We believe that every small business should have access to the resources that help them succeed, and that there is a better way to connect small and big business.
Markaaz (‘markaz’) means center, where everyone comes together. That’s what we do here at Markaaz.
Our leaders have deep experience scaling growth for the largest global companies
Hany Fam
FOUNDER AND CEO
Fabi Hubschmid
CO-FOUNDER AND Csdo
Sandy Watkins
CO-FOUNDER
A seasoned team brings over 700 years of combined experience from the most innovative industries and companies
Brett Adams
SVP of Product
Eun Barron
Lead UX UI designer
Gina Bednar
HR & Accounting Manager
Greg Boosin
Strategic Advisor
Amanda Boudreault
VP of Operations & Strategy
Brett Adams
SVP of Product
Eun Barron
Lead UX UI designer
Gina Bednar
HR & Accounting Manager
Greg Boosin
Strategic Advisor
Amanda Boudreault
VP of Strategy & Operations
Ignacio Cabrera
Sr. Business Development Manager
Alain Cauwenberghs
Chief Growth Officer
David Clarke
CHIEF DATA OFFICER IN RESIDENCE
Preston Giles
Director of Operations
Richard Gleed
Director Program Manager, Data
Ignacio Cabrera
Sr. Business Development Manager
Alain Cauwenberghs
Chief Growth Officer
David Clarke
CHIEF DATA OFFICER IN RESIDENCE
Preston Giles
Director of Operations
Richard Gleed
Director Program Manager, Data
Emily Isabelle
UX Designer
Vivek Kumar
General Manager, Asia Pacific
Jyothi Kuthoor
business Analyst
Scott Lange
Social Impact Lead
Rob MacColl
CHIEF COMMERCIAL OFFICER
Emily Isabelle
UX Designer
Vivek Kumar
General Manager, Asia-Pacific
Jyothi Kuthoor
business Analyst
Scott Lange
Social Impact Lead
Rob MacColl
CHIEF COMMERCIAL OFFICER
Catherine Murchie
CHIEF Operating OFFICER
John Nguyen
Product Manager
Daniel O’Connell
CHIEF BUSINESS OFFICER
Nitin Pai
Software development manager
Haider Piracha
Account Executive
Catherine Murchie
CHIEF operating OFFICER
John Nguyen
Product Manager
Daniel O’Connell
CHIEF BUSINESS OFFICER
Nitin Pai
Director of Software development
Haider Piracha
Account Executive
Vivek Prabhu
Lead Developer
Tom Reed
SVP of Data
Omar Saleh
SVP of Software Development
Jesus Santiago
Head of Sales, Europe
Gary Smith
PM VP of Enterprise Solutions
Rustin Scott
VP of Information Security and DevOps
Kimberly Sweeney
SVP of Marketing
Jim Whalen
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER IN RESIDENCE
Jeffrey Wetter
Lead Product Owner
Vivek Prabhu
Lead Developer
Tom Reed
SVP of Data
Omar Saleh
SVP of Software Development
Jesus Santiago
Head of Sales, Europe
Gary Smith
PM VP of Enterprise solutions
Rustin Scott
VP of Information Security and DevOps
Kimberly Sweeney
SVP of Marketing
Jim Whalen
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER IN RESIDENCE
Jeffrey Wetter
Lead Product Owner
The best and brightest minds across technology, payments, insurance, investment, and more have joined to advise our leaders.
Gordon Watson
Bobby Mehta
Michael Fraccaro
Ross Fubini
Michael Heller
Markaaz is founder-funded, and supported by strategic partners, like Mastercard. We are always open to a good conversation about how we can accelerate our roadmap. Start the conversation today.
Hany Fam
FOUNDER AND CEO
Hany held global leadership roles in business transformation, value creation and technology, gaining depth of experience in payments, B2B platforms, enterprise partnerships and SaaS. He served as CEO of AXA Global Enterprise & Partnerships, Founder & President of Mastercard Enterprise Partnerships and President of Mastercard UK & Ireland Markets. He also held roles in Applied Technology including as the CTO of Toshiba International’s Heavy Industrial business in Australasia. Under Hany’s leadership, Mastercard Track was launched, the first and only global trading platform connecting every supplier and buyer on the planet to simplify and automate the exchange of payments and related data. Hany is a member of the WEF Global Innovator and Forbes Business Council.
Fabi Hubschmid
CO-FOUNDER AND Csdo
Fabi is an entrepreneur with global experience in the digital platform industry, with a track record of leading complex operations and strategic development across the private and public sectors. Before co-founding Markaaz, Fabi was the Strategic Development Officer for AXA Global Enterprise & Partnerships and a member of PwC’s Global Smart Cities Team. She was the Founder & CEO of a boutique advisory for platform companies and the Tutor for the ‘Beyond Smart City’ course of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Fabi is focused on creating a positive and sustainable impact for small business owners, with a passion for family businesses (having grown up as part of a 5-generation construction family business). Fabi is the Small Business Chair at the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce and serves on the Strategic Council of 50/50 Women on Boards.
Sandy Watkins
Co-Founder
Sandy is a Senior Executive and industry veteran with over 35 years of experience in Corporate Finance, Accounting, Leadership, and Operations. Sandy has served as the Chairman of Open Lending, LLC since 1999. Under his leadership, Open Lending has been named to the Austin Business Journal’s “FAST 50” list five times, recognizing the fastest-growing private companies in Central Texas. The company has been named to the “INC 5000” list of fastest-growing private companies nationwide and a “Best Place to Work” in Central Texas three times. Open Lending is now publicly trading on the NASDAQ. In addition, Sandy has significant experience and expertise in launching start-up companies in finance and technology.
Brett Adams
SVP of Product
Brett brings over 20 years of international and US strategy, payments, and product technology experience in both large enterprise and start-up environments. Most recently he helped launch a consumer financing start-up in the US leading product strategy and development. As a consultant in Accenture’s payments practice, he advised a broad range of enterprise and investor clients on engagements ranging from payments acquiring orchestration to digital payments technology architecture to payment processor API strategy and b2b payments network development. During his tenure at Mastercard, he held leadership positions stretching from Finance and M&A, to international BD and account management, heading Mastercard’s US Prepaid business, and leading the global product function for Mastercard’s issuer processor technology business. His breadth of functional experience gives him a unique, lived-in perspective underpinning a strong track record of building high-performing teams and growing businesses.
Eun Barron
Lead UX UI Developer
Eun is an accomplished designer with over 15 years of experience in the industry. She has a passion for crafting beautiful and effective designs that help brands build meaningful products. With a diverse skill set and a deep understanding of user experience, Eun has worked for both startups and established corporations like L’Oreal, where she has honed her skills and gained valuable insights. In her free time, Eun enjoys traveling and immersing herself in different cultures with her family, which has greatly impacted her work and helped her bring a unique perspective to her designs.
Gina Bednar
HR & Accounting Manager
Gina brings over 20 years of HR, accounting, and management experience and excels in creating zero-waste internal procedures that save time and money. She was previously the Program Director & QIDP for a privately owned company and before that, ran her own small business helping Texas’s 9-1-1 project, which fueled her passion for support other small business owners. Her areas of expertise are project and business operations management, compliance controls, process/development improvements, team building, HR and accounting management. Gina holds a BS in Accounting and a MS in Management and Leadership.
Greg Boosin
Strategic Advisor
Greg joins Markaaz as a Strategic Advisor. He is EVP, Global B2B & Product Marketing at Mastercard, responsible for lead generation, sales enablement, RFP support, and leading an in-house creative studio across Mastercard’s global business units and regions as well as the articulation of value propositions within the product development process. Greg’s prior experience at Mastercard includes U.S. Merchant Sales, Investor Relations, Marketing Strategy and Chief of the Staff to the CMO. Prior to Mastercard, Greg was a strategy consultant for FutureBrand (McCann Worldgroup), a brand manager for Banana Boat sun care, an equity analyst at JP Morgan and a business systems analyst for American Management Systems.
Amanda Boudreault
VP of Operations & STRATEGY
Amanda is a technical program leader with a background in establishing operational processes and growing software development teams. Amanda is passionate about managing cross-functional alignment for new solutions implementation and enterprise delivery. She has a track record of guiding teams through difficult challenges, serving as a trusted client advisor, and streamlining business processes with creativity and precision. Previously, Amanda led program management teams at Ally Lending, Mastercard, and Vyze (acquired by Mastercard). She holds an MBA from Bayes Business School at City, University of London.
Ignacio Cabrera
SR. business development manager
Ignacio Cabrera (Nacho) is the Sr. Business Development Manager based in LATAM. He was most recently the Partnerships Manager at Rapyd Network where he helped run Financial Partnerships globally covering 100+ relationships worldwide in the America, EMEA regions. He brings a wide range of great experiences from his efforts to launch and support Fintech-as-a-service platforms with some of the most sophisticated banks and processors. Ignacio is based in Mexico City where he enjoys cycling, spending time with his dogs, and cooking great food.
Alain Cauwenberghs
CHIEF GROWTH OFFICER
Alain joins Markaaz after spending 20 years with Mastercard across different functions of new business and strategic development. He was an instrumental driver in building out Mastercard’s Enterprise Partnerships team, founded by Markaaz CEO Hany Fam during his tenure at the company. Alain is an expert in payments, B2B platforms, and building mutually beneficial enterprise partnerships in industries including global travel, maritime shipping, sports and music events, insurance and re-insurance. As Chief Growth Officer at Markaaz, Alain oversees international business development efforts, including existing partnerships and global expansion opportunities.
David Clarke
CHIEF DATA OFFICER IN RESIDENCE
David is an independent Advisor/Consultant specializing in Data Strategy and the business information industry. His clients have included John Wiley, TiVo, CreditSafe, and Mastercard. From 2015 to 2017, David was Chief Data Officer at Avention Inc., subsequently acquired by Dun & Bradstreet. Previously David spent 30 years at Dun & Bradstreet in various executive positions, including President, Sales & Marketing Solutions, US CIO, and Chief Data Officer. David was born in the United Kingdom but has lived in New Jersey for 20 years. He loves to travel and relaxes by skiing in the Alps and collecting Burgundy wine.
Preston Giles
Director of Operations
Preston Giles is the Director of operations at Markaaz. He brings over 11 years of experience across operations, contributing to and leading projects as a developer, business analyst, product and project manager. Preston was previously a Product Manager with Walmart where he led the company-wide transition from legacy data stacks to a new cloud-based platform, effectively saving the company over $15 million a year in operating costs. He is skilled at developing valuable client and vendor relationships, building top-performing teams, and providing the guidance, training and support necessary to ensure on-time and within-budget delivery. Preston proudly served eight years with the U.S. Air Force.
Richard Gleed
Director Program Manager, Data
Richard Gleed joins Markaaz from Creditsafe, where he has held various roles over the last 20 years, with his most recent role as Product & Development Director. Richard enjoys working with anything that is technically challenging in the area of software development and data management solutions, but also enjoys mentoring and also learning new skills from colleagues. He has been living in the Allentown, PA for just over 6 years, but originally hails from Cardiff, Wales in the UK.
Emily Isabelle
UX Designer
Emily is a UX designer with a background in human resources. She has developed a deep skill set for solving problems through understanding human behavior. Her experience empowering individuals in vulnerable groups has fostered a core belief that through empathy, creativity, and curiosity, we can design a better world for all. Emily aims to create data-driven designs that innovate, inspire, and make an impact on the usability of business services.
Vivek Kumar
General Manager, Asia-Pacific
Vivek is a financial industry executive with a track record
of driving scale and profitable growth. He brings deep experience, insights,
and understanding of credit products, digital payments, and strategic collaborations
across Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa. Over the years, Vivek has had the
opportunity to work with leading global financial institutions having
functional expertise in strategy, product management, and client relationship
management. More recently, he led the expansion for Chase Merchant Services
across priority markets in the region as Managing Director at JP Morgan Chase
following leadership roles at Citigroup, Mastercard, and Bank of America with
remits on both sides of the retail balance sheet.
As General Manager for Asia-Pacific, he spear-heads growth initiatives to commercialize and embed Markaaz as a robust and differentiated platform providing critical access to data and analytics supporting enterprises in the region.
Jyothi Kuthoor
Business Analyst
Jyothi is an accomplished business Analyst with progressive experience in gathering requirements and preparing specifications. Expertise in Agile and Hybrid agile project execution, demonstration expertise, team management and delivery ownership, and the experience of contribution in end-to-end SDLC. Jyothi has worked for Deloitte, Blue cross blue shield, MTX Inc, and UST Global for major US healthcare clients. Proven educational background that includes Business analysis certification from the University of Berkeley, ITIL Certifications, and a Bachelor of Technology in Electronics and Communication Engineering.
Scott Lange
Social Impact Lead
Over the past three years, Scott focused on landing financial support from enterprise corporations, sports teams, religious organizations, banks, and accounting firms to provide knowledge, tools, and support for courageous BIPOC and woman entrepreneurs to address racial economic equity and the Covid economic calamity. As a strategic consultant, Scott is now spearheading sponsorships and partnerships to distribute the Markaaz FinTech Platform, at scale, to help all small business owners thrive and grow.
An accomplished business executive, Scott is a creative marketer of marketing solutions that ignite customer engagement for companies/brands to drive business growth. Previously, Scott held executive leadership positions in sports marketing including Active Network, Moss Sports, SFX Sports Group and the New York Road Runners/NYC Marathon© prior to focusing on social impact.
Rob MacColl
CHIEF COMMERCIAL OFFICER
Rob has over 20 years of executive experience in financial services and a track record of leading growth-driven innovative payment and banking solutions. He joins Markaaz from Rapyd, a Fintech-as-a-Service platform, where he served as Head of the Americas and successfully launched API-powered access to local payment rails that enabled B2B transactions amongst SMBs and marketplaces. Prior, Rob developed fintech banking platforms with Silicon Valley Bank, Cross River Bank, and Community Federal Savings Bank, closing industry transforming deals with tech companies driving the innovation economy. His passion for payments started with Mastercard as Group Executive, Global Acquisitions and Development, where he was a member of the team that successfully executed its IPO.
Catherine Murchie
Chief Operating officer
Catherine has worked as the GM at Everyware, an Austin-based fintech and 20+ years at Mastercard which included leadership roles in emerging payments, where she helped lay the groundwork for Mastercard’s contactless payments technology, which is now accepted in 70+ countries around the world. She was also the North America leader for processing, network and security products with the responsibility for enabling the market strategies for these solutions in the US and Canada. Additionally, during her tenure, she was tapped for tours of duty in finance, strategy, and public policy. She’s lived and worked in the US, Britain, Belgium, and Australia.
John Nguyen
Project Manager
John is an agile leader who faciltates relentless improvements in small and large technical teams. His experience as a former military officer enhances expertise in Jira to manage and organize high-level software development teams. John’s cross-functional experience improves team dynamics between product and software development colloborations. His leadership drives improvements in global setttings to include software developers in India, Ukraine, and Canada to managing complex missions in arduous environments such as Iraq.
Daniel O’Connell
CHIEF BUSINESS OFFICER
Daniel is a future-focused leader with an entrepreneurial drive to build a robust commercial position, undertaking a broad spectrum of business functions encompassing sales, finance, and operations. Daniel has a credible record of achieving enormous success across the Fintech and Payment sectors by penetrating new markets, establishing new ventures, and boosting revenue streams. He has held senior leadership roles in both the Payment and Fintech space. Recently, Daniel was President and Chief Operating Officer of Safrapay, a Payment startup company. Served as Chief Operating Officer for Ascentium Capital, a Fintech Lending company in the Payment sector. Before that, he was SVP at First Data/ Fiserv, responsible for the Partner channel with over 1000 relationships generating over $1B in revenue annually.
Nitin Pai
Director of SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
Nitin is a senior IT professional experienced across different domains and in various roles. He built top performing teams at Dell Technologies, and worked with teams to rationalize and publish product data. He holds experience in building distributed systems notably payment processing and E-Commerce applications. He is passionate about Product Design, Architecture and Development Practices. Off the work he writes blogs at technicallynitin.com, or follow wide range of interesting topics.
Haider Piracha
Account Executive
Haider started his professional career with Markaaz after graduating from Ohio Wesleyan University with a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Public Policy. As an Account Executive with Markaaz, Haider supports business development, enterprise relationships, and research and analysis that drives business strategy. Prior, he has held part-time roles in business development and strategic partnerships with Excelerate Energy, a technology and gas company. He is currently based out of Austin, Texas and was born and raised in Pakistan.
Vivek Prabhu
Lead Developer
Vivek is a lead developer working in backend team He has 9+ years in experience & worked in developing softwares for retail, payment & SMB domain He is passionate about system design, software design patterns and writing well maintaiable/structured software systems In his free time he likes to upskill himself by going through techinical papers & software design best practices
Tom Reed
SVP of Data
Tom is a proven global leader within the business information industry specializing in Data Strategy, Risk Management, Data Architecture and Operations. Tom spent 23 years with Dun & Bradstreet leading Global Services teams. At Dun & Bradstreet, he held senior level roles within Global Delivery Operations, Data & Content Management, and the Chairman’s Office. In addition, Tom held Senior Data Architecture and Strategy roles at LexisNexis Risk Solutions, Avention and Interos. While at Mastercard, Tom led the Global Directory Product Development with Mastercard Track.
Omar Saleh
SVP of Software Development
Omar has extensive experience building payments and financial technology products at scale. He has worked at startup and medium size companies, such as payFin, Everi, and LogixPay, where he was responsible for all IT infrastructure and software engineering disciplines. Omar is a motivational and influential leader, providing effective leadership in fast-paced, deadline driven environments.
Jesus Santiago
Head of Sales, Europe
Jesus Santiago brings more than 20 years of experience in the payments and financial industry, working primarily with European banks focusing on small business financial services. He joins Markaaz from Mastercard, where he led International and European Business Development as a regional Vice President. Previously, Jesus oversaw new card issuance with Iberia Cards and acceptance strategy at American Express. Though currently positioned in Madrid, Jesus brings global and regional experience from years spent in Barcelona, Miami, and London offices. He has a passion for swimming, family, and FC Barcelona football and looks forward to bringing his passion and commitment to Markaaz’s mission.
Gary Smith
PM VP OF ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS
Gary has lived in the Austin, TX area for about 15 years, moving to Texas from Virginia where he grew up and where he earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science. He has worked across a broad range of industries ranging from military weapons platforms to telecommunications, ISVs, eCommerce and fintech. For the past several years Gary has worked in implementations, sales and product in leadership positions for companies such as Bazaarvoice, Oracle, and Mastercard. In addition to working for others, Gary is also a professional photographer shooting for both commercial clients and individuals. He has two children both of whom are married with families of their own.
Rustin Scott
VP of Information Security
Rustin is a technology expert and enthusiast with over 20 years experience in infrastructure architecture, Cloud, DevOps, and security. Prior to Markaaz, he has led network and security projects across payments, data, health care, and technology industries. He brings a track record of results-driven leadership and a passion for people-centered solutions as a way to build better systems that create safer environments for everyone.
Kimberly Sweeney
SVP of Marketing
Kimberly is a global marketing leader with over 15 years experience scaling brand awareness, demand generation, and lead generation for B2B and B2C companies. She had led the strategy and execution of multichannel, integrated global and regional marketing campaigns for brands such as Mastercard, Dynata, and Hearst Magazines. Her work on Mastercard’s One Billion and Beyond financial inclusion campaign won a 2021 Gold Anthem Webby Award for for Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion. Kimberly holds an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business.
Jim Whalen
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER IN RESIDENCE
Jim is a strategic business executive with significant international finance, IT, and operations experience in high technology and entrepreneurial companies including Ralston Purina, PwC, Dell Computers and Mastercard International. He has held senior executive positions responsible for financial planning & analysis, treasury, human resources, and IT. Jim has a strong track record in debt and equity offerings, IPOs, and 12 acquisitions (in 3 years). Jim is a CPA. Jim has expertise in design and operational effectiveness of financial operating policies that ensure regulatory compliance and proper audit and accounting controls. Regarded as an effective leader who achieves outcomes through comprehensive analysis, overall strategic thinking, and team development.
Jeffrey Wetter
Lead Product Owner
Jeffrey received his undergraduate education from the University of Texas at Dallas with a B.S. in Marketing and a University Sales Center Alliance Certification. He then completed an M.B.A. with a Concentration in Information Technology Management and an M.S. in Supply Chain Management. Jeffrey started his professional career with Markaaz creating the tasks in Jira for the Development Team and user acceptance testing the deliverables in each agile sprint cycle. He has since transitioned to a Lead Product Owner role where he is responsible for the current user experience, business services and marketing tools for the company’s web-based and native mobile applications.
Gordon Watson
Gordon is the Chief Executive Officer of AXA Asia & Africa and a Group’s Management Committee member. Previously, he was AIA’s Regional Chief Executive, overseeing the development of key markets in Asia. A driven leader, Gordon held multiple advisory roles. He spearheaded the development of the Mental Health at Work Index with Columbia University and Ethisphere to set the standard for effective mental health programs in the workplace.
Bobby Mehta
Bobby is the Chairman at Jones Lang LaSalle, JLL. He is a Senior Executive and Board Member of various significant companies, including Allstate Insurance, TransUnion LLC, Datacard, DRG, Piramal Enterprises, and Avant Credit. He was the former President and Chief Executive Officer of TransUnion LLC., as well as CEO and Vice Chairman of HSBC North America. Bobby supported the build of Mastercard Track.
Michael Fraccaro
Michael currently serves as the Chief People Officer at Mastercard (a top 20 NYSE listed company), a position he has held since 2016. Michael has guided the company through significant growth of its business through organic expansion and acquisitions, driving culture, and, most recently, a very successful CEO transition. Michael has global experience, having worked and lived extensively in Asia, the Middle East, and North America (currently New York).
Ross Fubini
Ross is the founder and Managing Partner of XYZ Venture Capital. He’s made a career as a successful early-stage technology investor and is passionate about connecting people to build insightful products. Ross is from Virginia and is now based in San Francisco, where he married a local with whom he has two children and goes over the top on holidays with. He is an avid triathlete, marathon runner, and previous Ironman competitor. Ross likes to go faster in all things – from races to building companies.
Michael Heller
Michael is a Venture Partner at Oak HC/FT and an Operating Partner at Mission OG. He focuses on fintech investing and supporting portfolio companies with data strategy and monetization. Michael currently sits on the boards of Demyst Data, Groundspeed and Kasisto. He co-founded Argus Information and Advisory Services (acquired by Verisk Analytics in 2012) and was President of FactorTrust (acquired by TransUnion in 2017).
