Shankar Ram is the Executive Vice President and Global Head of Strategy & Partnerships, Healthcare at Mastercard. Shankar brings over 30 years of leadership experience in the Financial Services and the Health Care sector. He has strong international work experience, having worked across South Asia, Middle East, North Africa, and the US. He has been recognized for successfully designing and leading large scale / enterprise-wide strategic projects including New Product Development, Innovation, Marketing, and post M&A integration, that have made significant impact on the organizations he served. Prior to joining Mastercard in 2019, Shankar was the Vice President and Head of Innovation at Humana and went on to become their Head of the Strategic Alignment and Integration team under the Chief Operating Officer. In his role as the Global Head of Strategy & Partnerships for the Healthcare vertical at Mastercard, Shankar formulates and executes the company’s strategy to transform Healthcare by establishing strategic partnership across stakeholders worldwide. His focus is largely on Insurance companies, Large Hospital systems, HealthTech innovators and pursuing white space opportunities to address specific pain points by leveraging the various Mastercard Assets. These include Cyber Security solutions, AI Platform, Predictive Data Analytics, BillPay solutions, B2B Payments, Digital Marketing and Loyalty platforms. Shankar is a Science Graduate with a Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing Management and an MBA. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky.