Payments / E-commerce

I have experience in various industries. I started by working in the finance industry (more specifically risk mitigation). I joined 2Checkout, an E-commerce payments facilitator, in their Risk department. My primary goal was developing strategies to combat online fraudulent customers for our various merchants. Through this, I gained a working knowledge of transactions and the process behind them, while also gaining a vast amount of exposure to the E-commerce world.

6 months in I was offered a dual-role in which I was split 50/50 into regulatory compliance due to the expertise I had gained. I helped work through the various compliance policy updates that card providers (American Express, MasterCard, Visa, etc.) put out. I interacted personally with the company's largest merchants and ensured that they were compliant with regulatory compliance regulations. I utilized our VIP merchant representatives whenever possible to assist with this. My new responsbilities included things such as communication planning, data anaytics (running on-the-fly MySQL queries), risk mitigation, etc.

Credit

After completing several successful projects in the E-commerce space I moved into the Credit space as a Business Analyst. Due to my communication skills and technical knowledge, it was a role that played to my strengths. I had interacted very closely with the development team at 2Checkout and have a working knowledge of Java, Ruby, HTML/CSS, JQuery and some C#. I was brought in with the Columbus Bureau of Credit as a technical business analyst, where I have been working since. The company employees hundreds of employees itself, while also owning numerous companies underneath it. I have been very successful as a business analyst, continuing to grow and learn everyday. I have recently also been offered an after-hours role as an instructor teaching Business Analysis.

Development

I am a tech enthusiast, so I enjoy staying up to date on the latest technologies that interest me. I am currently working on creating a game supported on both the Play Store and on the Apple Store, written in C#. This website has been designed from scratch by me, utilizing HTML, CSS, and JQuery. I am no expert on web development, so this is the most I could do with the amount of time I was willing to invest. I spent a while developing random things in Java as well. I managed to create a 3D environment using purely Java (the wall probably still has indents of my head in it). Creating that in Java was by far the most difficult development project I completed, as it was well over 1000 lines of code.

Investment / Business

I have, in the last couple years, spent a large amount of time attending events targeting start up companies, whether the event was designed to create them (Columbus Startup Weekend), or provide existing startups with knowledge and networking opportunities. I have met many people that have started their own business, most of them failing to take it that next step. I plan on entering into that space myself at some point, depending on what comes my way.

I also invest on a small-scale. I actively manage my portfolio as well as constantly research other opportunities, such as entering into the real estate investment space. Only time will tell if I go on to purchase properties and rent them out, becoming a landlord, or if I decide to abandon that sector all together. I invest a small portion of my time advising peers/friends when they develop dreams of being the next Mark Cuban.