John Sullivan is Oula.la’s founder, innovator, strategist. John is deeply motivated to make a positive difference in this world, with socially and environmental sustainable innovations and empowering trust.John holds an honours degree in engineering and an MBA, majoring in innovation and entrepreneurship. John has been active in internet ventures since the mid-90s including a listed global accountancy B2B network.

Founder Chair, Oula.la

Aaron is an international payments leader, with major experience with fintech disruptors in payment in London.                                  Aaron’s expertise emcompasses:

• Design and management of BIN sponsorship program implementations with both VISA and MasterCard
• Compliance with payment sector rules and regulations, software requirements, end to end transaction cycle, risk, PCI requirements, risk and fraud
• Education in full issuing life cycle, software constraints, processing, settlement and funding
• Specification, design and management of connection projects for both VISA and MasterCard for Issuing and Acquiring processor systems
• Management of Princial Membership process with schemes
• Responsible for operational design of BIN sponsorship business processes; sales, on boarding, implementation

Payments, Oula.la

Global customer advocacy thought leadership, encompassing community programs, enhancing and helping to build brand visibility. Most importantly igniting positive change for Oula.la’s customer community via
– Meet-ups: hosting meet-ups around the world
– Engaging users for storytelling sessions, connecting with other customers in the customer network and in-person connections
– Engaging with the media and speaking at conferences

Listening to people and helping to create a positive community of happy and satisfied customers

Customer Advocacy, Oula.la

Software engineer/architect with deep background ranging from complex backend systems to mobile and web front-ends, as well as multi-disciplinary (hardware + software) projects. Interested in programming languages, compilers and standards among other things.

Hovik has led teams and projects,as well as being very comfortable with and enjoying hands-on engineering in C, C++, Objective-C, Swift, C#, PHP, Python, JavaScript, Java and other languages. He has developed systems and applications for Linux, macOS, iOS, Android, Windows, various embedded systems, as well as for the Web.

CTO, Oula.la

Alessandro just completed his second masters degree in sociology and ergonomics of digital technologies. He has more the a decade of
experience as a digital product designer.
Ale applies User-Centered Design methodologies to find the best solutions for digital products, services and systems, aligning business goals and user needs. He loves to look at customer experience early in the process, engaging with users and bringing a different perspective in order to influence the technology decisions accordingly.

UX, Oula.la

Giovanni Santini is our Gibraltar based specialist payments and pre-paid cards adviser. Giovanni is very experienced with creation and implementation of pre-paid card schemes. Giovanni’s experience includes:

• Initiation of new prepaid BIN (bank identification number) projects with major card schemes
• Liaison point between the client, company, processors, card schemes, card personalisation bureau’s and other third parties.
• Implementation of NFC (Near Field Communication), dual interface (contact and contactless) products and EMV (Europay, Mastercard, Visa) cards
• Setup up of Head Office Collection Accounts (HOCA) and associated reconciliation systems.

Payments

Ajay Yadav is a member of the 2017 Forbes 30 under 30, the Founder and CEO of Roomi, U.S. leading peer-to-peer marketplace helping people find shared housing and the right people to live with. An expert on the sharing economy and the millennial mindset, Ajay is a regular contributor and international speaker on fundraising, building valued networks and the expat entrepreneur experience.

Founder and CEO, Roomi

Professor Michael Mainelli Michael Mainelli (Project adviser) is the co-founder of Z/Yen, the City of London’s leading commercial think-tank and venture firm. His career summary is a decade of technology research (aerospace, computer, seismology) followed by a decade in finance (Arthur Andersen, partner at BDO Binder Hamlyn and Director of Europe’s largest R&D organization (DERA)) then subsequently over 15 years of finance & technology in Z/Yen. Educated at Harvard, Trinity College Dublin and the London School of Economics he is also Professor Emeritus of Commerce and a Fellow at Gresham College, Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics Department of Management Information Systems & Innovation Group.

Co-Founder, Z/Yen

Kate Merrill, has outstanding experience as general and corporate counsel, including as Deputy General Counsel & Director M&A for Intel. Kate has extensive international experience across:
• strategic transactions – including mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, spin-offs, investments, partnerships and joint ventures;
• intellectual property – including inbound licenses, SaaS and other outbound licenses, code and software development, co-development and collaboration agreements, patent acquisitions and divestitures;
• commercial transactions – including financings, leases, confidentiality and escrow arrangements, sales and services agreements;
• compliance and ethics – including privacy, corporate governance, anti-corruption, trade, securities, information governance and records management