Leadership
Josiah Hernandez
Founder, CEO, CIO, Global Chairman, President
New York, USA
Josiah Hernandez is a FinTech entrepreneur as well as global thought leader and expert on central bank digital currency, bitcoin, and financial market structure; releasing research frequently reviewed by senior leaders at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Bank for International Settlements (BIS), and numerous central banks. His work and expertise has been cited in mainstream publications such as Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Yahoo! Finance, International Business Times, and The Hill.
Josiah is a bitcoin early adopter with extensive experience building institutional & retail digital currency liquidity solutions starting in 2013. He currently serves as the global CEO at Satoshi Capital Advisors, an advisory firm that works with central banks, governments, and industry leading corporations on digital transformation, fintech, and growth initiatives. He was previous the business development lead at Coinsetter, an institutional Wall Street based, high frequency trading focused digital currency exchange acquired by Kraken in 2016, and subsequently strategy lead at a large retail bitcoin brokerage firm.
Yusuf Bashir
Africa Advisory Chairman
Kaduna, Nigeria
Yusuf Bashir is a career technologist with in-depth experience and proven expertise in engineering and product development going back to 2003. Yusuf built one of the first smart city and building automation networks in the world during his time at Johnson Controls in the USA and subsequently was recruited back to Nigeria to build a technology industry incubator in collaboration with the Kaduna state government. He has built private sector and public sector technology solutions bringing monumental change to millions of people across Africa and throughout the world.
Tamela Hedstrom
Europe & Middle East Advisory Chairwoman
Stockholm, Sweden | Dubai, UAE
Tamela Hedström is a Business Developer based in Stockholm, Sweden and with deep experience facilitating business deals and expansion in the Middle East, Latin America, and Europe. She’s worked as a Project Manager for Digital Content Solutions and Growth at numerous large multinational corporations, including McDonalds ($MCD), Subway, Avanza Holdings Bank, and Payer Financial Services AB.
John Kiff
Head of CBDC/DCM Advisory
Washington, D.C., USA
John Kiff was a Senior Financial Sector Expert at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from 2005 to 2021. Prior to that, he was at the Bank of Canada for 25 years, where he spent most of his time managing the funding and investment of the government’s foreign exchange reserves, including running its interest rate and currency swap book. At the IMF he was part of the team that produces the semi-annual Global Financial Stability Report covering innovative financial products.
Sebastian Urbina
Head of FX Asset Management
San Jose, Costa Rica
Sebastian is a world leading expert in artificial intelligence and complex machine learning systems. He founded and led Georgia Institute of Technology's Trade, Innovation and Productivity Research Center as well as Genpact’s Forecasting Center of Excellence. He previously headed Genpact’s artificial intelligence and machine learning efforts in supply chain, employing a wide variety of quantitative techniques to solve complicated problems. He holds a Bachelor's and Master’s Degree in Industrial Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, a Master’s Degree in Economics from McGill University, Master’s Degree in Information and Data Science from the University of California, Berkeley, and in-progress Master's Degree in Financial Mathematics from John Hopkins University.
Daniel Truque
FX Asset Management Account Manager/Portfolio Specialist
San Jose, Costa Rica | New York, USA
Daniel Truque is a seasoned executive across research and operations departments with experience scaling large global teams. He is an expert in distributed ledger technology architecture and design, working with the world's largest financial institutions to implement DLT and blockchain technologies. Daniel was previous a portfolio specialist at AQR Capital and Bridgewater Associates, and a former consultant with McKinsey & Co.’s Risk Management Practice.
Virgilio Lizardo
Head of Bitcoin Exchange Advisory
Phuket, Thailand | Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Virgilio Lizardo is an experienced bitcoin exchange industry executive, leading large teams for leading global bitcoin sector companies since 2015. After starting his career in operations consulting for corporates in the Boston area, he moved to China in the late 2000s and spent the next 11 years working with leading Chinese companies on globalization initiatives.
In 2015 he started working with Bitbank Group, a top 4 bitcoin exchange operator in China and top 2 global bitcoin mining equipment manufacturer, leading their international expansion. After a successful tenure, he decided to exclusively focus on the bitcoin exchange industry subsequently joined Gate.io, leading their international expansion into becoming one of the largest bitcoin exchanges in the world with more than $1 billion in daily trading volume.