MUTUAL CREDIT - Key Persons
Chris has been a legal designer, developer, and regulator of markets and enterprises for three decades, for six years as a director of the leading global energy exchange, responsible for the legal design of the UK ‘Balancing Point' natural gas futures contract & market. Since 1998 Chris has researched and developed innovative legal, accounting, and technology platforms. Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Strategy, Resilience & Security at UCL, Partner at IslandPower LLP, member of the Credit Commons Society.
Christopher is a lifelong entrepreneur supplying decision-critical business information at C-Level to multinationals: product design, systems/software analysis, and marketplace analysis. After building a successful blockchain and becoming disillusioned with the industry, Christopher has since been working on protocols for more human-centric alternative currencies.
Dave worked on environmental projects in Romania in the 1990s, and in 2001 founded UK environmental organisation Lowimpact.org, where he blogs about environmental issues, behaviour change, and system change. He has been a director of the Ecological Land Co-op, was a co-founder of the Open Credit Network, and is working with MCS to launch the Stroud Housing Commons project. He is also active in the Credit Commons Society.
After a career as an architect and builder, Dil is now focused on the urgent need for social renovation, and convinced that digital tools designed to follow social needs offer a powerful support for development. Founder of Mutual Credit Services and the Open Credit Network, co-ordinator of the Protocol Circle at the Credit Commons Society.
Graham has been working in/with/for co-operatives since the 80s. Set up a worker co-op, organised a community buyout. Currently working on a new social care co-operative, and a social/solidarity economy development organisation, and doing paid work on CiviCRM implementation/support. LinkedIn, Twitter, Cooperative Networks, mc3, graham@mc3.coop
Background in computer science and psychology, worked at Impact Hub/co-founded a grassroots peer project focused on youth mental health. Immersed in commons and complementary currency since 2017, learning to develop on Holochain, preparing a P2P, Commons and Digital Identity course at Masaryk Uni, Czech Republic, weaving strands together in a municipal context.
Joyce joined Mutual Credit Services upon learning of its work and mission. Alongside her professional work, she has supported and engaged with cohorts, movements, and organisations focused on analysing and challenging systemic issues that underlie wealth inequality, climate crisis, racism, and gender disparity. In 2019, she pivoted to software engineering and provides technical support and guidance to MCS. Joyce is also active in the Credit Commons Society. She has a J.D. and LL.M. from the University of Denver. jasmine16@protonmail.com
Matthew is a ten-year veteran of complementary currencies, his free software used by LETS and time-banking projects around the world. He is an authority on monetary theory and mutual credit, having co-authored the Money & Society MOOC with professor Jem Bendell and run numerous workshops. In 2016 he co-authored with Tim Jenkin the Credit Commons white paper, which MCS has adopted as a core part of its blueprint for federated collaborative finance. He is the main developer in the Protocol Circle of the Credit Commons Society.
Miles was a co-founder of Cashless and the Together Project, building decentralised mutual credit systems. He currently works as AI lead dev at Papa Reo, an Iwi-led indigenous AI project. Prior to this, he was the founding CTO at CreditSights, a financial research company in NYC (acquired 2020), and Chatterize, a Wellington AI startup (acquired 2022). He has experience as a programmer, tech lead, and technical architect. Miles has been actively involved in many mutual aid initiatives, including on the Resilience App during the early COVID crisis.
Oli runs The Open Co-op which produces an annual conference to encourage the development of the collaborative economy. He wrote his thesis on ‘Encouraging Environmentally Responsible Behaviour' and delivers marketing strategies for ethical brands through his consultancy DefactoDesign.com.
Job Titles:
- Freelance Adviser on Digital Infrastructure Strategy
Shaun is a freelance adviser on digital infrastructure strategy with over 30 years' experience in digital and tech. Shaun has helped found a number of cooperatives including one of the UK's first ISPs and CNI, which enables public and private sector organisations to share fibre networks. s.fensom@broadband.coop
Job Titles:
- Project Co - Ordinator for the Open Food Network
Sophie Paterson is a project co-ordinator for the Open Food Network, was a co-director of lowimpact.org for three years, and was a learning facilitator at the School for Social Entrepreneurs, Dartington.
Trevor is a qualified teacher who learnt systems thinking from professor Stafford Beer, the founder of management cybernetics. He wrote one of the first database systems to run on the IBM PC. He's interested in what impact cloud computing, mobile telephony, and blockchain will have on the internet, finance, education, and work. He's a Viable System Model specialist.
Sue has a health and education background, working in management consultancy and organisational development for the NHS and the private sector. She ran Brixton LETS (local exchange trading system) from 2000-2004. She has since worked as a person-centred psychotherapist, and is now facilitating meetings of the Credit Commons Society and co-ordinating its Governance Circle. suebell@lifejourneys.co.uk
Tom joined the first incarnation of the Mutual Credit Services collaboration after reading about mutual credit on Lowimpact.org. Along with Dil, he co-founded its current iteration, and spends most of his time on business development, project management, and R&D. He also convenes the Circular Trade Analytics forum and co-ordinates the Action Research Circle at the Credit Commons Society. He has a Ph.D in applied nuclear physics from the University of Liverpool.
Tomaž (BSc. Computer Science, MBA) specialises in trade credit and liquidity-saving mechanisms, bringing his broad industry and business experience into the development of monetary and payment systems. He joined Informal Systems as a Local Currency Developer to deliver on the promise of local money systems as the basis for self-sufficient local economies to prosper. He works closely with MCS on the Local Loop North West project, and advises the core team on a range of business development activities.