Our executive team

STUART OSTROW, CPA

Founder and President of ShipMoney

Mr. Ostrow has over 25 years in business development, financial and operational management across a broad spectrum of industries. He was directly responsible for, and instrumental in the initial development and adoption of the prepaid payroll card programs for the cruise line industry – OceanPay. Mr. Ostrow sold the OceanPay business to Brightwell Payments in 2012 prior to starting ShipMoney. ShipMoney is the second generation of that endeavor. ShipMoney is an operating subsidiary of Global Technology Partners, LLC. GTP is one of the largest international prepaid payment processors in the world, providing services and programs in over 30 countries in partnership with over eighty banks.

Mr. Ostrow started his career as a manager at Deloitte & Touche, an international accounting and consulting firm.

Mr. Ostrow earned an undergraduate degree in accounting from Tulane University and a graduate degree in business management and taxation from Florida International University.

ROBERT MERRICK

Chairman – GTP

Robert Merrick, CPA is the founder and Chairman of Global Technology Partners (GTP). Mr. Merrick began his business career as a CPA and practiced public accounting for ten years. He then spent the next twenty-five years as first the chief financial officer, and subsequently, a principal in a diversified business enterprise focusing on the development and management of commercial real estate and hotels as well as the investment in and operation of non-real estate ventures, including the leveraged buyout of Kaiser Steel Company. During this period, Mr. Merrick personally participated in over $1.5 Billion of financing and sale transactions.
For the last twenty years, Mr. Merrick has been primarily involved in the financial processing business by: (a) founding FSV Payment Systems in 1998, which became one of the leading processors of prepaid paycards in the United States, serving clients such as McDonalds, Walgreens and Darden Foods, and was sold to U.S. Bank in 2012 for $210 Million; (b) founding Global Client Solutions in 2003, which became the leading provider of prepaid account management services for more than 400,000 U.S. consumers involved in debt settlement programs, and was sold in part to a private equity firm in 2017 based on an enterprise value of $110 Million; and (c) founding GTP in 2004, which currently operates domestically and internationally as a MasterCard and Visa prepaid TTP for over 75 banks in more than 25 countries and as the prepaid processor and, through MPS, as the program manager for the ShipMoney maritime paycard program.

RICHARD BIALEK

CEO – GTP

Richard Bialek, is the CEO of GTP. Prior to joining GTP, Mr. Bialek was Head of Prepaid Products for Visa CEMEA based in Dubai UAE, where he was responsible for the Prepaid Market and Product Development. Mr. Bialek’s extensive experience in the payment industry includes senior‐level positions managing payment businesses at Neiman Marcus, GE Capital, and Ameritech. He also managed Consumer Credit Products for Visa International prior to the formation of Visa Inc. and held the post of Senior Vice President in charge of Strategic Research and Intelligence for Visa International.

Mr. Bialek earned a BA in Economics from Harvard College and was a Harvard College National Scholar and Boyden Scholar. He earned his MBA from the Harvard Business School and was a Harvard University National Fellow.