Chapter 4 · Management
Ryan McInerney took
over in 2023.
The stock didn't blink.
Some businesses run on their CEO. Visa runs on its network.
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✦ Teach me
Why owning a lot of the company matters
When the CEO and senior leaders own meaningful equity in their own company, their incentives line up with shareholders'. Bad allocation of capital costs them personally; durable returns enrich them.
For a network business like Visa, the CEO matters less than for, say, Tesla. The network compounds regardless. But the team's discipline on dividends, buybacks, and acquisitions still shapes the long-term return.
Wall Street calls this
Insider ownership / executive equity
Not the biggest dimension for Visa specifically — but the proxy disclosures still tell you whether the team is paid for *short-term metrics* or *long-term compounding*.
From the proxy · how Ryan is paid
Roughly 90% of the CEO's target compensation is at risk and tied to long-term performance metrics, including return on invested capital and total shareholder return relative to peer companies.
↳ "At risk" means: if Visa underperforms peers over multi-year windows, his pay drops materially. Not perfectly aligned, but more aligned than most large-cap pay packages.
Source · proxy · Compensation Discussion & Analysis · FY25 · Filed Dec 12, 2025