Ranjana Clark: Western Union vice president's Indian heritage prepared her for working with immigrant populations.

• Author: Cole, Rebecca
• Position: EXECUTIVE EDGE

Growing up in India, Ranjana Clark understood what it meant to be an immigrant.

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After the British divided the country in 1947, Clark's father, a native of Bangladesh, became "an immigrant in his own country," she said.

Clark, now an executive vice president for global strategy for Western Union, said her experience offers a "level of empathy and understanding" toward newly arrived immigrants and migrant workers, the company's primary customers.

"Western Union has a strong affinity with the immigrant population base," Clark said.

After receiving a master's degree in business administration from the Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad, Clark went on to obtain a second MBA, this time in finance, from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. Early in her career, Clark worked for Deutsche Bank in Mumbai and then spent 20 years with Wachovia Corp. and Wells Fargo in the U.S.

Hired by Western Union in March, Clark, 48, says she "has a lot to learn" about the company, and is traveling the world--Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa--to study the market dynamics of each area

"I am on my own tour of learning," Clark said. "I'm going out in the field to get an intuitive feel for the business."

Founded in 1851 as a telegraph company, Western Union today has 379,000 agent locations in more than 200 countries. The company's wire transfer services move about 17 percent of the world's money every day.

Clark said her priority is to keep that worldwide network strong by expanding the core money transfer and bill payment business, especially in the company's growing business-to-business sector.

"It's a jigsaw puzzle, and there are about 10 pieces that need to fit together," Clark said. "My job is to make sure Western Union's global distribution network remains second to none "

One of those pieces is leveraging rapidly evolving technologies, including online and mobile. For a migrant in a developed country, using the Internet to transfer money may be simple. But getting it to the folks back home is another story.

"If...