At the Duke FinTech Seminar: John Fimbel, SVP at Mastercard, shared his story about how being creative, humble and courageous helped him become successful.

9/21/23

Senior Vice President of Business Development at Mastercardand, a longterm supporter of the Duke FinTech program, came to talk to the incoming class.

At the Duke FinTech Seminar: John Fimbel, SVP at Mastercard, shared his story about how being creative, humble and courageous helped him become successful.

John Fimbel, Senior Vice President of Business Development at Mastercardand a longterm supporter of theDuke FinTechprogram came to talk to the incoming class last Friday. A top leader of one of the most well-known companies in the world, Fimbel offered a powerful lesson about how to succeed in the fintech industry and how expansion can be built from zero with perseverance. John Fimbel led his company, APT which was acquired by Mastercard in 2015 and has been fully integrated under the Mastercard brand since 2019.  

As he states in his bio, John Fimbel “worked at APT practically sinceinception and lead APT’s sales team globally for many years supporting the execution and implementation of APT’s growth aspirations by adhering to the self-made “Make It Happen” management approach. I initiated and led partnership with Mastercard which led to Mastercard acquiring APT in May 2015.” 

John talked to students about how creativity, courage, and humility work hand in hand for thriving in business. “Know your place at the equity table, focus your proposition on creating tangible value that can be measured, and never give up. Demonstrate polite persistence, go the extra mile, always give the benefit of the doubt and be humble,” are some lessons that he offered to students.  

The Mastercard’s SVP of Business Development started his career as a research analyst at Booz Allen Hamilton, focused on resource allocation for the Department of Defense. From there he moved to Johnston McLamb, a management and IT consulting firm, where he worked on several projects developing custom technology solutions for both the Federal government and private industry.At Mastercard, he is leading the company’s mission to “reshaping the digital economy so everyone – individuals, institutions, governments and businesses – can realize their ambitions.” 

In this photo: John Fimbel, SVP at Mastercard.