ASHA MEHRA
E 19, Palm Jumeirah, Dubai
Summary
- 28 years of Travel, Banking, Partnerships, & Loyalty management experience
- Solid understanding of building value based profitable & sustainable travel co-branded payment card partnerships.
- Excellent & proven negotiation and relationship building skills at C suite level.
- Adept at working with culturally diverse staff & stakeholders with a strong ability to resolve conflicting situations.
- Flexible & creative thinker with the ability to generate out-of-the-box solutions and manage uncertainty.
Overview
35
35
years of professional experience
Work History
Vice President & Head of Cobrand Credit Cards
First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB)
11.2020 - Current
- Managed P&L and expanded a leading cobranded credit card business across major sectors—travel, airline, hotels, retail, education, telecom, and affinity partnerships—generating 60% of total card revenue. Total card acquisitions exceed 100,000 cards per annum and driving spends in excess of AED24 Billion.
- Key Achievements:
- Launched a revamped Etihad Airways cobrand in 2021 by amending the customer value proposition (CVP) resulting in turning around a loss-making product to a profitable one without customer attrition.
- Won the RFP for a large retail company which led to the launch of the first digital-only credit card in U.A.E. The deal was valued in excess of AED300Million.
- Revamped 6 credit card CVP’s which led to an increase in Spends of 23% and card acquisitions by 100% in some cases.
- Enhanced the existing Loyalty program by introducing a new revenue line in Miles’s exchange with Emirates Airlines & Etihad Airways loyalty programs with FAB Rewards. This resulted in increasing revenue by 20% & proved to be a new lever for driving profit for the business.
- In discussions to start POS lending through major retail partner. This will enable FAB to leverage a large customer base for all our lending products.
Regional Head, Strategic Bank Alliances & Loyalty Programs
Dnata, Emirates Airline Group
01.2005 - 01.2020
- Over 21 years at Dnata part of the Emirates Airline Group, a company with sales in excess of AED 13bn (US$3.5bn) and revenue of AED 3bn (US$ 815m), an employee base of over 6000 with a presence in 7 countries around region, I had the opportunity to develop a strong understanding of the Travel, Loyalty and Payment Card businesses as well as a keen insight into the regional economic landscape. I built 3 lucrative business verticals which developed alternate revenue channels.
- To demonstrate my success and contributions toward building arguably one of the most successful business divisions within Dnata Travel, I have listed below my top achievements that significantly impacted the business.
- Dnata Emirates NBD Co-Branded Credit Cards Launched 2006
- The data Emirates NBD MasterCard cobranded credit card was the first airline agnostic card launched in the region in 2006, targeting the emerging affluent segment that are value seekers. Over the years launched 4 card variants which catered to a wider target audience and resulted in increasing the customer base substantially (> 60K new customers).
- The key objective of the co-brand partnership was 3-fold. Build a compelling value-based product offering for the customer, by leveraging the strong Emirates Group brand inventory, customer base and distribution network, along with the leading consumer bank (Emirates NBD) in the region.
- Over the last 16 years, the co-brand partnership delivered on the 3 objectives. The World variant was recognized by MasterCard as the Best Travel Card Award in the UAE and was showcased by Mastercard as a Case Study. Overtime the program was able to leverage all Emirates Groups key assets such as Costa coffee, Emirates Leisure Retail (ELR), MMI Liquor, Emirates Holidays, Arabian Adventures and dnata travel.
- The program was very successful for dnata & brought in substantial revenue in excess of US$85 Million through customer acquisition as well as loyalty point redemptions across all Group companies.
- MMI Loyalty Platform Launched 2013
- Responsible to develop and launch a Loyalty program for dnata travel. As phase I of this initiative, I introduced MMI Travel Bank Alliances. As part of this program, we offered several key partner banks API’s that enabled them to offer travel related services to their customers through a seamless online process. Customers could redeem eligible points for any travel service dnata offered, simply through a few clicks.
- In this vertical I managed to off-board 3 leading banks in the UAE as well as 3 from the region. This loyalty platform became a successful test bed to roll out a dedicated dnata Miles program. This led to acquiring over 500,000 customers accessing the program, resulting in incremental travel-related redemptions at MMI of USD8 Million annually.
- Pre-Paid Multi-Currency Travel Card
- In an effort to increase overall travel profitability and offer customers a one stop shop for all travel needs, developed a compelling Pre-Paid Multi-currency card proposition. This would allow dnata to cross-sell a Forex proposition to both - Corporate as well as Retail customer base, leading the development of the dnata Travel Prepaid Multi Currency card offering cardholders a choice to load up to 15 currencies.
- Identified and developed the framework to launch the Prepaid card directly with a Program Manager instead of the conventional route of partnering with a bank. This product was in the final stage of launch would generate an additional revenue stream and new target market.
- Dnata Islamic Co-Branded Credit Card
- In an effort to cater to all dnata customers, specially the large base of UAE nationals and Arab expats, and given the strong success of the conventional co-branded card with Emirates NBD, I identified an opportunity to roll out an Islamic Credit Card. Successfully rolled out a ‘RFP’ and identified a strong payments partner in VISA. This program would be the first Dnata led co-branded payment card launched for the company.
- Head of Companion Points 1999-2005
- Companion Points was the region’s first smart chip technology based multi participant consumer loyalty program.
- Contracted 160+ vendor partners with a combined network of 800 outlets to launch dnata’s first consumer loyalty initiative – a program called – ‘Companion’ in 2000.
- Spear headed the merger of two loyalty programs – ‘Companion’ & ‘Points’ which was operated through smart chip technology (Emirates banks “Points” program). Led the due diligence process leading to the final merger.
- Initiated a cobrand partnership with Standard Chartered Bank based in UAE in 2001 which resulted in recruiting 85,000 new customers. Was responsible for the formulation and implementation of business plans to manage resources, timeframes and funds to achieve objectives.
Personal Banker - Retail Business Division
Bank of America
08.1991 - 12.1991
- Non-Resident Indian (NRI) business group responsible for achieving a sales target of US$50 Million p.a. Worked on a US$2 Million swap deal for a high net-worth private individual.
Indian Hotels Company (IHC) Taj Group of Hotels
07.1990 - 08.1991
- Part of a key 15-member Global Sales team recruited to handle overall sales for all Taj Group of Hotels located in India & abroad.
Education
Master’s in Business Economics (MBE) -
Delhi University
India01.1990
Bachelors in Commerce (Hons) - undefined
Jesus & Mary College, Delhi University
India01.1988
Skills
- Team leadership
- Relationship building
- Decision-making
- Critical thinking
Accomplishments
- Received three prestigious ‘Marhaba Awards’ which is the Emirates Groups’ Employee Recognition and Rewards program for high achievers & excellence.
- Awarded an ‘Outstanding Achievement Award’ for extraordinary performance in March 2019.
Key Achievements
- VP/Cobrand Credit Cards at First Abu Dhabi Bank with full P&L ownership across entire suite of cobranded credit cards since November 2020.
- Led Contract negotiations with the National airline of the U.A.E which turned around a loss making cobrand credit card and resulted in a net saving of AED 250 million over 3 years.
- Launched the largest smart chip embedded consumer loyalty program in the Middle east with a combined Partner vendor base of 800 hotels & retail outlets & 300K members and delivered new revenue channels for Dnata, part of Emirates Airline Group.
- Launched the two-time award-winning region’s first Elite Sustainable credit card offering ecofriendly and green benefits, which won at the Cards and Payments Middle East Awards ceremony in 2024 & 2025.
- Launched the region’s first Travel cobrand credit card with Emirates NBD in 2005 which was the only program offering rewards & benefits, and online redemptions across 1000+ hotels and 200+ airlines across the world. This was done through API integrations with multiple OTAs ensuring the best rates for customers.
Timeline
Vice President & Head of Cobrand Credit Cards
First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB)
11.2020 - Current
Regional Head, Strategic Bank Alliances & Loyalty Programs
Dnata, Emirates Airline Group
01.2005 - 01.2020
Personal Banker - Retail Business Division
Bank of America
08.1991 - 12.1991
Indian Hotels Company (IHC) Taj Group of Hotels
07.1990 - 08.1991
Bachelors in Commerce (Hons) - undefined
Jesus & Mary College, Delhi University
Master’s in Business Economics (MBE) -
Delhi University