Hikmet Ersek

Hikmet Ersek has more than 38 years of executive experience in Global Financial Services. He was the CEO of Western Union until 2021.
Ersek is currently Board Member of Voya Financials (VOYA.NYSE), of Waterdrop company and at Stomp Athletics. With his investment vehicle Ersek Enterprises LLC, he is also advising and investing in privately held companies.
Additionally, since 2015 he has been serving as the Austrian Honorary Consul in the USA, responsible for Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico.
He began his global career in financial services in Europe when he joined Europay/MasterCard in Austria in 1986. A decade later in 1996, he joined General Electric (GE) Capital as Business Development executive, he also represented the GE Corporation as the National Executive for Austria and Slovenia.
Ersek joined the Western Union in 1999 and until 2010 he was responsible for international expansion of Western Union in Europe, Africa, and Asia. From 2010-2021 he was the CEO and Director of the company (NYSE: WU). Founded more than 170 years ago, Western Union has become under Ersek’ s leadership one of the world’s most global companies, serving more than 150 million customers in 200 countries, 12000 employees speaking more than 75 languages. Hikmet Ersek successfully diversified and evolved Western Unions business portfolio to become a global digital payments company.
Ersek holds a Master's (Magister) degree in Economics and Business Administration from the University of Economics & Business in Vienna, Austria.
He speaks English, German and Turkish fluently and is a citizen of 3 countries; Austria, USA and Turkey, Ersek draws on his international background. He is passionate about building trade-, economical- and cultural bridges between nations.