Ajay Banga

Fortune once described companies like Square as harbingers of the new cashless society. Well, Square may have been the harbinger, but MasterCard is the one cashing in. Under Banga, MasterCard has doubled profits and revenue in five years, and he has been aggressively acquiring companies to build its technological edge. Says Barclays analyst Darrin Peller: “In the long term it’s going to set them up to succeed technologically. He’s got the energy to get things done faster than his competitors.” This year Banga signed a 10-year deal that locks in almost all Citi cards as MasterCards and a similar 20-year deal with Itaú Unibanco in Brazil. Shares are up 40% in the past two years as MasterCard swipes its way toward $10 billion in revenue.