Harit Talwar

Harit Talwar currently serves as a board member of Mastercard (MA), KPMG US, Apexon, Inveniam.io and as Chairman of Better. He is a former Partner at Goldman Sachs (GS), was Founder/Head and subsequently Chairman of the firm’s global Consumer business, Marcus by Goldman Sachs, including its partnerships with Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Walmart (WMT), JetBlue (JBLU) and General Motors (GM).

As a senior executive, Harit has worked in Asia, Europe and America, and has a proven track record of creating and running successful, profitable businesses in financial services, including consumer banking and payments. His diverse experiences include running large businesses, building and scaling startups, overseeing transformational M&A, and forging strategic partnerships with leading organizations across industries. He has delivered industry-leading, risk-adjusted returns by focusing on key elements for success, including customer-centricity, a fusion of engineering / data / AI / design, and hiring diverse and talented teams. Harit has extensive experience interacting with boards of Fortune 500 companies, regulators and legislative stakeholders, and engaging in constructive dialogue with investors and shareholders.

Harit previously served on the boards of Morgan Stanley Bank International Ltd and Morgan Stanley International Ltd in London. Passionate about philanthropy, Harit serves as the Board Co-Chairman of the American India Foundation and is one of the founder trustees of Ashoka University. He previously was a trustee of the Asia Society Global Board of Trustees.

Harit joined GS in 2015 to lead the firm’s entry into the consumer space. As the first employee for the business, he helped build Marcus into a modern consumer platform that served millions of customers. The business was recognized as a successful disruptor, named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Finance Companies, and ranked #1 in J.D. Power Customer Satisfaction for Credit Card Issuers (2021) and US Personal Loans (2019). It has also been featured in a case study by Harvard Business School on successful innovation inside a large organization.

Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, Harit was President of US Cards and Chief Marketing Officer at Discover Financial Services (DFS) from 2007 – 2015 – a leading digital bank and payment services company. In this role, he deftly navigated the 2008 financial crisis and post-crisis ensured the business had industry-leading growth and profitability. From 2004 – 2007, he was Executive Vice President of Discover Payments, responsible for the transformation of the payments network from closed loop to open architecture through partnerships with leading merchant acquisition platforms, including First Data (FDC), Global Payments (GPN), Bank of America Merchant Services (BAC), Chase Paymentech (JPM), and others. He oversaw the expansion of a signature/credit-only network to also incorporate debit, PIN and EMV features and global growth through the acquisitions of Diners Club and the Pulse Payment / ATM network, and strategic partnerships with China Union Pay, JCB and many others. From 2000 – 2004, Harit was a Managing Director for Morgan Stanley’s international Consumer business. He started his career at Citibank where he spent 15 years working in a variety of roles across the consumer business including lending, cards, deposits, ATM networks, branches and phone banking.

Harit has been named one of American Banker’s 10 to Watch, an Outstanding Asian American in Business, and an Outstanding Alumni of Shri Ram College of Commerce at Delhi University. He has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Fortune, Forbes, CNBC and Yahoo! Finance and spoken at various industry forums and leading business schools.

Harit earned a BA (Hons) in Economics from Delhi University in India and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.