Marieke is a French-born computer engineer who has worked across the globe: from the luxury giant LVMH of Louis Vuitton fame to Expedia’s Hotels.com and now CEO of the NEAR Foundation, a Swiss non-profit that supports the on-going growth and development of the NEAR Protocol, a high-performance carbon-neutral blockchain that is designed to be super-fast, incredibly secure, and infinitely scalable. Before joining NEAR, Marieke pioneered turning niche blockchain products into globally recognized brands, scaling Circle from zero to two million users in less than two years and launching USDC. A passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion, Marieke was recognized in the Women in FinTech Power list for 2017 and 2019 and she is frequently quoted by the press; including The BBC, The Telegraph, Fortune, The Financial Times, Reuters, Forbes, and City AM.

Illia Polosukhin is a Co-Founder of Pagoda, formerly known as Near Inc, a decentralized developer platform powered by a sharded smart contract blockchain. Pagoda's vision of a scalable, robust, and highly usable blockchain began in 2018 when they couldn't find a protocol that met the needs of builders. NEAR Protocol launched its main net in 2020 and is focused on supporting the creator economy. Illia has more than 10 years of industry experience, including 3 years at Google where he was a major TensorFlow contributor and manager of the team building question-answering capabilities for the core Google search, as well as an author of several notable research papers.

Nguyen Minh Hong is the head of the organization board and chairman of the Vietnam Digital Communications Association. The Association organizes and coordinates many meaningful activities for its members, contributing to promoting the field of information and communication technology in Vietnam. In particular, the Association has accompanied the National Digital Transformation process which has been strongly implemented in recent years.

Vu Anh Tu is FPT Technology Director who is responsible for developing FPT's technology strategy and orientation; directing projects to develop new products and services made by FPT to meet the corporation's long-term business strategy; developing policies and technology resources for the whole corporation, support in production and business activities.

Mary Beth currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Cardano Foundation, in addition to her role as the President, of Americas and Global Chief Legal Officer for Merkle Science. She is an experienced legal and business executive, a trusted strategic advisor to the CEO and Board of Directors, and plays a crucial role in building thought leadership and business infrastructure for Merkle Science. With over three decades of expertise, Mary Beth has been at the forefront of federal law enforcement, global inter-agency cooperation, corporate compliance, digital assets, and emerging regulatory frameworks. She led the Digital Currency Team at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner law firm and has been actively involved in the digital assets industry since 2013.

Rich Robinson is a seasoned entrepreneur, renowned for his exceptional contributions to the tech world over 25 years. With a pivotal role in Asia's startup ecosystem, he has excelled in various tech eras, most notably as the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Animoca Brands, fostering user empowerment in the open metaverse. Rich's impressive journey spans co-founding eight startups, including three successful exits to publicly listed companies. He's a sought-after educator, sharing his insights as a Clinical Professor of Entrepreneurship at Peking University, and has graced prestigious stages globally as a keynote speaker and event MC. His impact resonates from Web 1.0 to Web3, and his journey continues to inspire innovation and growth.

Nikhil Velpanur leads Web3 and Joint Innovation Centre, India/South Asia for AWS Worldwide Public Sector. He was previously part of the founding team and head of partnerships, fundraising and public policy at the Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence, a nonprofit research lab applying AI for social good. Before that he helped setup Garage5B, a skunkworks and new ventures arm of Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd. investing in seed stage health tech startups. He also started Brahma3, India’s first indigenously developed 3D printer, helped set up Wild Seve, a large-scale wildlife conservation effort, started the INK fellows program, and ran a counterculture magazine called Strange Brew amongst other startup efforts. Nikhil is a 2009 TED Fellow and deeply passionate about technology for social impact.

Don Phan is the web3 specialist at Google Cloud responsible for crypto/web 3 startups. Don was previously a startup founder and an analyst at a regional private equity fund. He holds a bachelor's degree from Yale University and was a US Fulbright Scholar.

Ben is currently a Director at Circle, where he plays a crucial role in driving the adoption of USDC throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Prior to his role at Circle, he held managerial positions at renowned financial services companies including Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters, overseeing operations in Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and North Africa. In 2018, Ben entered the blockchain industry, establishing a leading Web3 incubator in Switzerland. He also founded the fitness live-streaming startup lift.tv and served as a partner at the private blockchain fund i3 Assets. With his diverse background, Ben contributes to Circle's mission of driving the adoption and utilization of digital currencies.

Sumit Kishore is currently the research lead at ActaLink. Actalink is an account abstraction protocol empowering Web3 Payments Infrastructure, enhancing business operations, flexibility, security, and interoperability by shifting permission processes from Users Standard Wallets (such as Metamask, Ledger, Trust) to Smart Wallets. In addition, Sumit has around 20 years of work experience. In the last 6 years he has developed & launched products successfully in the Web3 world Sumit Kishore is also currently leading the product division for the Financial Suites of Application at Consensys. Since 2018 at Consensys, he built few products such as In 2018: Codefi Compliance, an AML, & Compliance Product for digital assets (Founder); In 2021: Index Fund as a Project Lead; and In 2022, Finance Ops dApps as a Product Lead

Mikael Björn is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of FYEO, a blockchain company focused on empowering enterprises and individuals on the journey to Web 3.0. With a team of top blockchain experts, FYEO offers comprehensive audits, intelligence platforms, and decentralized identity management solutions. Mikael, an experienced blockchain expert, specializes in bridging the gap between Web 2.0 and Web 3.0, supporting businesses in their development, and ensuring cybersecurity and AI integration.

Dr. Cuong (Miro) Nguyen currently serves as the Chief Strategy Officer at VinAI and has an extensive professional background. He has been a podcast host for the "Vietcetera Vietnam Innovator's Series," advised Glints, held positions such as Head of Large Partners Solution for SEA at Google and Partner at FPT Digital, and served as Vice President of Global Affairs at FPT Corporation. With a diverse skill set encompassing areas such as ads monetization, stakeholder management, and strategic partnerships, Miro's expertise and experience will bring a lot of valuable insights into our NEAR APAC event.

"Edward Chen is the GM of Assets and Commercial Center at Huobi. He was previously Head of Global Institution Business for Huobi Group and had spearheaded Huobi Global’s APAC regional business operations, including strategic expansion into new markets. Under his leadership, Huobi’s institutional business expanded globally, and sales grew by over 40 times. Prior to Huobi, he was also Co-Founder of a global logistic technology company, which was successfully sold for merger and acquisition. Edward is also an active angel investor, and deeply vested in the crypto and blockchain space, new energy, as well as technology advances for transportation."

Tony Tong is a serial entrepreneur, known for his role as Co-Chairman & Co-Founder of Com2000 Web3Hub Incubator Accelerator, AsiaMeta.club, Hong Kong Blockchain Association (HKBA.club), and Edi.College, a leading knowledge sharing platform for the blockchain metaverse. He is also the Executive Chairman of Belt & Road TechFin Association (BRTechFin.org) and Vice Chairman of Macau Gaming Information Association (MGIA). With extensive experience in the fintech and blockchain sectors, Tony is a sought-after speaker and bilingual moderator for prominent events in finance and technology. He's an advisor at Dena Group and Dena Law Firm (GDDena.com) and previously worked in the USA for companies like Accenture and Seagate Technology. Tony holds a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota and has been recognized in prestigious industry lists.

Hanna Tantoco is Director of Marketing, APAC at Blockdaemon and is based in Singapore. Blockdaemon is on a mission to lead the global adoption of digital assets by enabling institutions with blockchain node infrastructure and by providing an ever-expanding range of blockchain products and services. In this role, she oversees the full-spectrum of the marketing and communication function across Asia Pacific. Prior to joining Blockdaemon, Hanna was the Head of Marketing Communications, APAC for cryptocurrency exchange, Gemini. She was the third person hired in the region, during her career time at Gemini, she built the team from scratch and led all the strategic marketing efforts of the New York headquartered exchange. Prior to moving to the crypto and blockchain space, Hanna was in various marketing leadership roles in the financial industry including asset management Crossbridge Capital, insurance company, Aetna and retail banks, OCBC Bank and Standard Chartered bank both in Singapore and The Philippines. Hanna holds an MBA from IE Business School in Madrid, Spain and is conversant in Spanish.

Ken is a software engineer specializing in distributed systems and web3 technologies. He's launched multiple Ethereum Mainnet contracts, assisted with over 20 blockchain patent applications, created an NFT, and delivered MVPs. His experience includes web2 back-end services, data analysis, and work on multi-million dollar projects. Ken enjoys system design and is adept at creating technical solutions around business use cases.

Alex Chiocchi has diverse work experience ranging from roles as Chief Product Officer at Pagoda and the Office of the Founders, Incubation at NEAR Protocol to being an Advisor and Angel Investor. Alex has also held the position of Vice President of Product Management at Kraken Digital Asset Exchange. Before that, they co-founded and served as the Chief Product Officer at kettle.ai, which was later acquired by Traction on Demand. Alex Chiocchi has also worked at LinkedIn, where they held various positions such as Lead Product Manager, Mobile Product Manager, Associate Product Manager, Technical Project Manager, Web Developer/Salesforce Administrator, and Sales Analyst.

Mr. Huong is the Founder of GFI (Formerly GFS) - An investment fund for startups in the field of Web3, Blockchain. Since its establishment, GFI has bridged the blockchain adaptation between global trust ecosystems, and projects to investors & end-users in Vietnam. Mr. Pham Huong envisions GFI becoming the blockchain pioneer in Vietnam, striving to be the largest and fastest-growing corporation that provides solutions for start-up companies, research institutions, and individual investors.

Kim Bazak is currently serving as the Vice President of Business Development at MarketAcross, where he specializes in consulting high-end brands on their link-building strategies, with a focus on achieving high conversion rates. His expertise encompasses PR&SEO campaigns, Link Building, Technical SEO, Content Management, Content Creation, Creative Writing, Rankings, and Keyword Research. With a track record of innovation and entrepreneurial spirit, Kim has held notable roles in the past, including his position as Co-Founder of Blockchain B7. In the dynamic field of digital marketing, Kim Bazak is known for his strategic insights and commitment to delivering results.

Dr. Tran Quy is the President of the Vietnam Institute of Digital Economy, which seeks to leverage the digital economy and status of Vietnam in the region. He has a solid background working in consumer goods, IT Strategy, Strategic Planning, Cryptocurrency, and Business Strategy.

David is an ACA qualified Finance Business Partner great with relationships outside of finance and always learning to scale businesses. He has strong communication, leadership, and problem-solving capabilities. In addition, he also has experience working directly alongside Global Senior Leadership in Innovation, Business Development, Strategy, Business Partnering, Consultancy, and Finance within the UK and overseas.

Dr. Hung Dang is currently holding the position of Research Director at FPT Blockchain Lab. He completed his Ph.D. thesis in Computer Science at the National University of Singapore. His research focuses on computer security and distributed systems, receiving numerous scientific citations. Before joining FPT Blockchain Lab, he did post-doctoral research at the NCRIPT Research Institute, under the National Research Foundation Singapore (NRF).

Quincy Dagelet is the co-founder and CEO of Crowny, a platform that bridges users with their preferred brands, focusing on privacy protection while delivering tailored content and rewards through a free loyalty system. At just 17, he co-founded Stagemarkt.nl, which was later sold to the government, now overseeing over 500,000 internships yearly. Quincy's career expanded into advising on marketing campaigns for major companies, including ING and Vliegtickets. He also became an investor in MrFriendly, propelling it to become a prominent media network. Alongside this, Quincy ventured into the crypto industry after encountering it through RuneScape, maintaining active involvement for over five years.

Sandi Fatić is building Calimero, Private Sharding on NEAR Protocol. He is also Site Reliability Lead at Near Inc. He had a history of working as a technical person in multiple startups and big companies such as Google, Facebook, and Fitbit.

Cameron Dennis is the CEO of the Banyan Collective, Founder of the Blockchain Acceleration Foundation (BAF), and previously worked at the Near Foundation for over two and a half years. He started his career in the blockchain industry in 2018 by working with blockchain clubs to launch accredited blockchain development courses at top universities around the United States like UCLA, UCSB, University of Florida, University of Texas, and others. He is most interested in flexible key management, verifiable privacy, decentralized governance, regenerative finance, and hanging out with cool people.

Christopher Donovan currently works as a General Counsel for the NEAR Foundation. He previously worked at Outlier Ventures as a Partner, Head of Legal, and Commercial Director.

David Morrison is the Head of Social Media at the NEAR Foundation, having built a strong career in the crypto industry since 2017. They have played key roles at Plutus, a forefront Crypto Debit Card company, and CertiK, the world's premier Web3 auditing firm. As part of their academic pursuits, they penned an incisive thesis titled 'A Forensic Investigation into Bitcoin and TOR'. David now applies this expertise to spearhead effective social media strategies, promoting wider adoption and community engagement in blockchain technologies. Embracing new technologies is essential (this is written by ChatGPT)

Oleg Fomenko, the co-founder of Sweatcoin and now Sweat Economy, is a serial entrepreneur with penchant for challenging opportunities before they become mainstream. Before starting Sweatcoin and Sweat Economy, he founded other successful businesses and held a wealth of strategic roles with a focus on consumer and technology at Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Visa, British Telecom, and BGG. He envisions crypto in general and our token - $SWEAT - in particular as the means of unlocking the real value of movement and creation of the Economy of Movement.

Riccardo Pagano serves as the Program Manager at Outlier Ventures, overseeing a multifaceted array of responsibilities, including startup selection, fundraising support, mentor engagement, product development, business modeling, partnership cultivation, and comprehensive advisory services for his cohorts. In his current capacity, he plays a pivotal role as the liaison between Outlier Ventures and the Near Foundation, working collaboratively to advance Web3 mass adoption within a web2.5-oriented cohort. Prior to this, Riccardo gained valuable experience as a Strategy Consultant at Accenture, guiding corporates through their digital transformation initiatives. He also contributed to the early growth of companies while serving as a Business Development Associate at Techstars and held the role of No-Code Ambassador in Italy, leveraging his product expertise and experience in bootstrapping his own advertainment company.

Charles Cao - Founder of FilSwan, the ambassador of Filecoin, mentor of Techstars accelerator, OG player of Web3. He is working closely with numerous leading hardware providers, government, web3 blockchain communities, analysts, and investors in the space.

Yash Jagtap is currently working as a Developer Relations Engineer at DataverseOS. His other roles and achievements include - The Graph Advocate, Thirdweb Ambassador, Lead of Polygon Guild Pune, Ethereum Contributor, Community Specialist at Buildspace and LearnWeb3, Open Source Web3 Developer, taught Solidity to African women and non-binary people through BLU3DAO, Ethereum Writers' Cohort Participant, Speaker at Web3Conf India 2023 (largest web3 conference in India), Chainlink Spring Hackathon 2023 winner.

Donato Russo is a digital pioneer and the innovative CEO of Chainplug. Hailing from a dyslexic perspective, he's disrupting the tech industry with groundbreaking work in blockchain, IoT, and AI. As a lecturer, strategist, and mentor, his ideas are fueling a more sustainable, interconnected future by means of his visionary insights and Chainplug’s transformative tech solutions
https://drive.google.com/file/d/16LX7A00VPcdj_8wvTp3TlZsQVEtLMdne/view?usp=drive_link.

Zahidul Islam worked as a developer platform for Blockchain Operating System (BOS). He is on a mission to build, promote, and nurture Web 3.0 applications that will create a decentralized, serverless, and fair internet for everyone. Last decade, he worked on many Web 2.0 applications in different domains from FinTech to SpaceTech. Some of my work includes building large-scale Streaming Data platforms, Conversational AI/NLP chatbots, and Geospatial Data platforms. He has had the opportunity to live and work on three different continents and five countries. He believes that “People are more important than any specific technology. A small group of diverse and passionate people can build (almost) anything.” As a result, he is passionate about building high-performing teams where everyone thrives and belongs.

Blockchain Success and Partner Engineering at NEAR - 18 years experience in tech development & architecture with 5+ years experience building blockchain solutions on blockchain networks such as Ethereum, Hyperledger, Cosmos and NEAR.

Dr. Dinh Ngoc Thanh is the co-founder of VBI, and CTO of GFI. He is currently an apprentice professor, leader of the Internet of Things research group - Soongsil University, Korea, visiting scientist - Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA. In 2019, he received the Golden Globe Award in the field of information and communication technology from the Ministry of Science and Technology. At the same time, he is also one of the 20 faces nominated for the 2019 Typical Young Vietnamese Face Award.

Natty has led/executed a number of Web3.0 and DeFi startups, also obtaining certificates in Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Venture Creation from global recognition such as UC Berkeley, Chulalongkorn University, and NUS. She is a member of the Global Summit of Women and an Advisor Committee for the Trade Association of Lifestyle and Designed Products(Alt.)

Scott Lee is a seasoned Chief Executive Officer with a proven track record in the information technology and services sector. His expertise extends to financial analysis, finance, accounting, financial markets, and proficiency in Microsoft Office. Scott holds a DAP in Accounting from The University of British Columbia, underlining his strong foundation in financial disciplines and marking him as a formidable leader in the industry.

Vu Dang is the Blockchain Tech Lead at GFI Ventures and the Head of Faculty at VBI Academy. He also has 5 years of work experience as a smart contract and blockchain infrastructure developer.

Vu Tran (Victor) is a senior backend engineer and Linux system administrator. He has experience in developing and building infrastructure for multiple social marketing platforms and advertising networks. Victor co-founded and was CTO of several startups in social marketing. He built and maintained platforms that handled millions of monthly active users. One of his platforms was in Alexa's top 20 in the US for several months. Victor Tran is the former CTO and co-founder of Kyber Network, as well as a Forbes 30 under 30 Asia alumni. He has a strong engineering background; having studied Computer Science at Vietnam National University, where he first met Loi Luu, with whom he would later go on to build Kyber Network."

Dr. Khuong Nguyen is a lecturer and researcher at the Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HCMUT). He received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Groningen, The Netherlands in 2008. Among his current interests are applied cryptography, blockchain technology, and applied machine learning. In terms of services, he is a member of the editorial board of the Bulletin of the Vietnamese Mathematical Society

Whiplus Wang is a capitalist of Infinity Ventures Crypto (IVC) and the head of IVS Crypto, Japan's largest crypto conference which is also the flagship event of Japan Blockchain Week. In 2023, IVS Crypto was held in Kyoto, attracting more than 10,000 participants from around the world.

Myrtle Anne is the Founder and CEO of the multi-awarded world-class company, Block Tides. She raised over $20+ million in total for seed, private, and sales with many projects over 12 years of experience in technology, advisory, branding, marketing, public relations, business development, and growth. Started in Blockchain, Web 3, Cryptocurrency & Metaverse in 2016. Myrtle Anne Ramos is the founder of the Award Winning Blockchain, Crypto, Defi, NFT, IoT, AI, and Metaverse PR Firm Block Tides (Marketing, Growth Hacking, Sales, Social Media Management, Giving opportunities to people, Media Distribution Services, Investor Relations, Public Relations) Official Member of Forbes Business Council, Official Influencer of CoinMarketCap. A scholar graduate of Draper University for Blockchain & Entrepreneurship powered by Tezos. She is currently an advisor for many Blockchain and Tech companies.

Sudeep Choudhari is a seasoned technologist with 18 years of experience, the last 6 of which have been dedicated to the blockchain space. Currently, Sudeep is leading the charge in establishing a Distributed Digital Public Infrastructure for financial services in India at NPCI. As part of the Market Innovation's Grow function, he oversees core engineering and collaborates with a team of product developers to make this vision a reality by 2023. With a track record that includes multiple patent grants and transforming blockchain concepts into production, Sudeep's expertise extends to converging AI/ML and blockchain, delivering enterprise solutions, and creating next-generation digital backbones. He's also known for his pivotal role in establishing a blockchain practice for Zenlabs@Zensar, achieving industry recognition and successfully deploying blockchain solutions for enterprises. In addition to his blockchain journey, Sudeep's background spans founding and running an animation pre-production company, managing diverse tech programs, and providing product leadership in eLearning cloud solutions.

Josh Ford has diverse work experience spanning various roles and companies. Josh is currently employed at Pagoda as an Engineering Manager for Developer Relations, a position they have held since March 2022. Before this, they were the Team Lead for Developer Relations at Near Inc. from July 2021 to March 2022. Before joining Near Pagoda, Josh worked as a Software Engineer for DevX from September 2020 to August 2021, and as a Documentation Engineer from July 2020 to September 2020.

Igor Bershadskiy is the Head of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships at Hacken. He has spent 13 years in banking and finances. In 2017 his passion for FinTech and Cybersecurity made him an active advocate for enterprise risk management. By implementing his knowledge and expertise, Igor and his team are actively trying to make Web3 safer by addressing challenges in blockchain security.

Jane Wang has extensive experience in product management, software engineering, and advisory roles. Their most recent position was as a Product Lead at Near Digital Collective, where they started in 2023. Before that, they served as a Community DAO Board Member at Ref Finance starting in 2022. From 2012 to 2021, Jane worked at Makers' Ring as a Principal, providing end-to-end services and collaborating with clients to translate business requirements into functional software applications. Jane also had multiple roles at NEAR Protocol, including Product Manager for Onboarding and Wallets/Developer Tools. Jane worked at NEAR from 2021 to 2023. Before that, they were a Senior Product Manager at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from 2019 to 2021, focusing on digital payments. "

Chris Berg is a Principal Research Fellow and Co-Director of the RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub, the world’s first dedicated social science research center studying blockchain technology, based at RMIT University, Melbourne. Associate Professor Berg is one of Australia’s most prominent voices for free markets and individual liberty, and a leading authority on regulation, technological change, and civil liberties.

Prashant Maurya is currently working as CEO and co-founder of Spheron, bringing Web3 Infra closer to the developers. Previuosly, he has worked at Algoland, Pagoda, Quaero, Siemens Healthineers, and CGI.

Luke Xie is Co-Founder & General Partner at Press Start Capital, a pre-seed focused fund investing in the full web3 entertainment stack (gaming, consumer, creator, infrastructure), together with experienced investors and builders from Binance/CoinMarketCap, Coinbase, DivX, Airbnb, and Cobo. Previously, Luke led crypto investments at Comma Ventures and RocketFuel. He also held strategy and growth roles at Airbnb, Coda Automotive, and McKinsey & Co. Luke holds a BS in Management Science from MIT.

Pavel Kudinov has diverse work experience spanning multiple industries and roles. Pavel currently holds the position of Engineering Manager at Pagoda, a company they joined in 2022. Before this, Pavel served as the CTO of Connected Freight from 2019 to 2022. In this role, they were responsible for product management, software engineering, and data science, establishing a product engineering organization, and driving the establishment of a remote work culture.

Jack Collier, Chief Marketing Officer of the NEAR Foundation, is a firm advocate of leveraging technology to foster a more equitable global landscape. Prior to his role at NEAR, he excelled as CMO at Mettle by NatWest, orchestrating a 5X expansion in the user base, and at Circle, playing a pivotal role in driving over 3 million app downloads.

David Weinstein is the Chief of Staff at the NEAR Foundation, where his extensive academic and professional experience is highly valued. With a strong background in computer science and blockchain technology, David plays a key leadership role in coordinating and overseeing operations at the organization. He contributes significantly to driving the development and adoption of the NEAR Protocol, shaping the future of decentralized applications, and advancing the open web.

Louis Liu entered into crypto space in early 2013 and since then has been recognized as an important researcher and practitioner in the field of blockchain technology, Web 3.0, token economics, and crypto asset market. Mr. Louis Liu is a now Co-Founder and serves as Chief Executive Officer at Octopus Network, bringing a multichain, interoperable Web3 infrastructure for launching and running application-specific blockchains.

Ishank Gupta is an IIT-Bombay & Wharton alum who over the past decade has operated and advised consumer firms in China, the UK, South Africa, and India. During his stints with global stalwarts like AB InBev & BCG he has built and led cross-functional & diverse teams. He actively mentors and invests in early-stage ventures. Ishank is currently building the world's largest Web3 gaming community centered in India, with the goal of onboarding the country's 500M+ gamers.

Thomas Jeng is General Manager, Singapore at Aspire, a fast-growing FinTech company providing finance solutions to startups, SMBs, investment firms, and the web3 community throughout the Asia-Pacific. Thomas leads the firm’s commercial teams driving expansion and growth. Prior to joining Aspire, he held a variety of roles in the startup and venture capital space, including at a SaaS startup and international investment firm 500 Global. Thomas began his career in strategy consulting at firms such as Boston Consulting Group and Gartner. Thomas holds degrees from Georgetown University and the Yale School of Management.

Robbie Lim is the GM of Business Development at the NEAR Foundation. As part of his role, he and his team oversee all partnerships and investments. Before NEAR, Robbie led a variety of teams including ecosystem, APAC, LATAM, and mobile BD at Twitch, and revenue for Doordash Drive.

Krishna has a multidisciplinary background in technology and digital media, having previously worked on AR and web projects for brands such as Microsoft and TELUS. Krishna is an angel investor in over 15 startups, helped build Ethereum Vancouver, and is a chapter co-lead at the DeFi Alliance.

Peter Humaidan is the founder of NEARWEEK which is the official NEAR Protocol Ecosystem newsletter run by the community for the community. NEARWEEK makes it easier to navigate the fast-evolving NEAR Ecosystem to accommodate decentralization and help the community embark on its NEAR journey. Peter Humaidan also worked as a marketing and community specialist at NEAR Foundation

Tam has more than 15 years experience working in several cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, Google Platform and holding many different positions from Trainer, System Engineer, DevOps Lead, Operation Manager. Currently, he is Alibaba Cloud's Solution Architect Lead.

Johannes has been professionally dabbling in web3 since 2017, always between tech and growth he has helped startups create their tokenomics and go-to-market at Swisscom Blockchain after which he joined a L1 Digital and helped build it into one of the largest web3 investors in Europe. In 2023, Johannes decided to go back into building again and co-founded Nerif to make web3 suck a bit less.

Amos Zhang is a product and partnership professional experienced in blockchain, fintech and SaaS. Currently responsible for product & partnership at NEAR Protocol, an Open Web initiative built upon scalable yet easy-to-use blockchain technology. Previously, Amos worked on TEE-based public blockchain and stablecoin (before it was even called a stable coin). Amos has engaged with a dozen Fortune 500 companies in the US and China, as well as some of the largest cryptocurrency/blockchain projects in the world.

Marco has been in the crypto area for more than 5 years and is now the CTO of Ref Finance, the native and main DEX on Near protocol. As an ecosystem leader, he is also the Chinese version translator of the NightShade protocol, the tech white paper of Near Protocol, and a mentor of the NCD (Near Certificated Developer) Program in the China area.

Dinh is the founder and CEO of AlphaTrue Joint Stock Company, a company dedicated to the development of blockchain and decentralized finance technologies. In addition, Dinh is also currently the Head of FinTech Application for the Vietnam Blockchain Association (VBA). With over 5 years of expertise investing in cryptocurrencies and conducting market analysis on the blockchain, Dinh serve as the project manager and senior advisor for a number of blockchain initiatives in Vietnam and throughout the world.

Mr. Phong Dao, with nearly two decades of business law experience spanning various industries, currently serves as the Managing Lawyer at Investpush Legal. Additionally, he co-leads the Blockchain Hub at Techfest Vietnam and holds a significant role as a member of the Committee of Policy and Legal at the Vietnam Blockchain Association (VBA). Phong is also a valued member of the Expert Council at the Vietnam Financial Consultant Association (VFCA) and serves as a Senior Advisor at Fundgo Capital.

Riley Tran has been leading the local NEAR hub while acting as the Chief Investment Officer (CIO) at GFI Ventures. Through her work with NEAR, she has been helping some of the country’s brightest minds become world-class blockchain developers in an exciting emerging market with some of the best growth potential in Southeast Asia.
As the director of the NEAR Vietnam Hub, her role is to lead the efforts to establish and grow the community and ecosystem in Vietnam. This includes building partnerships, organizing events and initiatives, and working with developers and entrepreneurs to support their work and bring their ideas to life. The NEAR Vietnam Hub has trained the NEAR Developer community throughout the country, forming Blockchain Labs at universities and researching and developing Blockchain technology applications in digital transformation."

Shawn is responsible for business development efforts at Automata Network, a decentralized middleware service protocol protecting fairness and privacy in Web3. His expertise is in building strong relationships with key stakeholders and partners. He is always passionate about revolutionary ideas and work that makes a difference in Web3. He is also a member of Blockchain Association Singapore.

Dustin is currently a blockchain researcher, investment analyst, and video content manager at GFI. He has over 3 years of experience researching the applications of blockchain technology and web3 business models, and is passionate about learning and sharing his knowledge and experience in blockchain and web3.

With over two decades of software engineering and economics expertise, Boris has been deeply involved in the cryptocurrency sector since 2011. At DevHub, he is a Core Team Member, spearheading NEAR's Developer Relations and Educational Programs. Born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela, he lives in Santa Clara, California.

Arief Widhiyasa is currently the CEO of Mythic Protocol. Prior to Mythic Protocol, Arief founded and is the Vice-Chairman of Agate International. With more than 13 years of experience in the gaming industry, Arief built and led Agate International to become the biggest game development company in Indonesia with more than 300 employees. Arief is also an awardee of Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 (2014).

Mark Mi is the BD Director - Head of Gaming at NEAR Foundation, a non-profit focused on increasing the adoption and development of the NEAR Protocol and its ecosystem. NEAR Protocol is a certified climate-neutral proof of stake layer-1 blockchain, designed for infinite scalability, security and ease of user and developer onboarding. NEAR has recently gained even more attention for its innovative blockchain operating system (BOS) and account abstraction features. As part of his role, he oversees all gaming related partnerships and investments. Prior to joining the NEAR Foundation, Mark led a variety of teams including BD of a gaming metaverse and a family office fund in Asia. He started his career as a consultant at Ernst & Young and is an UC Berkeley Haas alum.

Lei Lei is Head of Growth and Infrastructure at Near Foundation, the foundation arm of Near protocol. Lei has worked in the blockchain industry for three years previously at crypto lenders and exchanges before joining Near Foundation. She previously worked for over a decade in the financial industry at Deutsche Bank and Nomura. She is a graduate of Harvard Business School and MIT.

Amelia Chan is the Head of APAC Business Development at Huobi. With 14 years of experience, Amelia spearheads the BD team and is responsible for the strategizing and ecosystem growth of digital assets and partnerships at Huobi.

Mr. Thong Dang is a serial entrepreneur and has gained substantial expertise as an investor in the technology and Web3 industry. He has spent over three years deeply immersed in the Venture Capital industry, fostering valuable connections with prominent VCs in the APAC region. Prior to his involvement in the Web3 and VC sector, Mr. Thong Dang accumulated several years of experience in business management, having worked as a Business Development Manager at Viettel Group. - a Vietnamese multinational telecommunications company headquartered in Hanoi, Vietnam. Viettel is the largest mobile network operator in Vietnam.