Great day for my #startup @EnsygniaLtd – some incredible people join our advisory board. HT @WayraUk @Tefdigital
Ensygnia, the mobile payments company backed by Telefonica’s technology start-up accelerator Wayra, today announced the first round of appointments to its Advisory Board.
Announcing the appointments, Chairman of the Advisory Board, Neira Jones – a partner with Accourt and former Director of Payment Security and Fraud for Barclaycard said: “We are looking to create a robust and experienced Advisory Board for Ensygnia. These first eight members meet all our requirements bringing business and entrepreneurial expertise from across key areas of our business.”
The first eight members appointed to the Board are Mark Adey (Telefonica), Elaine Deste (Telefonica), Stuart Hillston (Constellation Capital), Caroline Gorski (Telefonica) Phillip McGriskin (WorldPay), Stuart Neal (Boku), Ben Nicholson (Royal Bank of Scotland), and Stanley Skoglund (Credorax).
Ensygnia CEO and co-Founder, Richard H Harris welcomed the appointments and said they were further evidence of the traction that the company is getting in the market.
“The quality of the individuals and organisations represented on our Advisory Board speaks volumes,” he said. “We are gathering momentum all the time, assembling and expanding a rich group of partners, winning awards and industry recognition, extending our patent portfolio, and readying for commercial launch. These are exciting times for us in a market that is readying for explosive growth in 2014.”
Note to Editors: Mini biographies of the new Advisory Board Members follow:
Mark Adey – Having started at Motorola research where he secured international patents Mark has over 20 years international experience in the mobile industry. He held various senior technology roles at Vodafone focusing on customer experience before joining a US network analytics company that was subsequently acquired by comScore, a global leader in measuring the digital world. He is now head of service management transformation at Telefonica UK.
Elaine Deste – Elaine is an experienced Finance professional who has recently taken on the role of CFO responsible for the B2B Sales channels at Telefonica UK, having headed up the Financial Control and Operations team since joining the company in 2005. Prior to this, Elaine’s experience has been gained from senior finance roles in various large PLC’s within the Retail Sector. Elaine has also held a Non Exec role on the Board of Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire NHS Primary Care Trust up until the recent NHS reorganisation.
Stuart Hillston – As CEO of Constellation Capital, Stuart is a hands-on technology investor and a specialist advisor to early stage entrepreneurs primarily in the software, medtech, digital and mobile sectors. He is a mentor to a number of start-up accelerator initiatives, including Wayra, and has experience of both managing and rapidly building start-up companies.
Caroline Gorski – A strategic consultant of more than 15 years client experience with a background in market development and commercial decision-making at FTSE 100 board-level, Caroline has just taken on the role of Managing Partner at Telefonica UK’s Retail and Leisure practice. At Telefonica, she is responsible for delivering transformational mobility and customer engagement technologies into retail and leisure businesses in the UK.
Phillip McGriskin – With more than 13 years in the online payments market, Phillip is currently Chief Product Officer for WorldPay – a global leader in payment processing, operating in more than 40 countries. WorldPay pioneered online payments for small and medium sized businesses and currently process millions of online payments every day. Previously Phillip was CEO at Envoy Services, an e-commerce payments company acquired by WorldPay.
Stuart Neal – The Chief Financial Officer at Boku, the leading global direct operator billing mobile payments company, Stuart is a prominent figure in the European payments market with specific expertise in deploying innovative payment solutions. He joined Boku from Barclaycard where he was responsible for growing the merchant acquiring division.
Ben Nicholson – A strategic business transformation professional with over 25 years experience in banking and financial services, including 10 years as a management consultant at firms including: PA Consulting and KPMG, delivering major global process, integration and strategy initiatives. Recently spent five years as the Head of Operational Excellence at Barclays Investment Bank and is Six Sigma Black Belt trained.
Stanley Skoglund – Currently Chief Risk Officer at Credorax – one of the world’s first hi-tech companies to become a Principal Member of Visa Europe and MasterCard and a financial institution licensed under the PSD (Payment Services Directive) – Stanley brings to the Ensygnia Advisory Board more than 25 years of development and implementation experience in corporate and customer compliance, control programs and risk profiling.
About Ensygnia
Ensygnia (www.ensygnia.com) is the mobile interaction company behind the breakthrough Onescan omni-channel app. Onescan enables mobile payments online, in-store and on-the-go and has applications for log-in, authentication and mobile identity. In the payments world it allows customers and prospects to go from looking to buying in under 10 seconds.
Ensygnia’s patented technology platform and service enables any connected device with a camera to interact and transact with any connected device with a screen. The company raised a total of $3.3m in its seed funding stages. As well as its investing management team, the company’s investors include Jesus College Cambridge, Rhoddy Swire of Pantheon Ventures, and Telefonica through its Wayra Business Accelerator Academy.
The company’s two granted UK patents for the Onescan process cover both log-in and payment applications. It has recently filed its patents in 59 countries worldwide. Recent awards include the GSMA Mobile World Congress where Ensygnia was voted one of the top three innovations likely to have greatest impact on global mobile industry over the next 10 years; Finalist in the Consumer Trust category at the Meffys; and a winner in the UK’s Smarta 100 Awards for Britian’s best and brightest new businesses.
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