OUR TEAM
Keyway’s partners began their friendship in college and they have been connected for 40 years. Their collective passion for business, family, and significance are the core values of Keyway.
FOUNDING PARTNER
A serial entrepreneur, Kevin launched Keyway with Eric Rozenberg in 2016 after 30 plus years of producing events for fortune 500 companies around the world. Kevin founded One Smooth Stone in 1995 and retired in 2015. He realized every entrepreneur’s dream when One Smooth Stone was sold in 2018. Within the event industry, he taught at the chapter and international level for industry organizations including IMEX, IAEE, FICP, MPI and Association Forum. He also served on the international board of directors for Meetings Professional International, the industry’s largest professional association. He also spent 9 years on the international board of trustees for the MPI foundation and was chairman in 2011-2012.
Realizing the unmet need of his industry outside of the ballroom, Kevin launched Keyway, focusing on the meetings, events, and exhibitions industry. As Founding Partner, his passion for growth and building continues to expand as Keyway has added new verticals, team members, and a new equity partner in Juan Ortiz.
Kevin loves to fish in life and in business. For nearly 15 years he has volunteered with The Wild Adventure (TWA) in Montana. TWA is all about getting guys off the grid and creating an experience to ask the big questions in life
EQUITY PARTNER
Juan brings a unique mix of 20 years of experience in the Bankcard industry and over 25 years as an inspirational speaker. Juan was a part of the founding team that built BluePay Processing that was eventually sold to First Data. As EVP of National Sales at BluePay, his knowledge of building sales teams and developing leaders is how he helped his partners create strong businesses.
Juan’s ability to connect with people, develop opportunities, and contribute new ideas for growth, is what sets him apart from other leaders in the payments industry. He served both on the advisory board and board of directors for the Midwest Acquirer’s Association. Juan is also an experienced inspirational speaker. He has presented to over 500,000 people, in 10 different countries. Juan’s passion and message to drive home the “power of change,” is the reason he is sought after as a speaker by organizations and corporations.
Whether he is speaking to an audience of thousands or a small group of people, his combination of humor, honesty and compassion has been captivating and life changing to audiences around the world for over 30 years.
CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER
Steve served in technical/engineering operations for the Central Intelligence Agency, providing field technical solutions to support intelligence, military, anti-terrorism, and homeland security operations. Steve has developed key skills involving process oriented operations that include the manufacturing and integration of electronics and mechanical devices into host systems while keeping in sync with human intelligence operations.
He has also served as a research engineer at the Idaho National Laboratory in armor & explosives conducting operationally focused R&D projects including the process and manufacture of high risk items in small arms, explosives, and electromechanical devices.
For Keyway, Steve is in charge of new client onboarding, sales pipeline processes and internal operations technologies. He brings process oriented thinking combined with broad technology integration experience.
Steve enjoys woodworking, making beautiful items that people enjoy being around. He also spends his time outdoors, camping, fishing, and shooting. He is involved with The Wild Adventure, helping guys to get off the grid in Montana and have space to ask the big questions of life.
VICE PRESIDENT OF PAYMENT SOLUTIONS
Chris began his career in the payments industry in 2002 with Online Data Corp and quickly rose through the ranks. He managed technical support and deployment operations from 2004-2010 with 2 different "super ISOs". In that time he developed multiple technical sales strategies that combined customer relations with product fluency.
From 2010-2017, Chris joined the gateway integrations team at BluePay, Inc and soon became a valuable member. He assisted in developing the Simple Hosted Payment Form template sets, which quickly became one of the companies best product offerings. He also began acting as the ISV partner relations sales engineer and assisted in many ISV integrations. Since 2017, Chris has provided pre-sales technical consulting and a "jack of all technical trades" for CreditCall, NMI and i3 Verticals.
In 2020 Chris joined the Keyway team. He will be responsible for finding the correct solution for our merchants and partner, working between merchants and processors during the integration processes, and researching all platforms Keyway uses to ensure the documentation, APIs and equipment are up to date. In his free time, Chris likes playing golf, going to Cubs games and letting his inner foodie find new and exciting restaurants.
ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT
Autumn provides administrative support to the Keyway team. Detailed-oriented, focused, and filled with a servant's heart, she brings a joyful energy to all things Keyway. Autumn is always willing to lend a helping hand wherever needed.
As a mom of three, nurturing Keyway projects from concept to completion is a natural extension of her skill set. Autumn brings a resourcefulness to Keyway that comes from 13 dedicated years as an early childhood educator. She interacts with a passion to inspire creativity and collaboration as a consummate team player.
A native of Chicago, she now calls Nashville home. Autumn enjoys being a wife and mother, hiking and exploring the great outdoors, sharing a good cup of coffee with a kind soul, and quiet moments with her Bible in hand.