General Atlantic, a growth equity firm, has named Hans Morris, former president of Visa and a special adviser for GA over the last year, as managing director and head of GA’s global financial services sector.
William E. Ford, chief executive officer of General Atlantic, says: “We know Hans well and recognise how valuable his industry expertise and operating experience is to the financial services companies in which we invest. We consider the global financial services industry as particularly attractive and an excellent fit with our growth equity investment strategy. Hans will add a new dimension to our successful financial services team and we are very pleased that he will lead our effort.”
Morris served as president of Visa from 2007 to 2009, having been recruited to Visa as it completed a reorganisation which merged several separate businesses into a new company. In March of 2008, Visa completed an offering of 51 per cent of the company for USD19.7bn, the largest IPO in US history. Morris’ primary responsibilities included managing Visa’s regions and overseeing all sales and marketing.
Morris previously spent 27 years at Citigroup and its predecessor companies in several operating and management roles. In his final position, he was chief financial officer and head of finance, technology and operations for Citi Markets and Banking.
From 2000 until 2002, he was vice chairman, chief operating officer, and head of client management of the investment banking division at Salomon Smith Barney, and for many years he was the head of the financial institutions group within the investment bank.
