Henry Ijams, Managing Partner

PayStream Advisors was founded by Henry Ijams, a former financial services industry consultant with sixteen years of experience, to bring specific knowledge capital to payments, treasury, and the application of emerging technology.

Mr. Ijams is a seasoned executive in commercial banking and financial services systems development.  He was co-founder of Payments Exchange, Inc., an electronic payments firm focused on building a suite of payment solutions for Business-to-business electronic commerce.  Mr. Ijams was CEO of the company and oversaw all aspects of the firm’s growth, including its merger with VCHEQ in January 2001.

Prior to founding Payments Exchange, Mr. Ijams was a leader in Ernst & Young’s Financial Services Management Consulting practice.  His consulting experiences included developing e-commerce strategies, managing implementation teams, and developing proprietary e-commerce applications.  His clients included most of the largest financial institutions in North America, including Bank of America, Chase Manhattan, American Express, Bank of Montreal, and Wachovia.

Mr. Ijams has developed a leadership position in the electronic payments industry through his research publications and is a frequent speaker on issues in the payments arena.  Prior to consulting, he was a Senior Relationship Manager for both Citibank and Manufacturers Hanover Trust in New York.  He holds a BS in business administration from the Rochester Institute of Technology and an MBA from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

William Gormley, Senior Research Analyst

Mr. Gormley began his career at The World Bank, where he provided research and editorial assistance to economists monitoring political, economic, and social conditions in the former Soviet republics receiving loans.  He was also responsible for tracking the loan negotiation process from proposal to signed loan agreement.

From there, Mr. Gormley joined the American Councils for International Education, a non-profit organization that produces foreign language materials and administers U.S. State Department exchange programs in the former Soviet republics.  After a year in Washington, he was selected by senior management to supervise the overseas component of the prestigious Edmund S. Muskie and Freedom Support Act Graduate Fellowship Program in Russia.  Based in Moscow, Mr. Gormley managed all aspects of the program in Russia and was responsible for the program-related activities of American and foreign staff throughout the former Soviet Union.

Mr. Gormley’s transition to technology research began at Sprint Corporation, where he analyzed and modeled the impact of current and emerging technologies on wireline long distance calling for the Local Telecommunications Division’s Carrier Markets Group.  His work in this area was instrumental in helping Sprint understand the leading causes of wireline minutes of use decline.  Mr. Gormley then served as a consultant to Genuity, Inc., where he researched the market for content management and delivery and analyzed the feasibility of new products and services.

Mr. Gormley holds a BA in political science and Russian from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

William C. Kitchen, Consultant

Mr. Kitchen began his banking career in 1979 with State Savings Company.  He then joined CheckFree Corporation as one of its original members in 1982 and during his fifteen-year tenure provided key contributions in growing CheckFree from a start-up venture to an industry leader in electronic commerce.  Mr. Kitchen was responsible for bringing CheckFree’s first consumer software products to market, as well as the initial integration of electronic bill payment services with products such as Quicken, Managing Your Money, and Microsoft Money.

As Vice President of Corporate Business Development he created partnerships and products with Fortune 500 financial services organizations in support of CheckFree’s Home Financial Center concept, developing early ties between banking, bill payment, and brokerage services.  Then, in 1995, he turned his full attention toward developing the nation’s first fully integrated bill presentment and payment product.  He began piloting CheckFree E-Bill in fall 1995 with regional bell operating companies and then went on to manage all aspects of the E-Bill market release.  His team was awarded finalist honors for the product by the Smithsonian ComputerWorld organization and is named in the E-Bill patents later submitted by CheckFree.

Joining Banc One Corporation in 1997 as the Vice President of Business Development for Interactive Delivery Services, Mr. Kitchen forged co-marketing relationships with several personal financial services organizations.  While there, he devoted much of his energy to developing partnerships, products, and pilot programs with many of the leading organizations in the bill presentment industry.

In 1998 Mr. Kitchen founded e.com consulting partners in order to serve the needs of banks, billers, software and service providers, venture capital firms, and start-up companies in the emerging arena of electronic commerce.  He has since worked with a wide variety of such organizations and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and workshops.  Mr. Kitchen holds a BA in Marketing from Miami University of Ohio and an MBA from the University of Dayton.