Roxe, a next-generation global payment network, today announced that Esther Sun Jang, Yamini Sagar, Ahmed Elhenawy and Shujah Awan have joined the company to help lead the growth of the company’s global payment network for individuals, merchants, payment service providers, remittance companies, banks and central banks.
Miss Jang joins as vice president of marketing for Roxe App, a consumer mobile payment app that will provide significant, instant cash back on any purchase. (Consumers can sign up for early access to Roxe App here). She has spent her entire career building and growing products and brands. Miss Jang was Head of Strategy and Operations at Venmo, where she launched the Venmo debit card and ran several of Venmo’s most impactful marketing campaigns, including growing the platform to over 20 million users.
Miss Jang also ran marketing for Alpine Investors, a software and services private equity fund, where she rebranded the company ahead of their $1 billion fundraise. She is passionate about creating brand and product experiences that are unique and recognizable. She received her BA in Economics from Wellesley College and MBA from The Wharton School.
Ms. Yamini Sagar joins as head of product for Roxe App, where she will be focused on building features for businesses to accept and make online and in-store digital payments by scanning a simple QR code. She has extensive experience leading product innovation and development in the blockchain and fintech industries.
Prior to joining Roxe, she led the development of Bakkt Digital Assets Custodian system for institutional clients to safely store and trade Bitcoin on the ICUS exchange. She also led the development of BitPay Send, a mass payout service that enables organizations of all sizes to pay their employees, vendors, affiliates in crypto anywhere in the world. Yamini also has strong expertise in clearing, settlement, risk management and regulatory requirements for six global clearing houses during her product management work at Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE).
Mr. Elhenawy joins as managing director of Roxe, focused on growing the partner ecosystem for the Roxe Instant Settlement Network (RISN). He has extensive experience in strategic management and financial services. Prior to Roxe, Mr. Elhenawy held business development roles at MoneyGram International for six years, where he led strategic initiatives and partnerships in North America, Middle East & North Africa (MENA) regions. Previously, Ahmed co-founded and led a fintech startup based in the Middle East. He also founded an incubator fund for trading and investment in the U.S. He is passionate about early market disruptors, startups, and fintech and blockchain technologies.
Mr. Shujah (Shu) Awan joins Roxe as general counsel and chief compliance officer. A seasoned legal executive with considerable experience guiding multinational fintech organizations, Mr. Awan has served as senior in-house counsel, outside general counsel and board advisor to numerous companies. He routinely advises boards and executive management teams on strategic initiatives and regulatory issues in the fintech sector.
Prior to joining Roxe, Mr. Awan served as senior counsel to Uphold, a global crypto trading and payments platform, and as general counsel and chief compliance officer for CapVenture Partners, a fintech-focused venture capital firm. He has also served as vice president, deputy general counsel and co-chief compliance officer for Biz2Credit and in-house counsel to Nexlend Capital Partners. Mr. Awan began his legal career in private practice representing clients primarily in the financial services sector in a variety of legal matters. He received his law degree from Brooklyn Law School and a bachelor of science in Computer Science from New Jersey Institute of Technology.
“Esther, Yamini, Ahmed and Shu bring proven track records of consumer marketing, product management, business growth, and legal expertise, respectively, from premier brands,” said Josh Li, chief business officer at Roxe. “Their respective success in traditional and blockchain payments industries will bring exceptional value to our customers and help us execute our vision to make money smarter across the world.”
Today’s news adds to Roxe’s momentum from eight recent partner signings, bringing the total number of Roxe network nodes to 16. Roxe’s other partners include leading brands like Rana Express, an international money transfer company; IPAY, a global online money transfer provider; Fairexpay, a global aggregator platform for cross-border payments; ECS Fin, a global bank infrastructure provider; Onchain Custodian, a leading crypto custody player in Asia; N2Xpress, a fast-growing, global remittance company; BuyUCoin, a leading digital asset exchange and Aberdeen Capital Group, a business consulting firm that provides cross-border payment services.
The Roxe network is currently designed to support USD, several major fiat currencies, and fiat from select countries with large remittance markets such as Nigeria, Egypt, Turkey, India, Philippines, Mexico, and Brazil among others.