Stephen Kehoe is Global Head of Financial Inclusion at Visa Inc., responsible driving the company’s strategy to meet the needs of under-banked populations around the world. The central mission of Visa is to be the best way to pay and be paid - for everyone, everywhere. Visa believes this can be achieved by deploying its network and technology to drive payment solutions to promote financial inclusion for all. The financial inclusion team at Visa manages numerous programs across North America, Asia, Africa and Latin America, which focus on new ways to bring financial services to some of the 2bn people in the world who have no access to formal financial services, including digital payment accounts. Visa believes that investing behind financial inclusion is an important demonstration of shared value: achieving long-term revenue gains for the company as well as delivering valuable social impact. Stephen serves on the Global Advisory Board of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion, a government organization representing more than 90 countries and in 2016 was appointed to the Chinese Academy on Financial Inclusion.
Prior to assuming this role, Stephen served as SVP Corporate Relations for Visa’s Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa businesses, based in Singapore. Before joining Visa, Stephen was Vice President of Public and Government Affairs at PepsiCo based at the company’s headquarters in New York. Prior to moving to the United States in 2008, he was based in PepsiCo’s operations in Brussels, Belgium, and London, UK.
Before joining PepsiCo in 2003, Stephen pursued a career in government relations and public affairs consulting with a variety of firms, including APCO Worldwide (London), Weber Shandwick (Washington, DC) and Adamson BSMG Worldwide (Brussels). He also worked in the European Aerospace industry as Deputy European Director for British Aerospace (now BAE Systems). Stephen Kehoe began his career in the European Parliament in Brussels where he worked in a variety of policy areas including external trade, monetary policy and accession agreements to the EU.