Global Management

Sudhanshu Agarwal has a master’s from a leading university in Australia. For close to two decades, he has been involved professionally in the markets. Almost 15 years ago, Mr. Agarwal changed focus to the online derivatives space and was the first employee of a US-based FX/CFD broker. From there, he went on to establish many other renowned brands in Australia and helped them not just acquire an ASIC licence, but also manage their operations and growth. Mr. Agarwal has been the CEO of astrosoption Ltd since its establishment in 2014, and he is now an Executive Director with oversight of all entities in the Group. He is also on the management board at a Group level.

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Duncan Anderson is the Chief Executive Officer of astrosoption UK and has over 30 years of experience in the financial sector. He began his career at Morgan Grenfell, working on the Liffe Floor before moving to the LME and subsequently the CME. On his return to London, he ran the US Equity desk of a large UK financial broker-dealer before managing the design, build and trading of CFD products for an international securities business. Mr. Anderson then led the first Japanese retail broker to acquire an FCA UK licence, before joining astrosoption to develop their UK business.

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Valerijus Ovsianikas earned a master’s degree in Economics at Vilnius University and has built strong industry expertise working with one of the Big 4 consulting and accounting firms, Deloitte and the tech giant, Microsoft. Alongside his professional experience in forex trading and investment business, Valerijus has conducted various educational trainings and seminars on financial investment and has written ‘Forex 101’, a book on the fundamentals of Forex trading.

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Ingmar Mattus is the Co-Founder of astrosoption and serves on the board of several regulated entities of astrosoption Group. Prior to launching astrosoption, he served as the CEO of foreign exchange broker Armada Markets and the Head of Brokerage of global investment firm Admiral Markets. He started his professional career at the Estonian Banking Association as the Information Officer, coordinating inter-bank communications and the development of domestic and European payment systems in co-operation with member banks, the Central Bank of Estonia, the European Banking Federation and the European Payments Council. He has a degree in international business administration from the Estonian Business School. Ingmar brings along almost two decades of experience in managing financial services firms with a focus on operations, financial technology, securities trading and risk management.

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Illimar Mattus is the Co-Founder of astrosoption and serves on the executive boards of several regulated entities of astrosoption Group. Educated in the field of international finance, Mr Mattus brings more than 20 years of professional experience as an executive investment professional at global private equity fund management and M&A firms in the U.S., Singapore and Estonia. Since 2011he has devoted himself to the management of companies that operate in the securities brokerage industry and today make up the group of companies operating under the astrosoption brand. Equipped with deep industry knowledge and a strong strategic acumen, Mr Mattus has shared his expertise and insights at several high-profile industry events and publications.

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Nikolai Nikolajenko is the Co-Founder of astrosoption. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Logistics from the Tallinn University of Applied Sciences and an MBA from the Tallinn Technical University. He brings more than 10 years of experience in heading dealing operations of several globally renowned investment firms. Nikolai is a member of the board of directors of astrosoption Ltd and his day-to-day responsibilities in large part include managing the overall risk management functions of the group.

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Andres Vahopski is on the management board of astrosoption Group and also serves as an Executive Director of astrosoption Services Ltd. Mr Vahopski studied Electrical Engineering at the Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech) and has over 9 years of experience in the financial sector holding managerial positions. His primary areas of responsibility include day-to-day operations of the Group, business development and process management of payments and back office.

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Beryl Francoise holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Manchester in the UK as well as an International Diploma in Investment Compliance from the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment (CISI) in the UK. She is currently a Member of CISI as well as a Member of the International Compliance Association (ICA). She brings vast experience in the field of Corporate Finance and Contract Management having worked for Horizon Power in Western Australia for 7 years as a Contracts Analyst. She also worked with the Financial Services Authority in the Seychelles as a Business Analyst.

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Mukid Chowdhury is astrosoption Group's Chief Financial Officer and serves as a member of the Board of astrosoption UK Ltd. Mukid brings significant industry insight and acumen to astrosoption through his extensive experience in the financial services sector. Having previously held managerial and Board positions including UK CEO and CFO at LCG Group plc and Finance Director for International Operations at Gain Capital as well as serving at other global institutions including JP Morgan and ING Bank. Mukid has significant experience of building, enhancing and leading core operational and finance functions both domestically and internationally. Mukid holds an honours degree in Economics and is a Chartered Management Accountant.

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Rani Pone holds the position of Risk and Compliance Director and serves as a member of the Board of astrosoption UK Ltd. Rani has over 25 years of Financial Services experience in FTSE 100 companies such as Capita, Metlife including Fintech (Nutmeg) within Insurance, Investments, Wealth Management and Brokerage sectors. Rani boasts a varied portfolio of experience in the area of audit, risk & compliance and corporate governance. Coupled with this, her expertise and oversight of astrosoption's regulatory obligations, ever-changing regulatory landscape and knowledge of legislative affairs compliments the Board composition. Rani holds a bachelor’s degree in Finance and Accountancy from Kingston University and is also a Chartered Accountant (ACCA).

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