Visa Takes First Step by Nominating Four Independent Directors; Seat Representing CUs a Possibility

SAN FRANCISCO – Visa USA took another step toward restructuring itself from being a private association of credit and debit card issuing financial institutions to being a publicly traded company by naming four new independent board members. The four new members named at an April 28 meeting were Philip DeFeo, a managing partner of Lithos Capital Partners, LLC, a private venture capital firm; Linda Baker Keen, a manager with a history of working with a variety of companies, including payments-rival American Express; Jon Madonna, former CEO of KMPG Peat Marwick, and John Swanson, CEO of CA Inc., an international information technology firm.

“This is a very important step in the process of transforming our board to include a majority of independent directors,” said John Philip Coghlan, CEO of Visa USA.