Nelson Irizarry

Nelson Irizarry is a Principal in the Card Issuing practice area. He focuses on advising banks, credit card issuers, consumer finance companies, retailers and card associations on a broad range of strategic and portfolio management issues. Nelson's areas of expertise include strategic planning, product development, portfolio and operational benchmarking, and new market entry strategies. Some of Nelson's recent projects include evaluating an issuer's processing/servicing options, assessing the branch-based credit card acquisition process for a major bank, and evaluating the business case for a potential de novo issuer.

Nelson also has extensive international experience working with financial institutions and card associations in countries throughout Europe and Latin America. Recent international engagements include implementing a portfolio segmentation strategy for a major Colombian credit card issuer, developing a business strategy for encouraging revolving behavior and balance build programs for a Brazilian issuer, and evaluating portfolio management practices and marketing tactics for a Spanish credit card issuer.

Prior to joining First Annapolis, Nelson worked at Visa International in the Latin America & Caribbean division. While working for Visa he advised major financial institutions throughout Latin America on portfolio management and credit risk assessment issues. This included assisting card issuers on implementing portfolio segmentation strategies, optimizing activation, usage and retention practices, and developing risk-adjusted return models for measuring profitability. In addition, Nelson managed the country operations in Bolivia for BGI international, a diversified consumer products company, and worked on buy-side and sell-side privatization deals with the Barents Group, a boutique merchant banking group.

Nelson received his M.B.A. from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration and his B.A., cum laude, in marketing from Georgetown University.