"Dee Ward Hock" is the founder and former CEO of the Visa Inc./Visa credit card association. In 1968, Hock was an official of a local bank in Washington (state)/Washington State that was Franchising/franchised by the Bank of America to issue its credit card brand, BankAmericard. Through a series of unlikely accidents, Hock helped invent and became chief executive of the credit system that became VISA International. Early on, he convinced Bank of America to give up ownership and control of their BankAmericard credit card licensing program, forming a new company, National BankAmerica, that was owned by its member banks. The name was changed to Visa in 1976.

In May 1984, Hock resigned his management role with Visa, retiring to spend almost ten years in relative isolation working a parcel of land on the Pacific coast to the west of Silicon Valley. He was inducted into Junior Achievement's U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1991, and the Money (magazine)/Money magazine hall of fame in 1992.

In his 1991 Business Hall of Fame acceptance speech Hock explained:

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The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get old ones out. Every mind is a building filled with archaic furniture. Clean out a corner of your mind and creativity will instantly fill it.

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If you don't understand that you work for your mislabeled 'subordinates,' then you know nothing of leadership. You know only tyranny.

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