Building on a 24-year career marked by expertise in guiding organizations through periods of significant change and disruption, Ami Babubhai Patel has established herself as a transformative leader in the financial services industry. As vice president of ecosystem risk programs at Visa since 2023, she manages critical initiatives focused on identifying and mitigating payment industry risks, combating fraud and illegal activity, handling disputes and chargebacks, and monitoring merchants. Affiliated with Visa since 2010, Ms. Patel originally joined the company as a managing consultant. Since then, she has taken on roles that have included analytics business partner, senior director of payments security strategy, head of cryptocurrency ecosystem risk, integrity risk program management team member, and inventions and patents team member.
Ms. Patel’s leadership across these various positions underscores her commitment to ensuring the safety and integrity of global payment systems. As part of the management team for the integrity risk program, she oversaw twelve major compliance programs addressing high-impact issues, such as child protection and increasingly sophisticated fraud activity. Ms. Patel also was key in developing strategies for Visa to address emerging risks associated with cryptocurrencies and led initiatives to strengthen the company’s defenses against threats in the payment ecosystem. She has collaborated with teams globally, gaining working knowledge of financial services in Europe, the United States, and beyond.
Prior to joining Visa full-time, Ms. Patel operated her own consulting firm while contracting with the company, demonstrating entrepreneurial acumen that continues to inform her approach today. She gained experience in the finance industry as the head of retention and new customer management at Barclaycard, where she significantly contributed toward turning around the company’s struggling United Kingdom card portfolio.
Early in her career, Ms. Patel joined Citi Cards in 2001 as a manager of strategic planning and business intelligence. During her five years at the company, she helped shape its e-commerce strategy, online banking capabilities, and mobile payment initiatives. Furthermore, she was promoted to cross-sell marketing program manager, cross-sell marketing acquisitions manager, and ultimately, head of the ethnic and emerging markets segment. In that final position, she led a team of nine senior managers in developing and overseeing three new product lines.
Though her journey has been filled with many memorable moments, Ms. Patel considers her ability to steer major organizations through technological advancements to be the defining characteristic of her career. She has consistently gone above and beyond her responsibilities, driven by an intuitive understanding of the industry’s biggest transformations. Ms. Patel’s commitment to innovation is further evidenced by four invention patents filed through Visa since 2015, with a fifth pending. She is also an accomplished speaker who has given presentations at numerous industry events on compliance, fraud prevention, and scam mitigation.
Before venturing onto her vocational path, Ms. Patel sought an education that would prove foundational to her success. She obtained a Bachelor of Science from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, known as Virginia Tech. Subsequently, Ms. Patel earned a Master of Science in industrial and systems engineering from the same institution. She has enhanced her credentials through project management certification.
Active with important organizations relevant to her field, Ms. Patel maintains membership in The Institute of International Finance, among others. Since 2024, she has served on the advisory boards of multiple organizations: the Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies (ASOP) Global Foundation; the Association of Payment Professionals; and the Internet Watch Foundation, where she also holds a position on the funding council. She also supports the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition and the Merchant Risk Council.
Ms. Patel is recognized for mentoring women to navigate traditionally male environments. She emphasizes self-awareness, confidence in one’s value, and the importance of speaking up — qualities that have shaped her leadership style and impact on those around her. Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Ms. Patel is a single mother to an eight-year-old daughter and caregiver for her elderly mother. She enjoys martial arts such as kung fu, as well as practicing qigong, and traveling.
Looking to the future, Ms. Patel intends to focus on consulting with boards, advisory groups, and startups across a range of industries. She is particularly passionate about engaging the field of real estate, in which she envisions taking innovative approaches to community development that support both economic needs and her creative pursuits. Ms. Patel’s vision includes building mixed-use communities tailored for artists or entrepreneurs, including affordable housing options integrated with commercial spaces designed for visibility, income generation, and long-term sustainability. This forward-thinking approach aims to carry forward her reputation for adaptability, innovation, and thought leadership beyond her work in financial services.