Ben Prusky

CEO

With a distinguished track record in technology entrepreneurship, Ben has led Freedom Merchants since its founding. He is a leading industry advisor on all topics regarding credit card processing, integrated payments, Chip-and-Pin ("EMV") migration, Near-Field Communication ("NFC"), Internet gateways and related software, mobile payment technologies, PCI compliance matters, and wireless/wireline hardware terminal technology.

Previously Ben was on the executive management team and vice-president of finance & operations at SoftCoin, Inc., a Silicon Valley based precision-marketing software company (now part of You Technologies) that served most of the major consumer-packaged goods companies such as Procter & Gamble, Nestle, Heinz, Kraft, Pepsi and many others. Prior to that Ben co-founded Omnient Corporation, a web technology company with over 100 employees in two cities that developed web-based software for medium sized businesses. Ben has also worked in the Investment Banking division of Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc., the investment firm Providence Capital, and briefly as an engineer at Lockheed Martin. Proficient in Japanese and a number of other languages, Ben also worked at Holon Corporation, a subsidiary of Omron Corporation, in Shiga, Japan.

Ben graduated as a Nelson Scholar from the University of Pennsylvania's M&T Program where he earned dual-degrees in Computer Systems Engineering from the School of Engineering and in Finance from the Wharton School.

Varun Aggarwal

CTO

Varun graduated from University of Waterloo in Canada with a degree in Computer Engineering. He brings extensive web development experience having worked at some of the most well known companies in the world including Qualcomm, Amazon, and CBS. He also has several years of start-up experience, from coding to design, to managing development teams, he has done it all. Varun oversees all technology-development and R&D for Freedom Merchants including managing the technology team. He previously served as the co-founder of iExperienceIt where he led the five-person team's Ruby on Rails, MySQL, Git, jQuery, and other application-development projects. When he's not doing coding (which isn't that often!), he enjoys playing soccer, tennis, and volleyball in the city.

Joe Rinato

VP of Operations

Joe oversees all aspects of the company's operations including risk-management, customer onboarding, funding operations, chargeback management, customer retention and everything else relating to running the company operationally. Most recently Joe served for seven years in the commercial banking area at Citibank in New York City. He's also spent time at M&T Bank, Provident Bank of Maryland and Webco, a Web LLC company. Joe graduated from William Patterson University with a degree in Business Administration, and he's a proud New Jersey native and an avid Giants and Yankees fan.

Nathan Monger

Operations Manager

Nathan handles all things customer operations. From account setups to gateway configurations to general account support, Nathan's on it. Nathan holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from Texas A&M University and in his free time enjoys a good game of highly competitive sand volleyball.

Brian Tomes

Operations Support

Brian helps our Operations team and does a lot of the important work behind the scenes to make our Merchants go "wow". Brian graduated from St. Joseph's University with a degree in Business Administation and in his free time enjoys playing ice hockey.

Mahogany Rawles

Operations Support

With a broad background in operations at companies such as Blackbaud, Schreiber Translations, and United Rentals, Mahogany also helps in our operations and our PCI compliance areas of excellence, ensuring that each merchant is fully within scope of the latest PCI requirements. Mahogany attended Central Piedmont College in Charlotte, NC.

Samuel Wigmore

Samuel is responsible for reviewing and analyzing current strategy, auditing current business operations, and providing recommendations on how Freedom Merchants can effectively scale its client acquisition through growing their sales, marketing and client services teams. Previously, Samuel spent the last 7 years as a management consultant in the entertainment and tech industries, most recently with Pryor Hill Productions, and started his career at a boutique private wealth advisory in New York City. He graduated from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia with a Bachelor of Management.

Makenna Renfro

Marketing Manager

Makenna brings more than five years of e-commerce and digital marketing experience to her role as Marketing Manager at Freedom Merchants. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Digital Retailing from the University of North Texas and has built a strong background in digital strategy, customer experience, and online sales growth. Prior to joining Freedom Merchants, Makenna worked with nationally recognized brands including Hilton, The Walt Disney Company, and KidKraft where she developed expertise in customer engagement and optimizing the user experience. In her free time, she enjoys reading, doing embroidery projects, and a good game of volleyball.

Ethan Fingerhut

Operations Associate

Ethan brings a strong foundation in business, finance, and teamwork to his role as an Operations Associate at Freedom Merchants. He recently earned his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Finance at the University of Pittsburgh, where he also earned a Certificate in Sports Management. Additionally, he was a Division I student-athlete on Pitt’s Cross Country and Track & Field team and brings a strong sense of discipline, time management, and a collaborative mindset to our team through balancing academics and high-level athletic competition.