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Biography
Entrepreneur with over twenty years of global experience in creating business value with innovative information technology products. Serving as executive management within start-up ventures and large global corporations, focusing on the development and delivery of complex commercial software products to international clients.
Start-up venture consulting, conducted 30+ technology audit assessments of software product companies as part of investment and acquisition diligence for various investors and corporations. Six acquisitions were initiated as a result of the assessments. Participated in post assessment activities by producing detailed business plans, including the restructuring of the companies and re-architecture of its software products, then executing the plans as an interim CTO.
Co-founded Smart Systems Technology, a company that delivered contactless proximity payment and loyalty applications to large retail environments (sports stadiums). Secured venture capital funding, organized the team, developed and delivered the products to market, and finally sold the company.
Co-founded Zonebee after managing a team of researchers within a major university to generate intellectual property which was spun-out to the commercial entity. The research was in self-directed learning using internet resources and how to detect consumer purchase intent and buying decision.
As CTO grew, venture backed, Clearcross into a market leader in international trade enterprise software.
Introduced innovative technology to two major banks and developed software applications. In all cases customer service, account management, and risk management were improved significantly and legacy systems were replaced to reduce the total cost of ownership of the applications. Each project included designing and implementing the technology architecture required for providing an integrated and secure solution for the marketing of banking products.
Specialties:global entrepreneurship using information technology for high-impact growth, interim CTO for executive tech guidance,
technology team building and coaching, technology audit and assessment, Investor due diligence of technology innovations, technology turnaround and workouts, Infrastructure planning and selection, product architecture, specification and design, software development process improvement, vendor selection and management, global outsourcing, contract negotiations
Likely only some notion of Truth can be supported through the mechanism of transparency in blockchains. The other tenets of Ghandian principles may not be things that any technology can support since they are mostly human values.
What do you think of the prediction that mainstream adoption of Blockchain by banks is 10 years away?
There was a recent headline: Mainstream adoption of Blockchain by banks is 10 years away. What do you think of this prediction?
Banks do not innovate at a pace that is noticeable. They experiment with lots of technology but generally are laggers not leaders. Since this area might be perceived as a threat or an opportunity to cut cost it is getting some early exploration but as such the industry takes a very long time to adopt anything new and blockchain will be no different.
Contrary to maximalist sentiment back then, I said in 2014 that mainstream adoption of blockchain was 10 years away, and I stand by it.
I hope nothing and that they stay away from it. Let the economic experiments continue until it is better understood what the implications are.
Are there novel use cases of blockchain or bitcoin that you wouldn't have anticipated a year ago?
.. and are any of these in your investment portfolio?
none, and I doubt any will surface, none of the problems are new or novel, conceptually they have been knowns for a long time. Blockchain as a solution looking for a problem to solve is not so interesting.
Neither, it is an economic experiment in bypass the typical mechanisms for raising funding. The few examples that get attention has caused a frenzy of interest but I have not seen many ICO's that are worth participating in.
Possibly, if used to bypass the established information controls on listings so that buyers and sellers can not only get matched but the entire process of buying and selling can be governed. Where it may work best for an immediate need is with rental properties and reputation systems. These are all complex interactions that are well beyond a short posted response.