Cardano

Charles Hoskinson is a Colorado-based technology entrepreneur and mathematician. He attended Metropolitan State University of Denver and University of Colorado Boulder to study analytic number theory before moving into cryptography through industry exposure. His professional experience includes founding three cryptocurrency-related start-ups – Invictus Innovations, Ethereum and IOHK – and he has held a variety of posts in both the public and private sectors. He was the founding chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation’s education committee and established the Cryptocurrency Research Group in 2013. His current projects focus on educating people about cryptocurrency, being an evangelist for decentralization and making cryptographic tools easier to use for the mainstream. This includes leading the research, design and development of Cardano, a third-generation cryptocurrency that launched in September 2017.

As CEO of EMURGO, Ken leads the overall mission to drive the adoption of Cardano by building, investing in, and advising projects or organizations that adopt Cardano’s third-generation decentralized blockchain ecosystem. A successful career businessman with several years of experience in the financial planning & consulting industry, Ken has always been keen about staying on top of disruptive technologies. In 2015, he embarked on the Cardano project with Charles Hoskinson - co-founder of Cardano, & other early blockchain pioneers, working on business development and promotion, and then going to establish EMURGO in 2017 to be the official commercial arm of Cardano. Under his leadership & vision, EMURGO has grown into a talented, global team and expanded into high potential markets with a presence in Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, India, and the U.S. in addition to forging strategic agreements with established brand names in the financial, technological, and blockchain industries to foster awareness of Cardano.

Nathan Kaiser has over 18 years of professional experience as a lawyer in the greater China area. A Swiss national, he is admitted as an attorney-at-law and foreign lawyer to the Zurich, Berlin, Hong Kong and Taipei bars. At the firm Eiger, Nathan advises international clients in all matters pertaining to investment, corporate law, cross-border taxation and international commercial disputes. Eiger is a pioneer in Asia, and has innovated with technology and decentralisation. The firm led the way in becoming fully paperless and fully online in 2008 and was the first law firm in Asia Pacific to accept Bitcoin as payment in 2014. Nathan has a strong interest in technology, ranging from the semiconductor industry to the digital economy, in the heart of Asia. He has been looking at digital finance including blockchain and cryptocurrency since the early days, and he is currently a Fellow at the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University.

Immediately upon finishing Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Jeremy Wood packed a suitcase and bought a one-way ticket to Asia. Jeremy was bitten by the crypto-bug in 2013 and is a founding member of the Kansai Bitcoin Meet-up. He soon became entranced by the potential of next generation blockchains and joined Ethereum at the end of 2013, managing operations. After leaving Ethereum, Jeremy consulted on cryptocurrencies before starting Input Output with Charles Hoskinson in 2015. He moved back to the US in 2018. Jeremy believes that the future of fintech will progress only through experimentation and research, and by promoting collaboration between diverse groups and organizations.

As Chief Financial and Investment Officer at EMURGO, the official commercial and venture arm of Cardano, Manmeet spearheads its global strategy focusing on building the accelerator, education and investment units of EMURGO. Manmeet has navigated the startup world throughout his career, and over the past 5 years specifically focused on blockchain technology. As a tech geek, he went from an interest in blockchain and its worldwide impact to actually running, mentoring and investing in blockchain businesses. This led him to gather deep knowledge and run his own blockchain investment firm for the last 4 years, investing over USD 100 million aggregate in over 20 startups. He previously spent 15 years in China, establishing corporations to provide China focused strategy and private placement services, as well as co-founding in 2008 an IT education firm in partnership with IBM, local governments and universities. Manmeet now holds a number of active positions in the blockchain space: he is Council Member of the Cardano Foundation, Founding Member of Blockchain for Europe, Co-Founder of Y2X, Advisory Board Member at Bloq as well as Managing Partner of his private fund, Blockseed Ventures. He also is Managing Director at EMURGO & SOSV’s newly launched dLab blockchain accelerator.