About Sam Ahmed

Sam Ahmed, A disruptor and innovator with ambitions for technology-driven global expansion, Sam Ahmed, CEO & Co-founder, Smartpay is one of Asia Pacific’s leading digital economy leaders with 20+ years of extensive experience in leading digital businesses in the region. He is a seasoned industry professional who had previously led digital, AI, and technology transformation for Facebook, Standard Chartered Bank, Mastercard, and Starbucks. Sam Ahmed is known for being one of the first to lead Mobile Payments at scale in the Asia Pacific by launching the first Starbucks mobile payment, in-app loyalty program, and in-app payment throughout the region in 2012. Within two years it became the largest in-app mobile payment and loyalty card in Asia-Pacific. (Two years before the launch of Apple Pay). At Mastercard, Sam Ahmed was successful in building and developing the Mastercard Digital & E-commerce Engine in Asia Pacific, to link consumer data with merchant offers to lift e-commerce transactions in real-time. He was the first to use AI at a regional scale to drive e-commerce transactions across ten thousand merchants, over 100 million consumer conversions, and hundreds of banks to drive value for all parties. With the Mastercard Digital & E-Commerce Engine, he changed the way Mastercard did digital business with their ecosystem - merchants, banks, and consumers. This game-changing innovation is highlighted in Harvard Business School Case Study by Professor Sunil Gupta. (Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.) During his time at Standard Chartered Bank, Sam Ahmed was successful in building & rolling out SC Digital Operating System across 14 markets which doubled digital sales. Helping an international bank transform digitally was an incredible experience for him. It offered him the inside view of the added values that banks require from their external ecosystem partners due to their legacy systems. Using his digital banking experience, Sam Ahmed  led Payments and E-commerce go-to-market (GTM), commercial strategy, planning, and execution for Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Singapore, Japan, Australia, India, and China cross-border for WhatsApp, Instagram Shopping, Mobile Commerce, and Facebook marketplace. He had the opportunity to work with the regulators across eight markets in Asia Pacific understanding their vision for Fintech over the next 10 years.