Mark Britto – CEO
With over 20 years as an entrepreneur, sales and financial services executive, Mark Britto is responsible for making BOKU the leading mobile payments platform. Mark joins BOKU after six years as the CEO of Ingenio, a service marketplace and performance advertising company, which he led to a 2007 acquisition by AT&T. Prior to Ingenio, Mark spent 4 years as SVP of worldwide services and sales at Amazon.com, where he signed landmark deals with brands such as Toys R Us, Borders, Circuit City and Target. Mark’s first start-up, Accept.com, was bought by Amazon.com in 1999 and served as the primary backbone of Amazon’s global payments platform. Mark began his career in senior credit and risk management roles at leading national banks FirstUSA and Bank of America.
Kurt Davis – VP Business Development
With over ten years of experience in mobile and finance, Kurt is a seasoned expert in creating value through partnerships in the emerging, global consumer technology sector. Most recently, Kurt led business development for Funmobility, one of the leading mobile media and entertainment companies in North America. He also drove web and carrier partnerships across China and Asia for a small company he started in Shanghai in 2003 that made online and mobile sports games. In between operational experiences, he worked in strategic investments at Mitsui in Silicon Valley and GE Asia Pacific Capital in Hong Kong for two and three years respectively.
Ron Hirson – SVP Product & Marketing
Ron brings over fourteen years experience in product and general management in the consumer Internet space to the BOKU team. Most recently, Ron served as VP of Product at AT&T Interactive, which he joined through the acquisition of service marketplace and performance advertising company Ingenio. Ron spent 6 years at Ingenio, where he served as VP of Product Management. Prior to Ingenio, Ron was co-founder and CEO of The Digs Network, an early social network focused on Gen Y, which was bought by iDrive. He started his career as a Management Consultant for Price Waterhouse focused on technology integrations. In addition to his role at BOKU, Ron served as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Khosla Ventures and actively advises several companies in the consumer Internet space.
Paul McGuire – SVP Business Development
With over 20 years of senior management experience, Paul is a serial entrepreneur who has built a number of successful international mobile technology businesses. Most recently, Paul co-founded Paymo before it was acquired by BOKU, and led the company to become one of the leading mobile payments platforms, available in over 50 countries. Prior to Paymo, Paul co-founded mBlox, the world's leading mobile transaction network, where he led the company's sales and marketing organizations, guided the company's expansion into the European market, and led M&A efforts to acquire six companies. Before founding several start-ups in the telecommunications sector, Paul began his career in management consulting at Booz Allen Hamilton.
Margaret Mackenzie – COO
Margaret brings over 20 years of venture and corporate finance and operational management to the BOKU team. Most recently, Margaret co-founded Paymo and as CFO/COO, she was responsible for financial management of the company’s growth as well as for global operations. Prior to co-founding Paymo, Margaret was the CFO for mBlox, Inc, where she helped build the company into a leading mobile transaction network. Before her success in international mobile payments companies, Margaret was a Managing Director of SVB Securities, where she raised debt and equity capital, provided acquisition and divestiture advice, and underwrote structured financings for venture-backed clients. She began her career at Itel Corporation, a San Francisco-based equipment leasing company.
Javier Martell – General Counsel
Javier has been providing legal counsel to technology companies for twenty years. A graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, he began his career at Pillsbury Madison and Sutro in San Francisco providing securities and intellectual property advice to many of the firm’s technology start-ups. After a brief stint with the FDIC San Francisco Regional Office, he joined Fair, Isaac and Company, Inc. (FICO), where he served as vice president and deputy general counsel responsible for the Company’s legal department. The entrepreneurial spirit then drove him to co-found RedSpark, an Autodesk spin-off providing software solutions to manufacturing companies. Later Javier joined Autodesk, serving as division counsel for the Media and Entertainment Solutions and Location Based Services divisions. Most recently he has worked as general counsel for a number of technology start-ups including Ligos Corporation, BlackArrow, Berkeley Communications Corporation and mFoundry. Javier’s expertise is wide ranging but his key areas of focus are intellectual property rights, corporate matters, employment and labor, privacy, bank regulatory and strategic transactions.
Martine Niejadlik – Fraud, Safety & Risk
Martine brings over fifteen years of experience creating and leading risk management, fraud prevention, and analytics for payments leaders across the web. Prior to BOKU she spent over five years at PayPal and eBay, where she managed the team responsible for proactive detection of fraud, credit risk and policy compliance. She joined Amazon.com in 1999 as part of the Accept.com acquisition and thereafter was an instrumental player in the design and development of Amazon's risk detection engine, covering payments for both the company's retail site and its payments platform.
James Patmore – Managing Director, EMEA
James has been leading business, strategy and general management functions at leading mobile and mobile services companies for over fifteen years. Before coming to BOKU he was Vice President of Amdocs Interactive division in EMEA and Asia Pacific. Prior to Amdocs, he worked as Vice President, EMEA at the digital commerce software and services provider Qpass. James has also led business development for O2 Data Products in the UK, as well as the digital music community, Vitaminic, which he helped lead to a successful IPO on the Italian Stock Exchange in 2000. James began his career with a number of years at British Telecom, where he held senior positions in the cable TV and Internet service provider businesses.
Erich Ringewald – CTO
Erich is a 24-year technology veteran whose development efforts have powered millions of consumer and payment experiences on the web. Prior to BOKU, Erich architected and led several areas of development for Amazon, most recently creating the AmazonMP3 store. Erich originally joined Amazon after co-founding Accept.com, the person-to-person payment infrastructure that was acquired by the e-commerce leader in 1999, and is still used by millions today. In the 1980s Erich held a number of senior engineering management positions at Apple Computer, where he is perhaps best known for bringing multitasking operating systems to the Macintosh family of computers. And in 1990 he co-founded the legendary PC operating system company Be, Inc. with another Apple refugee, Jean-Louis Gassée.
Kevin Grant – SVP Sales
Kevin Grant has over 15 years of Sales experience mainly around the technology sector. After finishing up at UCSB where he earned his Bachelor’s degree in Bus/Econ, he worked his way up to manage SBC's (now AT&T) Data com business for Northern California. He then managed sales for Colo.com, Convergys, and spent the last five years at MobiTV where he was VP of Sales. At MobiTV he was a strategic part of the company’s launch of over a dozen carrier video partnerships. Kevin is also is long-term member of CTIA and more specifically the WIC leadership council.
