# Ashwin Raj

> Ashwin Raj is the chief executive of LeafLink, where he is applying a career spent in payments, marketplaces, and regulated technology to the unglamorous infrastructure of legal cannabis. After leadership roles at Visa, Amazon Pay, Lyft, and ezCater, he arrived at LeafLink in 2025 with a plain operating doctrine: listen to customers, narrow the work, and build for the long term. His early tenure has included reversing a disputed pricing change, restoring a predictable flat-fee model, and pushing to connect wholesale ordering, compliance data, and financial services into one operating system for cannabis commerce.

- **Role:** Chief Executive Officer at LeafLink
- **Organizations:** LeafLink, ezCater, Lyft, Amazon, Visa, Booz Allen Hamilton, Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services, Pet Partners, InnVision Shelter Network
- **Education:** B.E. in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Anna University, M.S. in Biomedical Engineering, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, M.B.A., Harvard Business School
- **Known for:** Helped guide Lyft's rideshare business through its pandemic recovery and toward profitability while serving as Head of Rideshare., Led Amazon Payments North America and third-party seller services for Amazon Pay., Held senior Visa roles in mobile products, innovation and strategic partnerships during the expansion of digital payments.

## Career timeline

- **2002-2014** — Held multiple leadership roles at Visa, including Vice President of Global Innovation and Strategic Partnerships and Vice President of Global Mobile Products.
- **2014-2017** — Served as Director of Amazon Payments North America and led third-party seller services for Amazon Pay.
- **2017-2023** — Joined Lyft in payments and customer-platform leadership, became interim Head of Rideshare in 2021, Head of Rideshare later that year, and Executive Vice President, Head of Rideshare in 2022.
- **2023-2025** — Served as Chief Executive Officer of ezCater, beginning August 14, 2023.
- **2025-present** — Appointed Chief Executive Officer of LeafLink on September 18, 2025.

## Achievements

- Helped guide Lyft's rideshare business through its pandemic recovery and toward profitability while serving as Head of Rideshare.
- Led Amazon Payments North America and third-party seller services for Amazon Pay.
- Held senior Visa roles in mobile products, innovation and strategic partnerships during the expansion of digital payments.
- Is named on multiple U.S. payments and technology patents, including work involving value transfer, mobile transaction applications, tokenization and service activation.
- At LeafLink, reversed a disputed variable-fee pricing change, returned the marketplace to flat fees and simplified the plan structure from three tiers to two.

## Latest updates

- **2026-03** — Discussed agentic systems, human oversight and closing the enterprise 'insight-to-action' gap in an interview with The Data Wire.
- **2026-01** — Appeared on the High Spirits podcast to discuss cannabis market maturity, LeafLink's pricing reversal, customer listening and the integration of Dama Financial.
- **2025-09** — Became Chief Executive Officer of LeafLink.

## Links

- Website: https://www.leaflink.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tashwinraj

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/ashwin-raj
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-18