedule.

In his five years prior as the Asia Pacific head of Henkel, Gangotena grew the Asian business from US$470 million to US$1.1 billion. He managed a staff of 8,500 across the region and focused on building the business in China through seven new joint ventures between 1996 and 1998. During his term, Henkel achieved market leadership in China in a number of key consumer categories including detergents, children’s cosmetics, hair colorants and deodorants, as well as the industrial leader in oleo-chemicals. Outside China, he made acquisitions in Japan, Korea and Australia and put in place a regional organization.

“MasterCard is a global leader in the payments industry. The management team has successfully built a preeminent global brand and a talented pool of employees,” said Gangotena. “I envisage exciting opportunities for MasterCard in Asia/Pacific, my focus will be to capitalize on these for the benefits of both MasterCard and our members.”

Previous corporations that Gangotena made significant contributions to include Proctor & Gamble, where he held several senior marketing and management positions between 1978 and 1992; The Walt Disney Company, as Vice President and Marketing Director of Disneyland Paris; and PolyGram France (now Vivendi Universal), where he was Chief Executive Officer.

Gangotena, 49, a French national, has worked in Asia, Europe and in the United States. He is fluent in English, French and Spanish, and holds two Master of Science degrees, the first in Industrial Engineering from Ecole Centrale Paris, France, and the other in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin, USA.

About MasterCard International

MasterCard International is a leading global payments solutions company that provides a broad variety of innovative services in support of our global members’ credit, deposit access, electronic cash, business-to-business and related payment programs. MasterCard International manages a family of well-known, widely accepted payment cards brands including MasterCard, Maestro and Cirrus and serves financial institutions, consumers and businesses in over 210 countries and territories. The MasterCard award-winning Priceless advertising campaign is now seen in 96 countries and in 47 languages, giving the MasterCard brand a truly global reach and scope. For more information go to www.mastercardinternational.com.

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