Visa Inc. Names Ellen Richey Chief Legal Officer

FOSTER CITY, Calif., Dec. 19, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) today announced the appointment of Ellen Richey as Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer.  Ms. Richey, who currently serves as Visa's Chief Risk Officer, will take responsibility of the Legal function as well as maintain oversight of Visa's compliance and audit teams.  Ms. Richey will continue to report directly to Charlie Scharf, CEO of Visa Inc.

"From the start of the search, we wanted to find a candidate who offered the right balance of legal expertise and leadership skills, and with an understanding of the complexities of payments," said Charlie Scharf, CEO of Visa Inc.  "I am pleased that the best candidate for the role of Chief Legal Officer has come from within Visa.  With her extensive legal experience, proven success at Visa and thorough knowledge of our opportunities and challenges, Ellen is the right leader to help us navigate through an increasingly complex legal world."

The company already has begun a search for a new Chief Risk Officer. In the interim period, Ms. Richey will oversee both the Legal and Risk functions.   Ms. Richey assumes the role following the departure of General Counsel Josh Floum, who has decided to leave Visa and return to private practice. 

"I am energized to be returning to my legal roots and look forward to taking on this new responsibility," said Ellen Richey, Chief Legal Officer of Visa Inc.  "We have a world class legal organization, and I am excited to lead this area and continue to help Visa operate with great integrity and success."

Prior to joining Visa Inc., Ms. Richey worked at Washington Mutual Inc., as Senior Vice President of Enterprise Risk Management and Executive Vice President of Cards Services, from October 2005 to June 2006. Before that, she served as Vice Chairman of Providian Financial Corporation, where she had responsibility for enterprise risk management, legal and regulatory affairs, corporate governance and corporate relations, as well as the compliance and audit functions of the company.  Earlier in her career, Ms. Richey was a Partner in the San Francisco law firm Farella, Brown & Martel, where she specialized in corporate, real estate and financial institution matters.

Ms. Richey received a B.A. in Linguistics and Far Eastern languages from Harvard University and a J.D. from Stanford Law School. She also served as a law clerk for Judge Charles B. Renfrew of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and for Associate Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr., of the United States Supreme Court.

About Visa 
Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions, and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable electronic payments. We operate one of the world's most advanced processing networks — VisaNet — that is capable of handling more than 47,000 transaction messages a second, with fraud protection for consumers and assured payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank and does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers. Visa's innovations, however, enable its financial institution customers to offer consumers more choices: pay now with debit, pay ahead of time with prepaid or pay later with credit products. For more information, visit corporate.visa.com and @VisaNews.

Contacts

Investor Relations: Jack Carsky or Victoria Hyde-Dunn, 650-432-7644, [email protected]
Media Relations: Paul Cohen, 650-432-1125, [email protected] 

SOURCE Visa Inc.