Master Who Plays his Cards Right
Financial Times - Not many corporate chiefs would admit to having cleaned bathrooms as part of their training, but Ajay Banga, chief executive of MasterCard, is not your typical business leader. “Cleaning bathrooms,” which he did in the 1990s while opening Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut restaurants in India for PepsiCo, “made me very valuable to my wife”, he says. “I’m called the bathroom fairy at home.”
That willingness to poke fun at himself extends to his appearance. As a Sikh, Mr Banga, 50, wears a turban and has a full beard, making for a striking contrast with Robert Selander, his predecessor and current vice-chairman. “Bob and I joke about it all the time,” Mr Banga says. “I know I look different from a lot of people around the world, but I don’t view that as something that defines me.”
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4c177f22-bd07-11df-954b-00144feab49a.html
