Not many corporate chiefs would admit to having cleaned bathrooms as part of their training, but Ajay Banga, chief executive of MasterCard, is not your typical business leader. “Cleaning bathrooms,” which he did in the 1990s while opening Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut restaurants in India for PepsiCo, “made me very valuable to my wife”, he says. “I’m called the bathroom fairy at home.”

That willingness to poke fun at himself extends to his appearance. As a Sikh, Mr Banga, 50, wears a turban and has a full beard, making for a striking contrast with Robert Selander, his predecessor and current vice-chairman. “Bob and I joke about it all the time,” Mr Banga says. “I know I look different from a lot of people around the world, but I don’t view that as something that defines me.”

His affability is disarming, but it also masks a competitive streak that propelled Mr Banga from fast food to one of the top jobs at Citigroup, where he ran the global consumer bank, before joining MasterCard last year with a promise of quickly being promoted to chief executive.