As the head of the Visa Innovation studio Tel-Aviv, Shahar is responsible for driving Visa’s activities with the Tech eco-system in Israel including venture investments, POC’s and commercial partnerships. He began at Visa as the head of digital market development in South East Europe, responsible for the expansion of digital propositions in nine markets. Shahar led the engagement with Visa clients and partners in the region to help them plan and deliver their digital transformation. Prior to joining Visa in 2013, Shahar worked at OTI, one of the global pioneers of contactless payments technologies where he assumed different leadership roles of product development and professional services teams in the US and Israel. He is an experienced professional, with strong technical and business understanding of the payments industry, new trends, and emerging technologies. Shahar majored in Computer Science at the Academic College of Tel-Aviv Yafo, and obtained an MBA from City University of NY.