Ilana Messing

I’ve spent my career working across large organizations and high-growth startups, leveraging deep understanding of emerging trends and technologies to identify opportunities, see possibilities, and solve complex challenges in first-of-its-kind ways. What I enjoy most is helping to build new businesses and initiatives that generate significant value in the future. I thrive in roles that require finding white space in big markets, long-term orientation but relentless focus on impact, an operator with an owner’s mindset, deep stakeholder empathy, and high collaboration.

My recent roles have been at Fintech unicorns driving new GTMs and strategic partnerships. Prior to that, I was at Mastercard for where I built out the global accelerator for early-stage startups. I created the operational framework for the program, sourced and selected startups, acted as the lead mentor for portfolio companies, built use cases for new products, and participated in investment activities. I’ve also launched a consumer facing company in a foreign country and spent my early days on Wall Street, so operating in unchartered territory and high-stakes environments is normal to me.