Russell Perry
Russell co-founded kompany together with his long-time friends and business partners. He drives the direction of the business and loves finding business opportunities others might have overlooked. kompany is a RegTech firm offering a global KYC, AML and UBO. By combining automation and AI (deep-learning), kompany has become the trusted platform for regulated industries, from finance, insurance to real-estate.
Prior to a short exec stint where he returned to the telco world in South Africa, Russell was the start-up CEO of the largest people-search engine with more than 50 million monthly uniques, operating in 13 countries in 11 languages. He expanded the company from a garage operation to a highly profitable business within six months and lead the exit in 2010.
For nearly six years Russell was a member of the senior management team at the online gaming company bwin. He led product management betting with more than EUR 2.5 billion in wagers p.a., established strategic and media partnerships in 25 countries and was instrumental in establishing bwin as the dominant player in mobile gaming.
Russell’s mobile and telecommunications roots go back to 1998 when he joined Austria’s third mobile operator ONE (Orange Austria, then Hutchison 3 Austria) as head of product management data. There he oversaw several European firsts, such as mobile banking, SMS content services, SMS payment for vending machines and the first real-time multi-user gaming platform. In 2001, Russell joined Telefonica Mobile’s 3G Mobile AG in Zurich as Director of Products & Services where he defined and led the launch portfolio of the 3G green field mobile operator.
Born in New York City, Russell also lived in Austria for half of his childhood. He holds a BA in International Studies (concentration on Nuclear Arms Proliferation) from Maryville College, a Master’s in European Integration & Law, a dual MSc/MAS graduate degree in Telematics Management and Telecoms Engineering and continued his executive training at Harvard Business School and the University of Applied Art & Sciences Lucerne / Standford. Russell has enjoyed teaching several post-graduate courses on telecommunication and business modelling at his Alma Mater, Danube University Krems, the Vienna University of Business & Economics, University of Vienna and other universities.