Visa CEO Russell Takes Industry by Storm : Finance: Rain and fate played a part in his choosing a banking career. Today, colleagues extol his perseverance, leadership, diplomacy.

NEW YORK —  For Charles T. Russell, president and chief executive of Visa International, success as head of the world’s leading credit card operation hinged on a rainstorm--and fate.

It was 1953. Russell, fresh out of the Army, couldn’t find a gig in his chosen profession: big-band trombonist. While he was looking for work in Pittsburgh, a downpour forced him to seek refuge in the lobby of Pittsburgh National Bank, which happened to be advertising for management trainees. He hopped an elevator and landed a job.

“So that’s how my great planned career in banking started,” said Russell, 63, who plans to retire next year. “And, hey, they were stupid enough to hire me.”

Under Russell’s watch, Visa evolved into a global consumer payments system, with more than 300 million credit cards accepted in 247 countries and territories. Russell’s colleagues extol his perseverance, leadership and diplomacy. They’re not distracted by his self-effacing personality.

“If you had to pick the Top 10 players in the industry over the last 20 years, you would have to pick Chuck Russell,” said James Bailey, an executive vice president in charge of credit cards at Citibank, the nation’s largest card issuer.

One of Russell’s greatest admirers is his chief rival, the head of MasterCard International.

“It’s easy to have visions, but making them happen, boy, that is really tough,” said Alex (Pete) Hart, president and chief executive officer at MasterCard. “I have tremendous admiration for what he has done.”

Russell may be a banking industry insider, but he seems to derive some delight in not conforming exactly to the banking industry’s staid image. In an interview in a Manhattan hotel, Russell wore a Mickey Mouse tie and spoke at length about his after-hours passion: riding one of his 15 motorcycles.

Visa itself isn’t a bank. It’s an association of banks that issue Visa cards and compete vigorously with each other to get into American wallets. Asked about the difficulty of running such a business, Russell laughed.

“I like to describe it as your overall responsibility is to make sure the inmates are not running the institution,” he said. “It’s challenging.”

It’s not as if Russell hasn’t faced unusual situations at other times in his life. He began playing trombone professionally in Pittsburgh nightclubs at age 13. He performed in the pit orchestra of a live burlesque show during his high school years. Upon graduation, he was on the road with the Johnny Long Orchestra from 1947 to 1950, then joined the Army.

Once he started as a management trainee at Pittsburgh National Bank, he attended night school and got an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh.

Credit and charge card purveyors were just beginning in those days, and Russell developed a specialty in lending to the plastic card companies. He was picked to oversee the start-up of the Pittsburgh National Bank’s bank card operation in 1965. In 1969, he left to operate the Master Charge program for Wachovia National Bank & Trust Co. in North Carolina.

Then he was hired away in 1971 to National BankAmericard Inc.--as Visa was then known--as vice president of operations, just six months after the company was created.

Visa has since evolved into its present form, providing member banks with the processing system that links merchants, card issuers and customers.

Russell credits many of Visa’s advances to his old boss, Dee Ward Hock.

“Everything that has evolved of any substance in the card industry came from Dee’s vision,” Russell said. “Dee had a complete vision of the electronic payment system in the 1970s.

“Everybody thought he was nuts.”

Russell said he views his legacy as helping carry through Hock’s vision. He has spent more than $300 million on technology.

“What I tried to do is pull Visa out of the paper world and out into the electronic world,” he said. “I think we’ve done it in the United States.”

Under Russell’s tenure, Visa cards proliferated dramatically, from 4 million when Russell took over in 1984 to 10.5 million at the end of last year.

They became more powerful and flexible for consumers: They can be used to get cash from automatic teller machines, pay doctor’s bills, buy groceries, burgers and fries.

He’s also been aggressive in Visa’s overseas expansion.

“Chuck’s contribution has been more international in scope,” said Bailey of Citibank, mentioning as exampled Visa’s popularity in Hong Kong and Singapore. To maintain and expand Visa’s far-flung network, Russell traveled 125,000 miles last year.

Russell’s frenetic schedule in the intensely competitive card business made his departure seem something of a surprise. But he has made little secret in recent years of his wish to retire.

Edmund P. Jensen, vice chairman and chief operating officer of U.S. Bancorp, will replace him at the end of the year.

The announcement last month that Russell was getting out came after two other high profile Visa executives departed. Since August, both Visa USA President Robert Heller and Visa USA Executive Vice President Bradford W. Morgan have left.

MasterCard, meanwhile, has recorded significant growth. Last year, it took market share away from Visa for the first time in 14 years. Robert McKinley, president of Ram Research Corp. in Frederick, Md., said even Visa’s small loss of market share to MasterCard is “almost the unthinkable. They’re not used to seeing that.”

The timing of the three departures is coincidental and doesn’t represent a shake-up, Visa says. Citibank’s Bailey, a member of the Visa USA board, also said there was no relationship.

Ronald Urquhart, head of the credit card operation at People’s Bank in Bridgeport, Conn., said Heller’s exit presented “just a good opportunity for Visa to shake the top” but said the departures don’t signal any executive crisis at Visa.

“Visa is too well run and too well organized,” he said.