Igor Stepanov
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stepanovi/
Andrew Thornhill
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewathornhill/
Awais Sufi
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/awais-sufi/
Igor Stepanov is a Ukrainian expert in the payment industry, fintech, and cards, with over 15 years of experience. As the former Country Manager at Mastercard, he led significant market growth in Georgia, increasing market share by 30% over four years (2016-2019), and spearheaded the launch of 250,000 contactless terminals in Uzbekistan. Igor’s experience spans across Eastern and Central Europe, Caucasus, and Central Asia countries working with regulatory bodies and financial institutions to drive innovation in the payment space.
Since mid-2022, Igor has been the CEO and Founder of SolutionIS, a consultancy firm that provides tailored services to banks, fintech companies, and electronic money institutions (EMIs) in the payment domain. SolutionIS focuses on offering expertise in licensing, payment integration, and business development, helping organizations navigate complex regulatory environments and accelerate their growth.
With a background in banking—from direct sales to leadership positions—Igor brings a wealth of experience in B2B sales, payment solutions, and strategic growth. Having the ability to combine strategic vision with hands-on execution, Igor excels at helping businesses unlock new opportunities and achieve long-term success.
Also Igor recently became a co-investor in several local businesses.
Early experience was gained at different positions in banking: from direct sales to management positions in HQs
Mr. Andrew Thornhill is an American businessman who has been working in Georgia since 2007 and who has been living in Tbilisi, Georgia full-time since January 2016. Andrew has extensive experience with the Georgian government and Georgian banks, the laws and licenses of payment systems and the rules and regulations of global money movement.
Andrew has worked in the online and alternative payment business since 1999 as a banker, web-based merchant, agent/ISO and as part of global payments companies. More than $10 billion USD in transactions have passed through the payment systems that Andrew has created, managed and overseen.
Andrew has lived and worked in over a dozen countries around the world – mostly in Eastern Europe - and has extensive experience with creating and leading business teams that focus on software programming specializing in payments, systems integration and training. Andrew speaks conversational Russian and has led business teams that speak Georgian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Ukrainian and Russian.
Andrew has lectured and given speeches about blockchain and crypto currencies in the USA (Chicago and Detroit), Netherlands, Belgium, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Moldova, Armenia, Georgia, Taiwan and Korea. Andrew is often featured by Forbes Georgia and local television and media.
Andrew also owns a payment company that specializes in digital currency to fiat exchanges, a creative marketing company in Georgia that specializes in delivering digital content through social media, an IT consulting business and has invested in local businesses of Georgia such as a female led natural wine company and the only natural charcuterie making company in Georgia.
Andrew graduated with honors from the University of Chicago and Russian State Humanities University in Moscow, Russia with degrees in Political Science and Russian Language and Civilization. Andrew enjoys trying new restaurants, exploring the bio-wine and slow food movement of Georgia, sleeping late and recharging at his church.
Through his ventures, Awais has catalyzed new enterprises and efforts supported by over $200M in investments from individuals, companies, foundations, and governments. His consulting firm, Yield Creative, provides strategy consulting. CFO Fractional services and executive coaching to a wide variety of corporate and social leaders. Prior to forming Yield Creative, Awais served as Entrepreneur in Residence at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, where he raised capital, built the strategy and led the team at SchoolSmartKC, a $100M+ collaborative philanthropic fund to support innovation and provide resources and expertise to educational institutions and business partners advancing career readiness and workforce development models.
Previously, Awais served as Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President at the International Youth Foundation (IYF) where he drove strategy across teams working in 50 countries through 10 worldwide offices. Prior to his work with IYF, Awais was the founding Managing Director of the Education for Employment Foundation, a startup venture that now continues two decades later working closely with business leaders to provide exceptional training and jobs for youth in the Middle East.
Awais is a lawyer, starting his career as a corporate and securities attorney at the Washington, D.C. law firm Arnold & Porter, and as Law Clerk to the Honorable Judge John Sprizzo of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. He’s a graduate of the University of Texas School of Law, where he was an editor of the Texas Law Review, and the University of Chicago where he was a member of the Maroon Key Society.
Awais also serves on a variety of Board and Advisory Committees related to corporate and philanthropic ventures, and recently concluded his term as member of the Community Development Advisory Committee for the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
Guram is an executive and project director with more than a decade of experience in web production, payment systems, gambling, gaming industries and licensing procedures. Guram is a professional and creative leader, highly flexible in building technology solutions and with proven analytical skills. He has extensive experience working with multinational financial companies and gambling corporations, including his own online casino frame company Betsolutions that has more than $100m USD in total revenue and his online casino game company Charismatic which has created multiple top 10 popular games globally.
Guram has a special expertise in bringing up innovative startup companies from scratch, and is a results-driven professional with strong client-centric skills and an agile approach to company management.
Mr. Christensen is a 1996 graduate of Brigham Young University, where he majored in International Relations, with an emphasis in Business Management and Political Science.
In addition to a political career, having served four terms in the Nevada State Legislature as a State Assemblyman (2003 to 2011) representing the Las Vegas area, he is Managing Director of Caboose, a holding company he founded, managing his family’s investment portfolio of professional sports, tech, and entertainment assets.
Mr. Christensen is also co-founder of GROOVE, a Brazilian live-entertainment production company, whose partners are most known for producing some of Brazil, and South America’s largest music festivals, such as SWU (Starts With You), and Maquinaria.
Along with other Caboose interests, Mr. Christensen is co-founder of P2M, where he combined entertainment industry with government know-how. He and his partners secured a 10-year agreement with Formula One Management in London to promote the world’s most prestigious motorsports event on the Las Vegas Strip.
His international experience includes serving two years as a full-time volunteer in Buenos Aires, Argentina, working in international banking with Sparkasse Bank, and Sachsen Landesbank, in Germany, co-founding a major live-entertainment group in Brazil, and as a diplomat of the Republic of Uruguay, serving as Uruguayan Honorary Consul in the U.S.
Mr. Christensen has a distinguished record of more than 20 years of public and private management, adding to the strategic development of Caboose assets.
- Member, Globalization Board, George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs
- Honorary Commander, Nellis Air Force Base (Las Vegas, Nevada)
- Fluent in Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese
Daniel Brasov
Daniel is a well seasoned and successful payments entrepreneur. After being honorably discharged from the US Army as a Military Intelligence and Signal Analyst, Daniel got his payments start in Los Angeles in 1989, where he was one of the first to see the potential of remote credit card acceptance terminals and quickly built an Independent Sales Operation (ISO) from 3 local offices to more than 200 and from a handful of employees to more than 4,000.
By the early 2000’s Daniel had already established himself as one of the largest Visa and Mastercard wholesale bin management groups and moved quickly into online business where his total volume grew to more than $1 billion per year.
At this same time, Daniel became an early investor and board member of Network Merchants Inc (NMI) which was later sold for more than $200 million.
https://www.privateequitywire.co.uk/nmi-secures-strategic-growth-investment-insight-partners/
Today Daniel has been celebrated by Wells Fargo Bank as one of the largest and longest running, well managed ISO’s in the USA. He has invested in vertically integrated cannabis retail operations in California and Nevada and owns several boutique hotels around the world, managed by his family.