HEDERA HASHGRAPH - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Chief Information & Chief Information Security Officer
Alex is the Chief Information Officer of Hedera and is charged with the technical operations of the network in close partnership with Hedera's member operators, ensuring the sustainable evolution of capabilities to the network while maintaining its core attributes of speed, fairness, and security. Prior to joining Hedera, Alex was the CIO at Health First, a multi-hospital integrated health system. He previously held several technology leadership positions at Fidelity Investments, with primary responsibility for cybersecurity and standards. Among his industry leadership roles, he chaired the technology working group of the Financial Services Roundtable, was appointed to the federal government's Information Security and Privacy Advisory Board where he was a key contributor to the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, and was instrumental in the development of the SAML 2.0 and DMARC standards frameworks. Alex began his career as an Air Force officer, is a graduate of the US Air Force Academy, and holds an MBA from Bentley University and several patents for cybersecurity technologies.
Job Titles:
- Chief Open Source Officer
Andrew Aitken is a veteran in the open-source sector, having served as an open-source adviser to the White House, guest lecturer for Stanford's Entrepreneur Program and founder of the industry's only open-source think tank, and acts as the Chief Open Source Officer of Hedera. Most recently, Andrew was the global open-source leader at Wipro Technologies, championing open-source adoption for enterprises and delivering business value through open-source services and solutions. Aitken is an elected member of the Board of the Fintech Open Source Foundation (FINOS) and previously served as Wipro Board Adviser at the Open Source Security Foundation and the Linux Foundation Networking project. He was also on the board of OSEHRA, a non-profit dedicated to accelerating open-source health reporting. Andrew helped many of the industry's leading OEMs and ISVs develop their open-source strategies along with numerous startups and enterprises.
Job Titles:
- Chief Financial Officer
- Treasurer
- Strategist
Betsabe is an internationally accomplished strategist and fintech executive with over 15 years of experience ranging from large financial institutions to blockchain and cryptocurrency startups, and acts as both the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of Hedera. Prior to joining Hedera, she held various senior positions at renowned and leading-edge companies including Uplift (leading Buy-Now-Pay-Later ("BNPL") in travel), Kueski (Mexico's largest BNPL), Lending Club, and Citigroup. Betsabe has developed a clear vision and roadmap for digital transformation in Finance and Accounting and has led this digital journey at several companies. She also served on the advisory board of the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center, is a fellow for the British America Project, and is a member of Hipower, a network of executive women leaders in Silicon Valley. Above all, Betsabe is a passionate advocate for economic equality. Her interest and work in blockchain started in 2016. It was the perfect evolution of her quest to find technologies that help advance financial inclusion and create market efficiencies.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Membership Committee
- Co - CEO
Brett brings over 20 years of IT industry coalition experience, and is the Chair of the Hedera Board of Directors. He has had founding executive roles at the Kantara Initiative, IDESG, DMARC.org, and FIDO Alliance. In addition, he has extensive multi-stakeholder governance experience, having served on the board or advisory board of MAAWG, NCSA, StopBadWare, and PCI SSC, among other industry coalitions. Brett is a former fellow at the UMASS Center for Digital Government, a former member of the US Federal Reserve Bank's Mobile Payments Industry Working Group and a recipient of the 2019 Top 50 Tech Leaders award from InterCon.
Job Titles:
- Senior Director of Identity & Access
Brian Jeffords is the senior director of Identity & Access Management for the Boeing Company. In this role Brian is responsible for strengthening enterprise access controls and improving credential management capabilities. Brian also leads the cryptographic controls organization (PKI) at Boeing. Brian has over 18 years of experience in Boeing Information Technology and previously led the Cyber Intelligence Tools organization where he was responsible for developing and deploying cyber threat detection tools to reduce the risk of cyber-attacks. Prior to that Brian was the Chief of Staff to the CIO. In this position he was responsible for the overall health of the IT organization specifically focusing on strategic planning and execution. Brian started working at Boeing in 2000 as a developer and has served in various roles throughout IT such as IT program manager for the business partner's organization to GS&S and the manager for various application development groups. Brian holds bachelors' degrees in organizational leadership and business administration from Illinois State University. He also holds a master's degree in business administration from Washington University in St. Louis.
Charles Adkins brings a wealth of experience in web3 technology, finance, government, and consumer brands to his role as President of Hedera. Prior to joining Hedera, Adkins held various leadership positions, including Global Lead-Business Development at Aptos, Vice President of Strategy at LandVault, and Vice President overseeing Enterprise Applications & Financial Services for Polygon Labs. He also held marketing leadership roles at Nike, Red Bull, and the Walt Disney Company. Adkins has a strong background in government and financial services, having worked for the U.S. Department of the Treasury in a security-cleared role overseeing a large staff, and at Morgan Stanley. He has served as a Startup Mentor at Outlier Ventures, where a significant majority of his mentees secured seed or Series A funding upon program completion.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Marketing Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Board
Dr. Pradeep Iyer currently serves as an executive board member while also representing Avery Dennison's interest as a council member at Hedera. Particularly in the last 5+ years, he helped shepherd Avery Dennison to embrace Open Innovation, co-created ADventures and co-founded his second "startup", atma.io, in 2020 - a unique CVC initiative focused on affording every physical item a digital soul to enable a sustainable life cycle. He has been an inventor, innovator and entrepreneur for over 4 decades, co-authoring scores of patents & peer reviewed publications, leveraging his Material Science roots at University of Southern California (USC) as a student of Chemistry Nobel laureate George Olah. Besides serving on various academic advisory boards, his recent energy morphed from "chemistry to crypto" - lured especially by the promise of a digital trust layer leading him to his current board role at Hedera.
Job Titles:
- Senior Investment Manager
Duncan is a Senior Investment Manager at abrdn. Duncan leads abrdn's digital asset business, responsible for product, technology, and strategic investments, and represents abrdn on the Hedera Hashgraph Governing Council. Prior to establishing the digital asset business, Duncan built abrdn's systematic hedge fund offerings and before that was a hedge fund investor. Duncan is a member of the CivTech CreditNature Advisory Committee, a Scottish government initiative creating a blockchain-based biodiversity market. Duncan graduated with a BA (Hons) in Economics from the University of Strathclyde and is a CFA and CAIA charterholder.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Marketing Committee
- Senior Associate
Job Titles:
- President & Co - Founder of the Humanized Internet
Nilmini Rubin has over 20 years of experience in international technology, energy, and democracy policy and acts as the Chief Policy Officer at Hedera. Previously, she lobbied on cybersecurity for the Information Technology Industry Council and contributed to Meta's policy programs team. Nilmini led Tetra Tech's global division implementing energy and internet projects that resulted in millions of people gaining access to electricity for the first time. She served as a senior aide at both the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee where she spearheaded the passage of legislation to provide electricity access in Africa, increase global internet access, and reduce corruption through transparency. As a Director at the White House's National Security Council, Nilmini helped secure agreements on non-proliferation, international health, and foreign aid. She was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and an advisor to the Women's Democracy Network.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director
- Founder
Job Titles:
- Strategic Advisor / WorldPay
Scott Thiel is the founder and entrepreneur-in-residence of TOKO, an enterprise-grade tokenisation engine and digital asset management platform. Scott advises clients around the world on all aspects of tokenisation and its application in digital capital markets; and was responsible for helping TOKO to structure the first debt tokenisation transaction in Asia. Scott was formerly Asia Head of DLA Piper's Global Technology and FinTech sector initiative; and was a leader within DLA Piper's recently launched "Blockchain and Digital Assets" practice group. He is also the firm's representative on the Hedera Hashgraph Governing Council - a next generation public distributed ledger technology (DLT) infrastructure through which DLA Piper is hosting a node. Scott is also a non-executive director of the Blockchain Think Lab, Hedera Hashgraph, and the HBAR Foundation.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Marketing Committee
- Chief Strategy Executive / ServiceNow
Job Titles:
- Member of the Membership Committee
- Representative
Tom was previously the Senior Director of Policy & Strategy at Tamkeen, a company that plans, develops, and delivers education projects-including New York University Abu Dhabi-on behalf of the Government of Abu Dhabi, and acts as both the General Counsel and Secretary of Hedera. Before that, he was an associate at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in New York, where his practice focused on M&A, private investment funds, and general corporate matters. Tom also currently serves as the chair of the board of directors for Braver Angels, a non-profit organization that brings liberals and conservatives together to reduce polarization. Tom received a BA in Social Studies from Harvard University and a JD from Yale Law School.