Roy Vella

Mr. Vella is a mobile financial services expert and independent adviser/consultant to players large (such as Vodafone and the GSMA) and small (a number of startups) in the space. Prior to offering his services-at-large, Mr. Vella was at RBS where he developed the overall strategy and hired a team of 30 to implement the global bank's mobile efforts including the development of new products and services, stored value functionality, mobile enabled payments, customer acquisition and the management of joint venture partners. Previously to RBS he spent five years with PayPal starting out as Director of Business Development in the US Merchant Services group, and finally as Head of Mobile Payments leading the mobile payments initiative in Europe.

Previous to PayPal, Mr. Vella worked as the VP of Sales & Marketing at 4charity, Inc. (a software startup focusing on corporate philanthropy for the Fortune 500), and prior to that, as a Partner at Quantum Technology Ventures (a corporate VC firm focusing on the storage industry). As an entrepreneur, Mr. Vella co-founded NetAbacus Corporation, a web-based purchasing service for small businesses, serving as the VP of Marketing/Strategic Relations. When the market turned in mid-2000, he facilitated the acquisition of NetAbacus by Biztro and the combined entity became Rivio, where he was responsible for channel marketing and customer acquisition.

Before graduate school, he began his career in Client Service at the Leo Burnett Company in Chicago, working with such clients are Sony Consumer Electronics and Miller Brewing. Actively involved in the non-profit sector, Roy serves on the Board of Directors of the Stanford Business School Alumni Association and is also the Board President Emeritus of Variety Children's Charity of Northern California. Formerly, for over eight years he was the Board Treasurer of BATS Improv, an improvisational school and theater company.

Roy received a BA in Mathematics (with High Honors and elected to Phi Beta Kappa) from the College of the Holy Cross, a JD from Stanford Law and an MBA (with certificates in Global and Public Management) from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He currently lives in London with his family. While hobbies have truly taken a back seat to family life these days, he enjoys outdoor sports and travel adventures.