Iona College Alumnus Alfred F. Kelly Jr. ’80, ’81MBA Named a Top CEO
NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. — Glassdoor.com named Iona College alumnus Alfred F. Kelly Jr. ’80, ’81MBA of Visa Inc. one of the nation’s top chief executive officers of 2021.
Glassdoor’s Top CEOs 2021 Employee’s Choice Awards ranked Kelly number five in its ranking of the 100 top CEOs at large companies. His employee approval rating was 97 percent.
According to Glassdoor, the awards are based on the input of employees who voluntarily provide anonymous feedback by completing a company review about their CEO's leadership, along with insights into their job, work environment and employer over the past year.
“On behalf of Iona College, I would like to congratulate Al on this recognition. It is the latest in a long line of his extraordinary accomplishments,” said Iona President Seamus Carey, Ph.D. “Iona has a proud legacy of developing leaders across all walks of life, but Al continues to raise the bar. We are so grateful for the example he has set.”
A Westchester native, Kelly has led Visa since December 1, 2016, and was elected chairman of the board in April 2019. Prior to joining Visa, he was president of the American Express Company.
A computer and information science major as an undergraduate, Kelly also went on to earn his MBA while at Iona. Not long after graduation, Kelly was a manager of information systems at the White House under President Ronald Reagan from 1985-1987.
In addition to his numerous professional achievements, Kelly was chairman of the 2015 Papal Visit Committee for NYC and is a passionate philanthropist, including serving as a member of the finance council for the Archdiocese of New York, and as a trustee of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and of Boston College.
ABOUT IONA
Founded in 1940, Iona University is a master's-granting private, Catholic, coeducational institution of learning in the tradition of the Edmund Rice Christian Brothers. Iona's 45-acre New Rochelle campus and 28-acre Bronxville campus are just 20 miles north of Midtown Manhattan. With a total enrollment of nearly 4,000 students and an alumni base of more than 50,000 around the world, Iona is a diverse community of learners and scholars dedicated to academic excellence and the values of justice, peace and service. Iona is highly accredited, offering undergraduate degrees in liberal arts, science and business administration, as well as Master of Arts, Master of Science and Master of Business Administration degrees and numerous advanced certificate programs. Iona students enjoy small class sizes, engaged professors and a wide array of academic programs across the School of Arts & Science; LaPenta School of Business; NewYork-Presbyterian Iona School of Health Sciences; and Hynes Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. Iona is widely recognized in prestigious rankings, including The Princeton Review’s 2025 national list of “The Best 390 Colleges” and The Wall Street Journal/College Pulse’s “2024 Best Colleges in America,” which ranked Iona at #66 in the nation overall and #8 in the nation among Catholic schools. Iona’s LaPenta School of Business is also accredited by AACSB International, a recognition awarded to just six percent of business schools worldwide. In addition, The Princeton Review recognized Iona’s on-campus MBA program as a “Best Business School for 2023.” Iona also offers a fully online MBA program for even greater flexibility. In July 2021, Iona announced the establishment of the NewYork-Presbyterian Iona School of Health Sciences, which is now principally located on Iona’s Bronxville campus in collaboration with NewYork-Presbyterian. Connecting to its Irish heritage, the University also recently announced it is expanding abroad with a new campus in County Mayo, Ireland. A school on the rise, Iona officially changed its status from College to University on July 1, 2022, reflecting the growth of its academic programs and the prestige of an Iona education.