Bridging Finance and Global Policy: Diana Zamora on Corporate Diplomacy, Private Sector, and Social Impact at Mastercard
- Sorina I. Crisan, PhD
- 20 hours ago
- 15 min read
Updated: 1 hour ago
What is it like to work in finance and global policy? Diana Zamora, Mastercard’s Global Public Policy Director, navigates the complex intersection of finance, technology, and global policy from her base in Geneva, Switzerland, with a unique blend of economic expertise and diplomatic finesse. Describing her role as “corporate diplomacy,” she forges connections between the private sector and multilateral organizations like the UN and OECD. A former public servant from Mexico, Zamora brings a deeply personal perspective to her work, driven by authenticity and a commitment to social impact. “Persuasion means winning hearts and minds,” she says, a principle that shapes her efforts to influence policy and champion inclusivity in the digital economy. In this interview for The Persuasive Discourse’s series Finance Leaders, she shares insights on Mastercard’s innovative initiatives, from supporting Giga’s digital connectivity efforts to agribusiness support in Africa with Community Pass, offering advice for the next generation to apply in their careers and cross-sector professional endeavors.
Interview by Sorina I. Crisan – Matthey de l’Endroit, PhD
Understanding Mastercard and Corporate Diplomacy
Question 1: As Global Public Policy Director at Mastercard, contributing to the Policy Center for the Digital Economy, what is the core of your role?
Answer: My role at Mastercard involves what I call corporate diplomacy. I represent the private sector, building bridges and acting as a translator for multilateral bodies and groups of organizations or countries.
My goal is to bring knowledge, expertise, and specific technical understanding to high-level conversations within the United Nations, the OECD, and various industry associations and organizations.
Question 2: What does your work involve day to day, and what issues are you working on now?
Answer: No two days are the same. About half of my job is outside, and half is inside Mastercard. I’ll start with the inside work.
Inside, there are the usual emails and calls, and their content is about connecting with the business—understanding the products we have now and thinking about the products we’ll bring worldwide or for specific markets. If you have, let’s say, a circle peg and your market is shaped like a star, that won’t work. So I have to make sure we either design a star, or that the regulatory environment—and the understanding of it—is shaped like a circle if we’re going to bring a circle. Sometimes we have prototypes of a triangle, a star, and a circle.
As a member of this team, I advise our technical teams on what has been done and what has worked in the markets we’re working in. Some other times, it is the other way around, because we’re already deploying a set, or suite, of different tools, and we work across more than 200 countries. To bring an additional market, it’s important for that market to have flexibility and “regulatory interoperability”. I used to work with Central American markets; it’s challenging to have one set of rules for Guatemala, another for Costa Rica, and another for Panama. It’s easier if there is harmonized regulation and a shared understanding of the product, while each national government keeps its own flavor. The basics should be similar—for example, all of them having a data-privacy law or a competition authority.
Outside, I interact with other businesses in the payments chain—like card issuers and the providers of the dongles where you insert your card—through industry associations. We look for where we can join forces to digitize a market faster. I also interact with the OECD, a group of 30+ countries that is policy- and evidence-oriented. They ask, for example: if you are Chile or Slovenia, what best practices can you put together to digitize e-commerce quickly? Those are the conversations I want to be in, because payments are often treated within finance—and that’s fine; the means of payment used to be a card, now it’s a phone, and nowadays a watch, and inside your phone it’s called a wallet. But payments is a niche, very technical space.
Sometimes people talk about digitization but mean accounting—like how to pay taxes easily. Payments, even though widespread, is very specific. I want to make sure that when these conversations happen, Mastercard is there, we have a voice, and we build bridges. In my previous roles I was a public official, so I understand the concerns and challenges, and how many voices try to convince you and advocate in different ways. With that in mind, I try to stay relevant, bring new information, and offer examples that matter to that policymaker. I’m Mexican—if I speak to Mexican regulators and bring a country that isn’t comparable to Mexico, they won’t listen.
It also depends on the stakeholder. If it’s an ambassador, you don’t go technical. But if it’s the person writing the report, who understands how this connects with banking, securities, and cross-border payments, then you bring that expertise. That’s what a typical day looks like.
Question 3: Can you share examples of the international organizations you work with, and how Mastercard engages in those spaces?
Answer: I’ll keep the OECD example, which I think is a very good one. The OECD is a unique organization because, even though its members are 38 countries, it always reserves a spot for business and for workers. That’s a very different approach compared to how other multilateral organizations work.
As a company, we enter a space where businesses from member countries are represented, and that creates a trusted, verifiable, and institutionalized way of speaking—both from the organization to the business association and the business itself, and the other way around.
I also work with UNESCO, particularly on AI in the Global South. We are invited there because UNESCO is shaping governance guidelines and rules, prominently for countries in the Global South. They understand that for those rules and guidelines to be useful, they must engage with the private sector—because it’s mainly the private sector building, testing, and deploying these models.
That’s where I come in. They know we are working with AI, that we are visible and present in many countries, and sometimes they reach out because we’ve published a report on the subject. From there, they contact me.
Mastercard’s Business Model and Global Positioning
Question 4: Mastercard, Visa, and American Express are often mentioned together. How does Mastercard differ from them, and what are “payment rails”?
Answer: It’s a very simple question, but because payments are moving so fast, the best explanation I can give is that we are a tech company focused on everything related to payments and what those payments enable.
Usually, when people think of Mastercard, they think of the physical card or maybe a sticker on a coffee shop door. But after more than 50 years of working in payments, we do much more. We apply the expertise and knowledge we’ve built through the card rails—what we call “rails”—into new ones.
For example, open banking. In the UK, the bank that holds your data and transactions must, with your consent, share that information with a fintech that can then lend you money. That creates a separation between the financial institution and the organization providing the loan. This is a new rail, enabled by technology, that opens access to services for consumers, businesses, and financial institutions.
Another rail is real-time payments. In Brazil, there’s Pix. In Switzerland, there’s Twint. In the U.S. there’s Venmo. They are different systems, but all are instant and mostly peer-to-peer. Say we go for dinner and you pay the bill, then I transfer my share through Twint or Venmo. That’s the spirit of these systems, and Mastercard is also moving into this space.
And then there’s AI, which powers all of this through data. Data is critical to preventing fraud and giving users the best possible experience: safe, fast, seamless. But speed and safety don’t always align—you have to balance them. With data and AI, we’re getting better at preventing fraud while also delivering that smooth experience people expect.
Question 5: What about China UnionPay and American Express—how do their models compare to Mastercard and Visa?
Answer: In terms of geography, China UnionPay has more cards than Visa and Mastercard combined, though they operate mainly within China and in some countries outside it. That shows the scale and size of the competition.
Mastercard and Visa share a very similar business model. Our main clients are financial institutions, fintechs, and credit unions. We don’t face the final customer directly—whether that’s a person or a merchant. We work through those institutions.
American Express, by contrast, is a point-to-point network. They own the entire rail—from the customer relationship all the way to the merchant. It’s a very different business model, and it carries risks that payment networks like Mastercard don’t have.
Mastercard’s Social Impact Initiatives
Question 6: Can you tell us about Mastercard’s Community Pass initiative and its focus on agribusinesses in Africa?
Answer: Community Pass is about bringing agribusinesses into the digital space. Why agribusinesses first? Because agriculture is the main source of income and work in Africa, yet it’s one of the least digitized areas of the world. From an economic perspective, that’s where digitization is most needed.
With Community Pass, we’re leveraging our business model to build a digital ecosystem, linking farmers, their cooperatives, buyers, lenders and providers of seed and fertilizer on a platform so they can interoperate. We partner with our bank customers and agricultural organizations. It is both commercially sustainable and has social impact.
One of the main challenges in agriculture is seasonality: there are times of high income and other times when you’re just waiting for the harvest. From a financial health perspective, access to credit is crucial to smooth those peaks and stabilize income. Community Pass helps groups of farmers gain access to credit and also provides tools to sell their crops in better ways.
This is about applying our technology and expertise in a new, innovative way to solve problems that haven’t been solved before. The potential impact is huge. We recently welcomed the World Bank, which brings deep evidence and knowledge about how best to support these communities, as a co-chair of the MADE Alliance: Africa, alongside Mastercard and the African Development Bank. The MADE Alliance focuses on coordinating the initiatives of major public, private and civil sector organizations into the same communities for multiplied impact.
Community Pass and the MADE Alliance are creating pathways for the private sector to contribute practical, impactful solutions. Too often, corporate responsibility programs don’t align with what communities actually need. For example, a company might organize volunteers to paint a school, but maybe what the school really needs is for the teacher to be present and teaching. Community Pass takes a different approach: bringing private sector knowledge, expertise, and innovation to build something that truly serves communities—and, ultimately, helps them become our clients.
Question 7: Mastercard has also partnered with Giga, a joint UNICEF – ITU global initiative. Can you tell us about that collaboration and its goals?
Answer: Giga’s vision is to connect every school in the world to the internet, otherwise the digital divide will keep growing. They also see schools as community hubs, places that can provide broader connectivity to meet local needs.
From a business perspective, connectivity is essential. We have products, like Community Pass, designed for very low data requirements. And there are technologies that allow us to process offline transactions. For example, when you buy something on an airplane with your card, the transaction isn’t connected to the internet at that moment, it only goes through once the plane lands and reconnects. You don’t see it, but it happens.
At the end of the day, a community and a merchant need to be connected to the internet. That’s why Giga represents such an innovative way of expanding connectivity into places we haven’t been able to reach historically. And this has a clear social impact, but it also has a business dimension. For example, when I worked at Uber in a similar role, connectivity was non-negotiable. Without it, the service simply didn’t work. Many businesses rely on the same thing.
We as Mastercard could never do what Giga is doing, but we need to be close to them, to have serious conversations about how to make their model sustainable, and how we can align to create a sustainable path forward together.
Question 8: Since Mastercard operates globally, does your role involve a lot of travel?
Answer: A little bit, not too much. Mastercard is headquartered in New York, and some UN agencies are based there, while others are headquartered here in Geneva. That’s why I need to travel occasionally.
I’m also part of the team supporting our engagement with the G20. Right now, the G20 is presided over by the South African government, so I may need to travel to represent Mastercard in those conversations as well.
Privacy, Cybersecurity, and Data Responsibility
Question 9: Mastercard operates in over 200 countries. How do you handle privacy and cybercrime risks?
Answer: First, as I mentioned, Mastercard works in more than 200 countries, and we are compliant with all local regulations in the markets where we operate. We have zero tolerance for non-compliance because if we were not compliant in one market, that would be an extremely high risk we are not willing to take.
The other part has to do with the fact that yes, by European standards, we hold personal information. For example, we can see the number of your card and the shopping associated with that card. But the only entity that holds your name, address, PIN code—that is the bank, the financial institution, or the fintech.
It varies across the world. In some jurisdictions, this would not be considered personal data, but by the highest standards it is. We take all measures needed, both within Mastercard and across the network. As you can imagine, we are one of the most valuable targets for cybercrime.
Just to give you a small example: all of us as employees must have our anti-phishing skills top notch. If you fail two or three tests in less than three months, you’re out, because you are the weakest link. This is of course a very tiny example, but we have major investments and dedicated teams—within Mastercard, among employees, in our systems, and also across the network.
On Persuasion and Authentic Leadership
Question 10: How do you define persuasion, and how does it relate to your work?
Answer: I think persuasion is my job. For me, persuasion means winning hearts and minds. When I do my job, I’m trying to bring an additional viewpoint, additional data points, and sometimes convince a government, an ambassador, or an academic to listen to my argument—whether it’s about changing a law, reinterpreting a regulation, or adopting a best practice.
The most important part of my work is to be persuasive. Even being invited into the room often depends on that, especially in spaces where the private sector—or financial services in particular—may not be very welcome. The way I do it is through authenticity.
I’m genuinely proud to work for this company. I began as a public servant, because I believed the only way to serve was through government. And government does play the most important role: it draws the rules, acts as the referee, and sets the lines of society. But 95% of economic activity is driven by the private sector. The products and services we all rely on come from private entities.
Once I understood that, I pivoted. I need to believe that the company I work for is doing good in the world. And for Mastercard, I ask: if tomorrow everyone paid digitally, would the world be better? I think so—with the right guardrails. If more businesses could transact cross-border, would that be better? Yes. That doesn’t hold true for every industry. For example, more cigarettes in the world would not be something I’d want for my children. That North Star guides me and gives me authenticity when I speak.
When I try to persuade policymakers or ambassadors, I’m convinced myself of what I’m saying. As an economist, I also rely on data—it’s a powerful persuasive tool. Storytelling is another. Nothing is more personal than your wallet, and we operate in that space.
In my previous role, I worked closely with lawmakers. Many of them are popular politicians who may not have deep technical expertise. They were elected for other strengths. When I wanted to explain a problem in the market, I’d start with something simple: “Do you have a Mastercard in your wallet?” They’d say yes. Then I’d ask about their experience—what worked, what didn’t. That opened the door to explaining why the market wasn’t aligned with best practices, and how it could be improved.
Persuasion is absolutely essential to what I do.
Career Path and Choices Between Public and Private Sectors
Question 11: Why did you decide to study economics, and how did that lead you to Harvard?
Answer: I studied economics in Mexico. It was a very technical bachelor’s degree—lots of math and statistics. I wanted to be an economist because the last two or three presidents in Mexico had been economists. There seemed to be a correlation between power, impact, and studying economics.
Then I applied to Harvard basically because I loved the program. To be absolutely honest, I am very nerdy. I love numbers, and that was the nerdiest program I could find: lots of statistics, impact evaluation—I just fell in love.
When I told a couple of my mentors that I wanted to apply to that program, and only that program, they said, “No, if you really want to do a program, you need to apply to three or four more. Harvard is super hard to get into.” I said, “Yeah, but I don’t like any other program, to be honest.” They made me apply to others anyway, even though I wasn’t in love with them. That’s the true story.
Question 12: After your master’s, how did you decide between continuing in public service or moving into the private sector?
Answer: Before Harvard, I worked for the Office of the President of Mexico and the Ministry of Education. That was where I saw my career going. When I finished my master’s degree, I wanted to return to Mexico and keep serving as a public servant. But during that time, the people in office did not have my trust. My North Star was elsewhere, so I started exploring: what if I did this from the private sector?
To be honest, it was a little awkward. It was difficult. There has always been this division between public and private—people saying, “Oh, those in the private sector, they have a lot of money, they don’t care,” and the other way around. I am among the few who have crossed that bridge, and I think we need more people doing it.
We need more people who have worked in both government and the private sector, because we use completely different parts of our brains and different skills. They complement each other, and that becomes a tool for persuasion. For example, being able to look the Minister of Finance in the eye and say, “I know you are scared about this, I understand your worries, but this is important for citizens.” That is absolutely key.
Another point is that, in my experience in Latin America, to be a public official you need to devote yourself 24/7. At the levels of government where I worked, I was expected to arrive at 8 a.m. and maybe leave at 9 or 10 p.m. That was not very compatible with being a mother.
Being a mother requires presence. You cannot teach empathy or honesty in a two-hour lesson, or put on a video about being a good citizen. No—you have to be there, face to face, touching them, being present . That wasn’t compatible with my life choices at that point.
In the private sector, I found another very beautiful, powerful space. Some people call it lobbying, but for me it’s private-sector diplomacy.
Women in Finance and Mentorship
Question 13: Finance and corporate diplomacy are often male-dominated fields. What has your experience been as a woman in this space?
Answer: Absolutely. Finance at large remains male-dominated. Corporate diplomacy remains male-dominated. It happens so often that I am the only woman—or the only Latin American woman—in the room.
However, payments are an exception. For instance, in Mexico, the Mastercard country manager was a woman. For Visa, I think she still is a woman. And my Amex colleague also was a woman. So in the payments arena, it’s a little different.
I think it has to do with the fact that we work worldwide, and that creates a vision for more inclusivity and, to be honest, tailoring to half of the population. But there are still spaces where we can advance, and where companies can do better to serve women around the world.
Question 14: You also mentor women through The Female Factor. Can you tell us about that work?
Answer: Absolutely. The Female Factor is an organization based in Vienna. They have a beautiful mentorship program where they pair mentees and mentors who are particularly interested in a certain path. You can choose what you want the mentorship for, and they are very good at making those links.
They have two batches, if I remember correctly—one in spring, one in the fall—and they do it every year.
Career Advice for Students and Junior Professionals
Question 15: Can students intern at Mastercard?
Answer: Yes. We have a specific site (see here), and we run a yearly cohort of internships based in New York, and other cities. Students can look online—there are maybe 20 or 30 interns in the program.
But I would also encourage you to reach out directly. If you find somebody you respect and admire, connect on LinkedIn and say, “I need to do my internship.” Even if a company is not advertising a formal internship, there is often space—particularly in international companies.
Question 16: What advice would you give young professionals who want to follow in your footsteps and work at the intersection of finance, policy, and social impact?
Answer: Find something you are passionate about, but put a lot of work into deeply understanding it. In my experience, this world is multifaceted, multi-sector, multi-lingual, and multi-geographic.
In my case, I’m an economist working with politicians who studied political science or law—or sometimes economics. At the same time, I’m speaking to sales colleagues who studied marketing and business. I work with colleagues in Thailand and Peru, speaking Spanish with the Peruvians, and trying to improve my French while working in Geneva.
So try to make those connections—across countries and across sectors. For example, if you are in biochemistry, try to understand a little bit about regulation or how bioethical standards are put through the UN. That will impact your work, and it will allow you to stand out.
Thank you for reading.
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Global Public Policy Director at Mastercard | Switzerland
*Note: This interview was recorded on August 20, 2025, and has been edited for clarity, ease of readability, and length.
**Illustrations: The profile photo shown in this interview is made available by Ms. Zamora. The main cover photo is courtesy of the Giga Research Lab.