Meet the Mastercard CEO Force for Good winners for the second half of 2023

We know that an object once in motion will stay in motion. The same can be said about our most recent crop of CEO Force for Good Winners for the second half of 2023, and the giving spirit they demonstrate and sustain. 

Several are repeat winners, others pitch in repeatedly in their own communities, and still others consistently lead full-office volunteer projects and region-wide events or regularly organize opportunities to help out a variety of local causes.  

For the CEO Force for Good Award recipients who founded nonprofits on their own — with inspiring purposes to provide financial education and help refugee women — service never stops. When they’re not filling their company roles, they’re drawing on their company skills and values to train staff and create partnerships to grow their nonprofits’ results. 

Global award 

Shannon Hunter, Erika Alcalde, Nicole Turner, Ksenia Sussman, and Scott Whitmore – Miami, Florida, and New York, New York

This joint Miami-New York team furthered Mastercard’s In Solidarity commitment to narrowing the racial wealth and opportunity gap through a strategy to create financial sustainability for a historic Black community in Alabama. Africatown, located north of downtown Mobile, was settled by descendants of enslaved people brought to Mobile on the ship Clotilda, arriving after the 1807 law prohibiting importation of slaves. Africatown presents a wealth of history for visitors. The challenge was part of the company’s racial justice pro bono program, and the team’s task was to develop and sustain Africatown as a tourism site. Working with C.H.E.S.S., a local organization serving the community, team members delivered multiple components: a tourist map and guide, website advice and a tourism promotion package with recommended logistics, community outreach, fundraising, digital marketing and external communication plans. C.H.E.S.S. stands for “Clean, Healthy, Educated, Safe and Sustainable.” The team’s strategy kept each quality in mind to align with the organization’s values — and Mastercard’s as well, reports team member Nicole Turner.

Asia Pacific

Estelle Ho, Singapore 

As a firm believer in community building, Ho has been a passionate grassroots leader at People’s Association for nearly seven years. Since 2018 she has spearheaded the Kovan City of Sharing project, which mobilizes volunteers to collect and distribute food to alleviate food insecurity. In 2023, Ho’s KCOS initiative rallied together more than 450 youths in a day to distribute more than 80 cartons of food, providing 3,000-plus kilograms of rice, 200 cans of Milo and more. Through various community service projects, she actively serves the needs of underprivileged families, the elderly, less empowered women and youths. Beyond KCOS, she also pioneered the sheltered walkway  construction between a church and a mosque, which not only enhances accessibility for elderly people with mobility issues and young children but also drives religious inclusivity within the neighborhood. In her area of Singapore, called Paya Lebar, she regularly initiates unique solutions to solve community needs, including  arranging for a local senior activity center to receive donations of excess food from a local cafe, reducing waste. At the national level, she was elected to the People’s Association Youth Movement Council, and at the constituency level, she is the chair of Paya Lebar Youth Network. Ho explains her Force for Good activism as “forging valuable community bonding” while “pushing for positive change” with and for Singapore residents.

Sagar Deokar, Pune, India

“I am committed to making a positive impact on the world and believe in making decency and inclusion a foundation, not just an add-on,” Deokar says. At the Pune Tech Hub and well beyond, Deokar demonstrates that commitment in significant ways. He’s instrumental as the leader of the India chapter of Girls4Tech, Mastercard’s award-winner STEM education program. India chapter. In September, he supported the Mumbai team in conducting its first in-person G4T sessions. Earlier in 2023, he extended his expertise even further to help the Dublin office relaunch in-person G4T workshops. Currently he’s co-driving a G4T extension program, in collaboration with the American India Foundation, to reach up to 30,000 girls in government schools. Along with his STEM leadership, Deokar is a core team member of two of India’s business resource groups, Women’s Leadership Network and Salute India, for veterans. As part of WLN, he helps spearhead activities such as the recent design thinking and career counseling events for kids of Pune employees. Deokar was also an organizer of Salute India Independence Day celebrations attended by more than 450 in-person and 50 virtual employees.

Judy Zou, Huanyu Wu, Lucas Liang, Lillian Tang, Jerry Yan, Carol Shi, Sherry Shen, Puli Cheng, Shu Li, Sihan Luan, Cheng Qian, Xiangming Sun, Simeng Wang, Yifan Cao, Qiuning Yang, Di Wu, Cecilia Xu, Jin Pu, Chun Li, Xijun Yao, Ines Yuan, and Anqi Zhao, Beijing, China

Rural revitalization is a key initiative for China. In support of this important effort, 22 colleagues from the Beijing office formed the MasterCAN initiative, which stands for Mastercard: Consult, Advocate, Network, to build sustainable and inclusive development for rural villages. In 2023, the team worked with Golden Earth Village — which struggles because of its remote location and outflow of young talent — to inject vibrancy into the community. MasterCAN members created a customized go-to-market strategy for Golden Earth Village. Six village products have been designed, and one of them, honeysuckle water, has been put into large-scale production. Outcomes will increase job opportunities for youth, and profits help sustain a local nursing home. The team plans to further help Golden Earth Village to invest in environmental conservation, pave the way for long-term revitalization and, most importantly, help the village transform from a light industrial model to a sustainable multi-source interconnected ecosystem. “MasterCAN proactively contributes their efforts to the great cause of promoting social fairness, financial inclusion and environmental protection,” team member Jin Pu says.

Arti Agrawal, Sanjivani, Shubham Prakash, Mansi Aggrawal, Manvi Bairathi, Muskan Khepar, Vikas Kumar, Harshvardhan Singh, Shivani Singla, Aditi Garg, Swati Upadhyay, and Ishika Jain, Gurugram, India

As dedicated members of WeDoGood, a pan-India NGO that aims to bridge other NGOs with the right volunteers for specific needs, this Gurugram Advisors team empowers organizations to overcome operational, marketing and even technical issues and maximize impact for their communities. During a six-month period this year, the team collaborated with more than 200 consultant volunteers in support of over 15 NGOs, including Sunonaa (mental health), Reap Benefit (environment), Agastya International Foundation (education) and American India Foundation (focus on the underprivileged). Besides helping to facilitate enhanced professional guidance for these and other NGOs, team colleagues take pride in helping to upskill the volunteer consultants and enable them to grow together. This initiative has also led to improved access to essential services like education and health through improved outreach by the NGOs. “We embrace all pillars of the Mastercard Way with our volunteering initiatives,” team member Agrawal says. “And, hailing from diverse backgrounds, our team members contribute unique perspectives and values to our collective efforts.”

Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa

Reema Al Shammasi, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

“Creating positive change around the world” is a goal that inspires Al Shammasi, and one she’s committed to in a quite literal way. In 2022, Al Shammasi received a Force for Good Award for helping build a classroom for girls in Zanzibar. “I promised myself to be part of a similar activity once every year,” she explains, “because it’s all about continuity — supporting people in need and, specifically, kids’ educational journey.” True to her pledge, this year Al Shammasi traveled to Indonesia to devote five days to building a computer classroom for underprivileged girls and enabling vital learning with technology. Her contributions of physical labor and raising needed funds helped the school bring a two-year effort to realization. “My dad always says it’s not about how much you give, but continuing to give,” Al Shammasi says. Yet this two-time Force for Good honoree keeps giving, and in very big ways.

Kuntay Simbatova, Dubai, UAE

Perhaps, as the saying goes, it’s something in the water that drives the outstanding volunteerism seen each year in the EEMEA region. But for Simbatova, 2022 Force for Good individual and best of the year winner, it is, in fact, all about water. Last year Simbatova helped install a water station for a village in Rwanda. This year she partnered with the Ugandan Water Project to build the infrastructure for a community of more than 3,000 outside Kampala to have safe drinking water. Simbatova and fellow volunteers — her own and 10 other families — commissioned a water borehole and then constructed a water tower and microgrid to deliver 14,000 liters per day across four community access points. The group also added two classrooms to a primary school. With up to a quarter of Ugandan students absent daily because of waterborne illnesses, safe water also benefits education.

Medamine El Yacoubi and Ikbal Touimer, Casablanca, Morocco

On September 8 this year, near midnight local time, an earthquake of greater than magnitude 6.8 hit the Marrakesh-Safi region. It was also felt some 200 miles away in Casablanca. Whether El Yacoubi and Touimer knew immediately or learned about the devastation as news came in, these colleagues teamed up “to do the right thing with speed and decency,” says Anna Kaminska, their colleague and nominator. With millions impacted by the destruction, El Yacoubi and Touimer gave their personal volunteering greater reach by fundraising in the Casablanca office to buy necessities for survivors. Then the pair drove several hours to the affected area to deliver the collected supplies. Making stops in five villages, the team distributed a total of 15 tents, 30 mattresses, 60 blankets and 30,000 Moroccan dirham (about $3,000) of food and medicines. “Their initiative brought humanitarian support to people in remote locations,” Kaminska says. Natural disasters can unleash terrible force, but employee volunteers like El Yacoubi and Touimer are the Force for Good that’s unleashed when tragedy strikes.

Europe

Claire Byrne, Dublin, Ireland

Back in 2017 — not long after the Force for Good Awards were launched — Byrne created Dublin MC Cares as a centralized employee volunteer group. Today, with upwards of five events each month, Dublin MC Cares is very active in the community. And Byrne stands out for her tireless efforts to galvanize others into volunteer action — beginning with her intuitive understanding that more colleagues will step up if service activities are planned for them. Byrne coordinates some events and has trained a volunteer team to organize more, providing Dublin Tech Hub employees with opportunities to pitch in for a host of worthy causes — from Feed Our Homeless to Cancer Research Ireland and others. With thousands of annual volunteer hours being filled, the impact is both immense and incalculable for charities and those who depend on their services. “Claire is well known as someone who always goes above and beyond to help others,” says Gareth Grehan, her colleague and nominator, “and everyone who crosses paths with Claire is the better for it.”

Yaryna Zozulia, Warsaw, Poland

Zozulia is a Ukrainian who moved to Poland years ago. When Russian invaded Ukraine in 2022, she immediately responded to the needs of fleeing refugees, offering practical assistance and literally filling two jobs — her roles at Mastercard and, through December of last year, at a shelter. As a member of Mastercard’s Warsaw Advisors team, Zozulia also recognized the scale and scope of services that she and her colleagues could provide. She engaged the entire team in an ambitious volunteer plan for 2023, with a signature effort to leverage their competencies as consultants to help Ukrainian entrepreneurs learn to run a business in the unfamiliar Polish market. Other activities include forest cleanups that support corporate environmental goals. In the process, Zozulia has taken on a demanding unofficial title as “charity officer,” explains colleague Agnieszka Spionek, her nominator. “Yaryna applies Mastercard values in everything she does, prioritizing what matters, thinking big and bold and inspiring her colleagues to be better at helping others.”

Stellina Charizopoulou, Christina Georgiou, Miltiadis Margellos, Alexandros Papadatos, Apostolis Papadopoulos, Diagoras Vougas, Iraklis Stratigis, and Athanasios Karampekos, Athens, Greece

Some move mountains to make a difference — others climb them. For this team of passionate volunteers from our office in Greece, climbing Mount Olympus for a special cause was a challenge to rise to in an epic way. Coming together with other Mastercard employees (39 from eight different offices), the Greek team joined a group with diverse backgrounds and nationalities but one common goal: to give back by helping children in need. The three-day hike, which took place in August, covered about 15 miles — think 50,000 steps — and scaled four summits, including Mytikas, the highest peak of Mount Olympus. That grueling effort raised 18,000 euros for the NGO The Smile of the Child, based in Athens, which will go toward care for 247 children. To ensure success, planning for the hike began six months earlier, reports team member Athanasios Karampekos. Obstacles, from planning to climbing, were overcome the Mastercard Way — by supporting one another to help each team member be great.

Latin America and Caribbean

Javier Guerraty, Santiago, Chile

When you’ve developed one of the leading financial education nonprofits in your country, it’s a safe assumption that you don’t rest on your laurels. For Guerraty, we know that to be true. He received both a Force for Good individual ward in 2022 and the best of the best recognition. Earning another FFG honor is a testament to Guerraty’s dedication to Fundacion Chile Se Educa, which targets low-income Chileans with information delivered “in a simple and friendly way,” he explains. Since last year, over 8,000 subscribers have joined the nonprofit’s financial education community on social media, now reaching more than 63,000 members in all 16 regions of Chile. More than 1,000 have taken its financial education courses. Guerraty also points proudly to some 15 professionals — economists, lawyers, teachers, journalists, historians — who contribute expertise daily to support the nonprofit’s activities. Guerraty’s own service is still inspired by our company values. “I work every day with the one-team mindset,” he says, “and within my nonprofit we work toward our goal: Improve people's lives through financial education.” 

Nicolas Costa, Viviana Quiñones, Valeria Vannini, Lorena Quintana, Isabella Arias, Zury Durán, Sarat Chandran S., Sam Hollander, Sneha Pendse, Rhea Kakar, Antony Jones, Darren Ware, Stefany Bello, German Roson, Kristine Matheson, Andrea Denadai, Marilyn Luna, María Barreiros, Luz Gomez, Felipe Alcantara, Cristina Wittmer, Stellamaris Leventis, Sarah Saucedo, Danielle Borgholm, Arghemar Perez-Sanguinetti, Cristina Carreon, Enrique Muñoz, Elkin Cetina, Carlos Pared, Masayo García, Augusto Freire, Jocelyn Jara, Jorge Escobar, María Soledad Dalmagro, Allan Guillen, Michelle Periche, Kattia Montero, Patricia Merino, Naibi Aguirre, Ximena Baeza, Diana Zamora, Montserrat Ponce de León, Sabrina Alvarez, Carlos Alberto Rubio, Luisa Pino, and many more, Santiago, Chile

Launched in January 2022, the Todas Conectadas platform provides free training and tools for Latin American women to develop digital skills, digitize businesses and expand their economic growth. Last year, 18,251 women entrepreneurs and others in 10 countries accessed todasconectadas.org for more than 30 free training courses. Reflecting on the successful launch, the Todas Conectadas team took additional action to recruit Mastercard volunteers to serve as project managers to support the platform’s expansion. The three women project managers worked beyond their day-to-day activities in order to manage alliances and coordinate workshops that impacted hundreds of women entrepreneurs in several countries. “As volunteer project managers for Todas Conectadas, we actively managed a project with external stakeholders including governments, UN Women and Microsoft to bring this platform to life,” Quintana says. “We are thrilled to have participated in an initiative like this, which goes beyond our current roles, resulting in significant and positive impact on women throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.”

Carlos Alberto Rubio Pimienta, Claudia Escamilla, Jennyffer Alguera, Inigo Rodriguez, Sabrina Alvarez, Nikki Bertran, and Larissa Navarro, Mexico City, Mexico; San Jose, Costa Rica; Miami, Florida 

Mastercard’s Latin America and Caribbean region, a founding member of the Partnership for Central America, is committed to empowering 5,000 girls in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador through Girls4Tech by 2027. In pursuit of this goal, the team has been actively seeking opportunities and has successfully secured an agreement with the Ministry of Education of El Salvador. As a result of this collaboration, 26 schools in the Soyapango region are participating in our signature STEM education program. Phase one of the program has already been completed: It included two virtual workshops per week for three months, with the support of 41 employees as volunteers. Phase two is set to begin in January, where the team plans to reach more than 2,000 girls by the end of the program. “This is a groundbreaking initiative for our region, involving a strategic partnership with a government institution to plan over 40 Girls4Tech workshops in two phases,” says team member Carlos Alberto Rubio Pimenta. “It’s a best practice that can be replicated across all regions to make an impact and drive an inclusive digital economy and a more equitable society.”

North America

Caroline Aronson, Arlington, Virginia

Growing together is a Mastercard value that Aronson has gained a new appreciation for as a volunteer with Big Brothers Big Sisters of the National Capital Area. For more than a year, Aronson has mentored a girl from an at-risk background, meeting with her two to three times a month. Aronson has made social-emotional development a focus of their activities together, to bolster her mentee in responding to “some incredibly challenging situations,” she explains. Fun is also on the agenda, along with working to build trust and understanding, which, as Aronson observes, is reciprocal. “I’m helping my mentee, but she has shown me so much in return,” including “a fresh perspective on life and the challenges we may face.” Aronson proudly reports tremendous growth and self-awareness from her mentee, with the promise of more success. “Children with BBBS mentors are less likely to skip school, have higher grades and get on a path to graduate, with a future plan,” she notes.

Anyel Arslanian, New York City, N.Y.

Arslanian was a volunteer with Encore Community Services, which helps seniors with daily needs, before she joined Mastercard’s New York City Tech Hub and discovered the company’s support of volunteer work. “I’m so grateful to work for a place that not only encourages my volunteerism but allows me to have a platform to expand it — and a much bigger impact on the community.” As diversity and inclusion lead for Mastercard’s Young Professionals business resource group, Arslanian hosted four volunteer events for Encore in late 2022 and this year, bringing together more than 100 volunteers who contributed some 400 hours. Using their company volunteer days, the Mastercard team delivered and served meals to seniors. Through her personal volunteering, Arslanian also secured a $500 Mastercard grant for Encore. “Seniors are an incredibly underserved demographic in the New York City area,” she explains. Encore’s initiatives, which include housing and physical and mental health, provide vital assistance. And vital to Encore are exceptional longtime volunteers like Arslanian.

Justin Harnish – Salt Lake City, Utah

What does it take to stick with a goal for 14 years to grow a nonprofit when that work is not your only focus? Harnish has an explanation. “I believe that how you work and live are equally important to the results you deliver. Being of service gives me the opportunity to further apply business processes learned at Mastercard.” Benefiting from Harnish’s philosophy is Women of the World, which he co-founded with his wife, Samira Harnish, who is executive director. In a decade-plus, WoW has evolved into an internationally recognized service organization for women refugees. Yet it maintains grassroots qualities such as customized services for forcibly displaced women and their families, with more than 5,000 helped to date. Thirteen full-time employees, along with contractors and volunteers, provide advocacy that might start with a cup of tea and includes English classes, direct service and a popular employer partnership program. Harnish characterizes his volunteer role as strategic, contributing to organizational efficiencies, data sourcing, analysis and more. Others agree. In 2022, Harnish received the Utah Philanthropy Award for his WoW service.

Vickie Johnson, St. Louis, Missouri

You might say Shannon Burke-Kranzberg, a Force For Good winner for the first half of 2023, knows something about outstanding service. In nominating her colleague Vickie Johnson, Burke-Kranzberg points to qualities that distinguish great volunteers and company-sponsored volunteering. “Vickie leads multiple Force for Good initiatives in the St. Louis Tech Hub, including the annual food drive to support the St. Louis Area Foodbank. Vickie has created and managed the processes that make these initiatives successful — for community organizations and for our employees to engage meaningfully,” Burke-Kranzberg explains. Numbers are powerful proof. This year’s food drive raised more than $80,000 in donations from 468 employees, with 3,000-plus pounds of food yielding 324,892 meals, surpassing the original goal of $60,000 and other totals from previous years. Johnson is also among the St. Louis Tech Hub Champions, Burke-Kranzberg notes, and “Vickie’s leadership, passion and organization help bring other Champions into these important efforts and contribute unequivocally to our Force for Good culture.”

Phanindra Phanakanti, Bejoy Mathew, and Adam Tenzer – O’Fallon, Missouri 

Adopt-a-Highway is a flagship program in Missouri, as in other states, to encourage a cleaner environment. The trio of Phanakanti, Mathew and Tenzer took the adoption option personally — both in terms of their volunteering and their choice of roadway — by adopting Technology Drive, in front of the O’Fallon Mastercard campus. To ensure the stretch could stay free of litter and debris, they crowdsourced more than 50 volunteers. This expanded Mastercard volunteer juggernaut was quick to meet the state challenge of “No MOre Trash!,” devoting around 200 hours to a quarterly schedule of cleanups recommended by the Missouri Department of Transportation. Mastercard’s “move fast” ethos was also at work — important for literally keeping up with trash removal — through a three-year agreement on litter pickup. Statewide, volunteer cleanups are valued at $1.5 million a year, notes Phanakanti, team nominator. With a cleaner Technology Drive to enjoy, the team leaders have a new initiative in mind for the roadway: landscape beautification and maintenance.

Ella Park-Chan, Miara Handler, Luke Turner, Irinia Tyshkevich, Prem Rajamohan, Noor Hanafi, Helen Zhang, Sydney Levine, Helen Goot, Karen Xu, Andrew Caldwell, and Roman Shekhovtsov, Purchase, New York, and Arlington, Virginia

When the war in Ukraine began in February 2022, there was a well-publicized exodus of refugees to neighboring Poland. Among the international refugee organizations welcoming the Ukrainians was HIAS, headquartered in Maryland and providing services that help displaced individuals thrive in their new home. Over time, the key questions for HIAS had to do with assessing the needs of the Ukrainian refugees and the impact they were having on the Polish economy. A team of a dozen Mastercard volunteers, led by Park-Chan, Handler, and Turner, partnered with HIAS to find answers as part of our company’s Data for Good & Social Impact pro bono program. Through a two-day datathon and split into two workstreams, the team leveraged technical and analytical skills to deliver significant analysis for HIAS. The outcomes: insights to inform HIAS’s assistance programs in Poland and evidence for governments — in Poland and beyond — that refugees have a positive economic impact on communities. “Skilled volunteering is a meaningful way to leverage our consulting and analytics skills for good but can be mentally taxing,” Handler says. “The team’s commitment demonstrates our core value of supporting the public good.”