Dr. Saeeda Jaffar

Dr. Saeeda Jaffar is the Senior Vice President & Group Country Manager – GCC, Visa. Prior to joining Visa, Dr Jaffar was the Managing Director at Alvarez & Marsal ME, the world’s leading turnaround and restructuring firm. Dr Jaffar has also held leadership positions at McKinsey & Company as well as Bain & Company, serving clients across the U.S., Europe and the GCC. Over her 20 years of professional career, Dr Jaffar has worked in the Middle East, Europe, and the U.S. on a wide range of strategic, M&A and performance-related issues with clients across a range of industries, while specializing in financial services including universal banks, private banks, investment banks, private equity firms, sovereign wealth funds, government institutions and family-owned businesses. Dr. Jaffar is an Emirati national and earned a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering from Boston University, where she was the valedictorian. She earned a master's degree and a doctorate in chemical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT.)