Wayne Best

Background

About Wayne Best

Passing my 42nd year as a professional, my work started as a nuclear engineer consulting in the power industry. I obtained my MBA and migrated to business case analysis. It was these skills that brought me to Visa, the payments leader in 1990. In addition to forecasting payments volume for the company, I was heavily involved in developing and running a 4 dimensional interchange model. My skills designing reactor cores and analytical models was a big plus. In addition, i spent considerable time performing functional cost studies of the consumer credit, debit, small business, commercial and acquiring businesses. It was here that i really grew in my overall payments knowledge. Some ask,"How do you move from nuclear engineering and designing nuclear reactor cores to business economics?" The easy answer is,"The math is the same, the subject matter is just different!"I currently lead the Business and Economic Insights group at Visa. This position identifies and integrates business, financial, economic, and client (consumer/merchant) intelligence essential to Visa’s understanding of the payments landscape and communicates these insights to executive management and to financial institution, merchant, and government clients globally.I lead and manage a global team of 15 professionals.Personally, I Love to cook and am an accomplished chef. I have written one cookbook (now out of print) and working to complete my second. I often perform on the road, elaborate dinners at key executive homes featuring a 7-course meal paired with wines based on what is fresh in the market.