About
The word Faiā is actually Samoan for 'bridge', or "a natural feature that spans a divide." When combined to form the word 'faiā'oga', it means 'teacher'.
With the digital skills gap widening, opportunities are becoming harder to access as rapid changes are constant in the increasing digitisation of the world. Faiā Consulting exists to bridge the gap between communities and technology. Our purpose is to educate and demistify, where we advise and collaborate on ways for enterprises and governments to future-proof themselves and build for the next generation of digital natives.
Principle Consultants
George Siosi Samuels Managing Director
George has more than eight years experience in the Bitcoin, fintech, and community management spaces, working with companies such as IRESS ($1.93B market cap and member of the S&P/ASX 200 index), the Bitcoin Cash Association, the Bitcoin Association, and digital wallet provider, HandCash.
Faiā is accredited by the Bitcoin Association as an ambassador organisation, working with both public and private organisations on public blockchain projects. Responsible for negotiating a deal that led to Tuvalu being one of the first UN-seated nations to adopt blockchain technology as a national digital ledger, George helps leaders with potential navigate new digital oceans. He has been awarded the “Excellence in Finance Leader” by FiNext Dubai, and has been featured by the likes of Entrepreneur, Rest of World, Influencive, Tech In Asia, and Slack.
Alyssa Gutierrez Assistant Director
Alyssa is the eternal strategist, working alongside politicians, executives, and founders, to enable companies to grow from startups to global enterprises across EduTech, FinTech, and NGOs.
Alyssa has directed business innovation strategies, navigated tech teams on product development, and has played a pivotal role building an Australian SaaS startup to an ASX listed company and supported an expansion of educational partnerships for a global business institution. Her latest work has been heading strategic projects with government ministries and leading partners. Alyssa has worked in Australia, Germany and India.
At Faiā consulting, Alyssa is the principle liaison with enterprises and government ministries on digital nation building projects to design digitisation plans and strategies.
Kendra Link Leong International Development Advisor
Kendra Leong is a strategic advisor and consultant, having served in various executive- and senior-level capacities at government agencies in the United States and Australia.
She began government service in 2005 with the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA), a foreign assistance agency of the U.S. government connecting America’s private sector to infrastructure projects in developing and middle-income countries. Most recently acting as General Counsel, Kendra served as a member of USTDA's 5-person Executive Team, Chief Ethics Officer, and Chief Legal Officer.
With extensive experience assessing the potential challenges and risks at the early investment stages of pilots and projects involving innovative technologies and digital transformation in developing countries, coupled with continuing education and experience in web3 and blockchain, she is positioned with Faiā to advise governments in relation to governance, risk, project management, and strategy of digital transformation.
Siggi Okarsson Technical Advisor
Siggi Oskarsson is a software and technology strategist and developer. His practice spans years of knowledge from 1999, and has served as a Co-Founder and director of multiple businesses and led as a CTO with companies across Europe.
One of his businesses innovating market research in 2003, was successfully sold in 2007, to GfK, one of the top 5 market research companies in the world. During this time the business was mainly focused in the Netherlands and Siggi worked for clients like Heineken, Unilever, and Randstad. Siggi continued to work with GfK to transform operations and build innovative solutions. At this time, various large multi-national clients were serviced, including Starwood Hotels, Jaguar Landrover, and Vodafone. When Siggi left GfK in 2016, Siggi’s team in the Netherlands and the software platform was servicing clients all over the world and handling over 50 million euros of business.
Since 2021 Siggi's main focus has been on the development of Bitcoin empowered applications. He has worked for various clients in the Bitcoin space, with TonicPow and Honā being the largest.