Ian Austin

About Ian Austin

Fintech & Payments Strategy | Commercialization | Global Partnerships | iGaming, Retail & OmnichannelI’m a payments and fintech operator focused on turning payment infrastructure into a growth and profitability engine for enterprise platforms. With 10+ years across merchant services, B2B SaaS, and regulated verticals, I specialize in commercializing payment ecosystems — from partner selection and negotiations to global strategy and go-to-market execution. At Pavilion Payments, I work across issuing, acquiring, and network partners to help modernize the payment stack and expand monetization across iGaming, retail, and emerging verticals. My role sits at the intersection of partnerships, product, and commercial strategy, helping align infrastructure decisions with revenue growth, margin optimization, and scalability. Additionally, I support B&M sales with enterprise payment consultations and iGaming with Direct/Indirect sales initiatives. I regularly collaborate with executive, product, and engineering teams to evaluate processors, sponsor banks, gateways, orchestration layers, and payout solutions — ensuring flexible, compliant, and globally scalable payment architectures for complex operators.Alongside my role at Pavilion, I run Neutral Payments, a content and advisory platform focused on helping ISOs, agents, and enterprise merchants navigate evolving payment models, orchestration strategies, and regulated processing environments.Core focus areasGlobal payment partner strategy & negotiationsCommercialization of payment infrastructureProcessor & sponsor bank selectionOmnichannel and wallet funding ecosystemsGo-to-market and revenue expansionRegulated and high-complexity verticalsIndustry exposureiGaming • Fintech • Retail & F&B • Marketplaces • Platforms • High-risk & regulated paymentsPlatforms & toolsCybersource • NMI • Spreedly • Windcave • IxoPay • Stripe • Basis Theory • FreedomPay • Toast • Clover • Authorize.netI’m particularly interested in building scalable payment ecosystems that improve approval rates, reduce cost, and unlock new revenue streams for enterprise platforms.

Experience

1. Director of Business Development

   Pavilion Payments

   Jun 2025 — Present · New York, NY, US

   Lead strategic partnerships, commercialization initiatives, and enterprise payment strategy across Pavilion’s gaming and emerging omnichannel platforms. Work cross-functionally with executive, product, and engineering teams to modernize the payment stack, evaluate partners, and align infrastructure decisions with revenue growth, scalability, and long-term platform flexibility.+Lead evaluation, negotiation, and selection of issuing, acquiring, and network partners across regulated markets, helping optimize economics, redundancy, and global expansion capabilities.+Support development of Pavilion’s broader payments commercialization strategy spanning iGaming, retail, and F&B, aligning partner strategy with approval rates, margin optimization, and enterprise growth objectives.+Own and expand relationships across financial institutions, sponsor banks, networks, and technology providers (Visa, Mastercard, Amex and key processing partners) to ensure long-term platform flexibility and commercial alignment.+Collaborate with product, engineering, and executive leadership to assess gateways, orchestration layers, tokenization strategies, and payout infrastructure to future-proof the platform.+Support enterprise go-to-market initiatives through a hybrid role spanning strategic partnerships, complex deal support, and consultative architecture guidance for advanced operators.+Advise internal teams and clients on compliant, scalable payment architecture across omnichannel funding, wallet ecosystems, and regulated environments.+Pavilion Payments is a Parthenon Capital company.

Education

• Union College

  B.S., Biology

  2005 — 2010

Skills

• Customer Service
• Excel
• Public Speaking
• Healthcare Management
• Analysis
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Microsoft Office
• Healthcare
• Social Media
• Event Management
• Consumer Products
• Search Engine Marketing (Sem)
• Cell
• Data Analysis
• Financial Reporting
• Microsoft Excel
• Powerpoint
• Research
• Cosmetics
• Fundraising