About
Juan Wiley
VP, Product, Cards · Cross River Bank
I’m a product leader in fintech, based around the New York City Metro Area. I came up through engineering — Electronics and Communications Engineering at ITESM, MSc. in Telecommunications Management — before moving into product management. The technical foundation stuck. I still think in systems, with a layer of UX and -hopefully- common sense.
I’ve spent my career at the intersection of complex infrastructure and human impact — global payment networks, humanitarian field deployments, and the card systems that fintechs run on today. Whether at work or in my community, I try to do well by doing good.
Where I’m from
I am Juan’s son. Also his grandson, great-grandson, and great-great-grandson.
I was born in Villahermosa, Tabasco, Mexico. I went to college at ITESM Campus Monterrey, one of Mexico’s top private universities, where I coordinated the IEEE student chapter and graduated with a degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering, then completed an MSc. in Telecommunications Management.
In 2011 I moved to Mexico City to work for Mastercard’s Latin America operations. By late 2013, something bigger was on the table.
Mexico City, 2024
The bet
In November 2013, I flew from Mexico City to New York on a work trip. Separately — and not entirely seriously, I thought — I was being considered for a role at Mastercard’s global headquarters. Someone pointed me toward a window. The Empire State Building filled the frame. “You should get used to that view,” they said. I smiled. I wasn’t entirely sure I was ready.
A few months later I relocated my family from Mexico to Westchester, New York. Still the biggest bet I’ve made. Still the one I’m most glad I took. It worked out Ok (I guess!)
New York City — November 7, 2013
Empire State Building — July 2025
In July 2025, I stood on top of the Empire State Building on the same day that I became an American citizen. The building in the window behind me in that 2013 photo is the same one I was standing on twelve years later.
I didn’t come to New York to leave Mexico behind. I brought it with me.
The career
My first role at Mastercard’s Purchase headquarters was in the Global Prepaid Products team, focused on developing a digital voucher system to support NGO-led humanitarian aid distribution. That product concept became the Mastercard Aid Network.
We built an offline, stored-value system that let NGOs deliver funds digitally where there was no banking infrastructure at all. I worked across engineering, operations, branding, and sales to help get it from prototype to commercial launch — coordinating with clients like Save the Children, World Vision, and the IRC, who used it to reach over 500,000 beneficiaries. Product sprints took me to London and Singapore; training NGO staff brought me to Amman and the Philippines. The product received the Change Agent of the Year award from PayBefore, Best POS Innovation from PYMNTS.com, and helped land a spot on Fortune’s list of companies changing the world. It was presented at the NYSE. It’s the work I’m most proud of from those years.
That work evolved into broader platforms designed to bring entire communities into the formal economy at scale. I also contributed to product strategy for North America consumer credit programs before returning to help build the partner infrastructure around those humanitarian platforms.
Today I’m VP of Product for Cards at Cross River Bank. My focus is the infrastructure that fintech partners run their card programs on — issuing, authorization, processing, and the operational layers underneath all of it. Different scale. Different kind of complexity. I’ve found I love both.
How I think about product
Good products in fintech rarely come from technology alone. They come from understanding how systems actually work — networks, partners, regulations, support teams, and customers.
My role as a product leader is often to connect those pieces. Not to own every domain, but to understand them well enough to turn complexity into something teams can build and operate. Clarity is the product. Everything else follows from that.
I also think a lot about people — the teammates I coach, the partners I work with, the end users we rarely meet. Empathy isn’t soft skill window dressing. It’s the thing that makes technical decisions land correctly in the real world.
Outside of work
I’m a New York State certified EMT and volunteer with the Ardsley-Secor Volunteer Ambulance Corps. I’m a husband to Perla and a dad to Juan and Ava. My son Juan is autistic, which has gradually turned me into a special education advocate — a role I didn’t plan for but wouldn’t trade.
I’m also, in Spanish at least, allegedly funnier than I appear in English. These parts of my life aren’t separate from how I lead. They inform it. Read more about my community work →
