FOUNDER AND CEO EMERITUS VISA USA AND VISA INTERNATIONAL, NOW VISA INC
Born March 21, 1929, in North Ogden, Utah.
September 1947 to June 1949. Weber College, Ogden Utah.
September 22, 1949. Married Ferol Delors Cragun in Salt Lake City, Utah.
1949 to 1952. Branch Manager, Pacific Finance, Ogden Utah.
1952 to 1953. Branch Manager, Pacific Finance, Klamath Falls, Oregon.
1953 to 1955. Assistant Manager, Public Relations and Advertising Department, Pacific Finance, Los Angeles, California.
1955 to 1962. General Manager, Columbia Investment Company, Los Angeles, California.
1962 to 1966. Northwest Regional Supervisor, CIT Financial, Seattle, Washington.
1966 to 1970. Vice President and General Manager, BankAmericard Department, National Bank of Commerce, Seattle Washington, and Chairman of the National Executive Committee of BankAmericard issuing Banks.
In 1967, The National Bank of Commerce entered the Bankcard business as one of the first six banks in the United States licensed by Bank of America to issue BankAmericard, credit cards, and enroll merchants. It quickly became a national system with more than a hundred licensed banks. Other banks banded together to create Mastercard. Massive card issuance exploded nationwide as bank after bank entered one system or the other. With wholly inadequate credit controls, or systems for the authorizations and clearance of sales drafts between banks, credit and operating losses skyrocketed, bringing the twosystems to the brink of collapse.
In 1968, a meeting of licensee banks was called by Bank of America to discuss some of the critical problems. It soon disintegrated into angry accusations and finger pointing. Long convinced that Bank Credit Card was a misnomer and marketing blunder, that its real future was as a global device for the exchange of value, Hock was appalled by the chaos in the system and at the meeting. Concerned that the NBC program would be overwhelmed by system failure, and that attempting to find solutions was futile in mass meetings, Hock suggested an organized system of national committees be formed to quickly assess the full extent of the problems and seek a sensible, long-term solution. The suggestion was endorsed by Bank of America and unanimously adopted by the attendees, and a day later Hock found himself the chairman of an executive committee to lead the effort.
It soon became apparent that problems were much worse than anyone imagined. Convinced that the only solution was re-conception of the entire system, Hock challenged three others to join him in a week long effort to conceive an ideal organization to create the world’s premier system for the exchange of value. In 1970, after an intense, year-and-a-half long effort, the first part of an organization unlike any that had ever before existed came into being: National BankAmericard Inc., with Hock as President and CEO. Within two years, operating problems and losses were under control and the business was highly profitable, growing at the rate of 50% compounded annually. Within three years, the international portion of the system was re-conceived as Ibanco. Within five years the worldwide system was unified under the name Visa, and was, by a considerable margin, the largest system for the exchange of value in the world, a position it continues to hold today under the name VISA Inc. Annual volume of transactions under the VISA name and marks now exceeds $10 trillion annually.
1970 to 1984. Chief Executive Officer of Visa USA, Visa Mideast and Africa, Visa Latin America, Visa Asia Pacific, and Visa International. San Francisco, California
1984 to 1992. Ranch owner, recluse, student and philosopher. Pescadero, California.
1992 to present. Adviser, speaker, and writer working to develop and bring into being new, Chaordic concepts of societal organization that more equitably distribute power and wealth and are more in harmony with the human spirit and biosphere. Pescadero, California and Olympia, Washington.
Note: For the complete story of the creation of Visa and my growing concern with the epidemic of institutional failure that now plagues the world, see either Birth of the Chaordic Age, or its second edition, One From Many: Visa and the rise of Chaordic Organization.