Introducing the 2023 GBBC Ambassador Cohort
Published
Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC) is thrilled to announce the appointment of our 2023 Ambassadors, broadening GBBC’s global reach to 231 ambassadors and 109 jurisdictions and disciplines.
GBBC’s 2023 Ambassador cohort includes 63 new ambassadors and 19 new jurisdictions and disciplines, consisting of Financial Services, Greenland, Honduras, Indonesia, Jordan, Libya, Liechtenstein, Metaverse, Oman, Panama, Policy & Regulation, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Tech Ethics, Thailand, and Zimbabwe.
GBBC Ambassadors are innovators and changemakers who strive to provide powerful insights, particularly in areas of technology, governance, law, finance, civil society, and academia.
Since its inception, GBBC has relied on its global Ambassador network to expand our global community, presence, and impact. GBBC Ambassadors act as trusted advisors to GBBC’s leadership and members, providing invaluable guidance and assistance on how to engage with diverse global communities to carry out GBBC’s mission to the highest standards.
View the 2023 Ambassadors here.
About GBBC
Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC) is the largest industry association for the blockchain technology and digital assets community. Launched in Davos in 2017, GBBC is a Swiss-based non-profit, with more than 500 institutional members, and 230 Ambassadors across 108 jurisdictions and disciplines. The organization is dedicated to furthering adoption of blockchain technology by convening regulators, business leaders, and global changemakers to foster collaboration and advance dialogue to create more secure, equitable, and functional societies.
2023 GBBC Ambassadors by Jurisdiction and Discipline:
Afghanistan: Roya Mahboob, President, Digital Citizen Fund
Argentina: Andrew August Piscione, Advisor; Cripto Investment Team & Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Valor Capital Group
Argentina: Matias Plano, Co-Founder & CTO, Chronos Pay
Argentina: Paula Monticelli, Co-founder and CEO, CryptoMate
Armenia: Lia Kizilián, Founding Partner, Protocol Investments
Arts, Music & Entertainment: Travis Cloyd, CEO of Worldwide XR; Futurist in Residence and the Director of iSTAR (Immersive Studio for Altered Reality) at Florida International University
Arts, Music & Entertainment: Ryoma Ito, Co-Founder and CMO, MakersPlace
Arts, Music & Entertainment: Matt Sorum, Co-Founder, STHORM; Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductee, Grammy Award Winning Musician; Former Guns N’ Roses
Australia: Michael Casey, Chief Content Officer, CoinDesk; Senior Advisor, MIT Media Lab on the Digital Currency Initiative; Author, The Age of Cryptocurrency, The Trust Machine
Australia: Dr. Jemma Green, Cofounder and Chairman, Powerledger
Australia: Leanne Kemp, Founder and CEO, Everledger
Australia: Paula Taylor, Cofounder, 32Dsg
Austria: Thorsten Peisl, CEO, KALYP Technologies
Austria: Astrid Schober, CIO, Wien Energie GmbH
Bahamas: Michael Clare, Head of Digital Assets and Fintech Operations at Liongate Bahamas Limited; Co-Founder of Palm Tree Digital
Bahrain: Sheikh Mohamed Al Khalifa, Chief Digital Growth Officer, Bahrain Telecommunications Company (BATELCO)
Balkans: Maja Vujinvoic, Managing Director, OGroupLLC
Bangladesh: Brig. Gen. Md. Nasim Parvez, DG of System & Services Division of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC)
Bangladesh: Sylvana Sinha, Founder, Chair and CEO, Praava Health Bangladesh Limited
Barbados: Gabriel Abed, Ambassador of Barbados to the United Arab Emirates, Founder and Chairman of Abed Group; Board Member and Founder of DACM; Founder of Bitt
Belgium: Raymond van Ermen, Co-Founder, European Partners for the Environment (EPE)
Bermuda: Premier David Burt, The Government of Bermuda
Bermuda: Denis E Pitcher, Chief Fintech Advisor to the Premier, Government of Bermuda
Bolivia: Karen Korponai, Founder, Konscious Konsulting
Brazil: Fernando Carvalho, CEO, QR Capital
Brazil: Paula Guedes, Founder and CEO, Jobzi; Founder at IFL Dialogues
Brazil: Courtnay Guimarães, Chief Scientist, Avanade
Brazil: Veronica Allende Serra, Founding Partner; Pacific Investments, Founding Partner,Innova Capital
Bulgaria: Talimka Yordanova, CEO, Global Citizen Forum
Buy-Side: Nisa Amoils, Partner and cofounder, A100x
Buy-Side: Cyrus Hodes, Member, AI Compute & Climate Expert Group; Member of the Global Partnership on AI, OECD-OCDE
Buy-side: Anthony Scaramucci, Founder and Managing Partner; Founder and Chairman, SALT Skybridge
Buy-Side: Sue Xu Zhang, CEO and Co-Founder, Expleo & Experientia Inc
Cameroon: Viola Llewellyn, President & Co-Founder, Ovamba
Canada: Sue Ennis, Vice President Corporate Development, Hut 8 Mining
Canada: Brian Gelfand, Digital Assets and Financial Markets Infrastructure Lead, Ernst & Young LLP
Canada: Advit Nath, Controller & Director, United Nations’ International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
Canada: Tanya Stephens, Global Director, Sr. Innovation & Tech Leader, Financial Services & Solutions, Distributed Systems, Procter & Gamble
Canada: Tanya Woods, Director, Board of Directors; CEO, Futurity Partners, AMPD Technologies
China: Dr. Michael Sung, Founding Co-Director, Zhejiang Unversity, Institute of Digital Finance Innovation; Founder and Chairman, CarbonBlue Innovations
China: Yifan He, CEO, Red Date Tech
China: Catrina Wang, Venture Growth, Protocol Labs
Colombia: Mario A. Castaño González, Technical Director, Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones (CINTEL )
Colombia: Mariana de La Roche, Senior Regulatory Affairs Expert, IOTA /Co-Chair of the Social Impact and Sustainability Working Group, INATBA
Cyprus: Antonis Polemitis, Chief Executive Officer, University of Nicosia (UNIC)
Data Security: Noah Baalessanvu, Head of Technology, CryptoSavannah
Data Security: Tarique Barkatullah, Project Director, Bangladesh Computer Council
Decentralized Finance (DeFi): Aishwary Gupta, DeFi Chief of Staff and FinTech SM, Polygon Technology
Decentralized Finance (DeFi): Robert Inoma, Marketing Manager, Livepeer
Decentralized Finance (DeFi): Junji Katto , Digital Assets Product Strategist, Itau Unibanco
Denmark: Michel Avital, Professor, Copenhagen Business School
Ecuador: Ernesto Kruger, CEO and Founder, Kruger Corporation
Education: Dr. Aisha Bushager, Executive Senior Manager, Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait; Vice Chairman of the Academic Board, Abdul Rahman Kanoo International School (ARKIS)
Education: Locknie Hsu, Professor of Law, Singapore Management University, School of Law
Education: Mohd Hwaidi, Head of LLM Program (Dubai) and Assistant Professor, University of Birmingham
Education: Dr. Sanjeev Khagram, Director General and Dean, Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University,
Education: Robert Sicina, Professor, Co-Director – Blockchain Hub, American University, Kogod School of Business
Environment & Sustainability: Gigi Brisson, Co-Founder & Partner – Attractor Ventures; Founder & CEO – Ocean Elders
Environment & Sustainability: Neil Cohn, Co-Founder and CEO, Code Green
Environment & Sustainability: Dave Ford, CEO & Founder, Ocean Plastics Leadership Network
Environment & Sustainability: Steven Haft, Co-Founder, Ethereum Climate Platform
Environment & Sustainability: Charlie Moore, Head of Carbon and Sustainability, Chainlink Labs
Environment & Sustainability: Cameron Prell, Managing Director, Pollination Group
Estonia: Toomas Henrik Ilves, Co-chair of The Global Futures Council on Blockchain Technology; Former President of Estonia
Estonia: Kalle Palling, Co-Founder and CEO, Cachet; Former MP and Chair of European Union Affairs Committee, The Parliament of Estonia
Financial Services: Vipin Bharathan, Principal Consultant, DLT NYC
Financial Services: Raymond Kahn, Managing Principal, Archon Advisors
Financial Services: Lynne Marlor, Chair, Boston Blockchain Association
Financial Services: Morgan McKenney, CEO, Provenance Blockchain Foundation
Financial Services: Andrew Woolmer, Founder, NewChange FX
France: Mariana Dahan, Founder, World Identity Network (WIN)
France: Vanessa Grellet, Managing Partner, Aglae Ventures
Georgia: George Kikvadze, Executive Vice Chairman, The Bitfury Group
Germany: Sagar Barvaliya, Principal Investment Manager at Blockrocket; Partner at Blockchain Founders Capital
Germany: Bernhard Kowatsch, Head of Innovation Accelerator, United Nations World Food Programme (UN WFP)
Germany: Dr. Gökce E. Phillips, CEO & Co-founder, CryptoIndexSeries
Germany: Romain Vidal, Senior Account Executive, IPRally Technologies Oy
Ghana: Seth Akumani, Head of Exploration, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) – Ghana
Gibraltar: The Honorable Albert Isola, Gibraltar Minister for Digital and Financial Services, Gibraltar Finance, HM Government of Gibraltar
Greece: George Panou, Head of Innovation, Eurobank
Greece: Marianna Polykrati, Group Treasurer, Avramar Group
Greenland: Lykke Geisler Yakaboylu, Founder and Owner, Sila Greenland DMC
Haiti: Jean Philippe Innocent, Chief Commercial Officer, Who’s Holding Co
Haiti: Genevieve Leveille, Founder, Agriledger
Healthcare: Darryl Burton, Policy and Product Lead, Affordable Care Act at Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services,U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Healthcare: Dr. Cindy Hou, Infections Disesase Specialist, Jefferson Health New Jersey
Healthcare: John Greaves, Business Advisor, SSI; Fmr VP Global Standards, ConsenSys
Healthcare: Subroto Mukherjee, Head of Innovation and Emerging Technology Americas, GSK Consumer Healthcare
Healthcare: Dr. Jemilah Mahmood, Professor and Director, Sunway Centre for Planetary Health, Sunway University; Fmr. Special Advisor to the Prime Minister of Malaysia on Public Health
Healthcare: Dr. Jamie Wells, Advisory Leadership Board Member and Adjunct Professor, Drexel University School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems; Founder & Chair, Yale Alumni Health Network (YAHN)
Honduras: Jose Luis Moncada Rodriguez, Director, Innovation Hub at Prospera; Director, Roatan Financial Services Authority
Hong Kong: Etelka Bogardi, Financial Services Regulatory Partner, Norton Rose Fulbright
Hong Kong: Nydia Zhang, Co-founder, Social Alpha Foundation; Investment Director, Ferretto Capital; APAC Lead, FTW Ventures
India: Sumiran Agarwal, CEO, Brij Lok Kala Manch Samiti; Treasurer, Brij Lok Kala Foundation; Director, Node Operations, Indicio Tech
India: Keerthi Lal Kala, Sr. Advisor, The Global Education & Leadership Foundation (tGELF); Senior Advisor, SUN Group Global
India: Santosh Misra, Partner, PwC India; Fmr. Commissioner of e-Governance, Government of Tamil Nadu
India: Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary of the Industries & Commerce (I&C) and Information Technology (IT) Departments, Government of Telangana
Indonesia: Sim Khela, Founder, Excellence Consulting Intnternational
Ireland: Beatrice O’Carroll, Managing Director, MPCH Labs
Ireland: Dr Piyush Verma, Senior Governance Expert, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Israel: Netta Korin, Co-Founder, Orbs; Founder, Hexa Foundation
Italy: Nicolas Bertrand, CEO, Komainu
Italy: Gladys Morales, Senior Innovation Adviser (CDI, Office of the President and the Vice President), United Nations’ International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
Ivory Coast: Fancho Hermann Traore, Directeur Departement, Études, Stratégie et Développement, Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières (BRVM) – UEMOA
Jamaica: Alexandra Chong, CEO and Founder, Jacana, Nightingale
Japan: Ted Katagi, CEO, Kenja K.K.
Japan: Makoto Takemiya, CEO, Soramitsu
Jordan: Ghassan Abu Shihab, Executive Manager, Central Bank of Jordan
Jordan:Ammar Alshami, Founder, Efresco
Jordan: Iman BaniAtteyah, Studies & Policies Specialist, Central Bank of Jordan
Kazakhstan: Dr. Kairat Kelimbetov, Former Governor, Astana International Financial Centre
Kenya: Josephine Kamantha Ndambuki, Manager, Economic Development, Partnerships & Resource Mobilization, Konza Technopolis Development Authority
Kenya: Kefa Michael Ngoiri, Senior Officer, Kenyan Capital Markets Authority
Latvia: Val Vavilov, CEO and Founder, The Bitfury Group Bitfury Group
Lebanon: Suleiman Barada, Senior Advisor & Head of Ecosystem Digital Transformation Unit Union of Arab Banks (UAB)
Libya: Marwan Gzllal, Deputy Head of International Financial Markets, Central Bank of Libya
Liechtenstein: Ingmar Zechlin, COO, aeternity Establishment
Luxembourg: Ambre Soubiran, CEO, Kaiko
Mauritius: Tony Lee Luen Len, Senior Partner, Ecosis
Media: Jacqueline Cooper, Attorney, Entrepreneur & Talk Show Producer, CryptoMom2
Media: Jane King, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, LilaMax Media
Media: Angie Lau, Editor-in-Chief and Founder, Forkast.News
Metaverse: Dirk Lueth, Founder & co-CEO, Upland
Metaverse: Emma Todd, Founder & CEO, MMH Group
Metaverse: Bettina von Schlippe, Publisher, Vogue Singapore
Mexico: Daniel Uribe, CEO, GenoBank.io
Mongolia: Saruul Ganbaatar, CEO, Bogd Bank of Mongolia
Mongolia: Hannes Takacs, Head of EBRD Mongolia, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)
Morocco: Ridouane Azagrouze, Chief Information Officer, Maroclear
Morocco: Youssef Benzekri, Account Manager, Salconst
New Zealand: Chris O’Neill, Sales Manager, Creative HQ
Niger: Minister Ibrahima Guimba Saidou, Special Advisor to the President of the Republic of Niger and CEO of National Agency of Information Society (ANSI), Government of the Republic of Niger
Nigeria: Imeobong Ekong, Legal Advisor, Securities and Exchange Commission, Nigeria
Nigeria: Patience Iwelomen, Deputy Manager, Legal, Investment Management, Securities and Exchange Commission, Nigeria
Nigeria: Pat Nwobodo, CEO, Rowet Group Nigeria
Nigeria: Aisha Oyebode, CEO, Murtala Muhammed Foundation (MMF)
North Macedonia: Sasha Grujevski, State Counselor at Cabinet of the Prime Minister, Government of the Republic of Macedonia
Norway: Liv Freihow, Consultant- Business Development & Fintech, Startuplab
Oman: Dr Fatin Said Juma Al Zadjali, Head of Learning & Development, Bank Dhofar
Pakistan: Nabeel Ahmed, Relationship Manager SME, Commercial, Askari Bank Ltd
Pakistan: Kazim Ali, Principal Lecturer and Master Trainer, United Nations – University of Central Punjab
Pakistan: Dr. Shakil Muhammad, Chairman, RNS Solutions
Palau: Jennifer Koskelin, Cofounder, Palau Pledge
Panama: Marcos Allende Lopez, CTO, LACChain Global Alliance, IADB
Papua New Guinea: David Davies, Founder & CEO, AgUnity
Peru: Hernando de Soto, President, Institute for Liberty & Democracy; Author, The Mystery of Capital, The Other Path
Peru: Rosakebia Liliana Estela Mendoza, CEO, The Nona 911; Fellow of the European Parliament, Human Rights Actions Unit
Peru: Rossana Polastri, Director, IFAD Latin America and the Caribbean Division, United Nations’ International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
Philippines: Maria Gaitanidou, Chief Launch Officer, Union Bank of the Philippines
Poland: David Lighton, Founder and CEO, SendFriend
Poland: Rafal Petsch, EU/PL Operations, SendFriend
Policy & Regulation: Jeff Bandman, former CFTC
Policy & Regulation: Chris Ford, Head of Government Relations, R3
Policy & Regulation: Susan Friedman, Head of Public Policy, Ripple
Policy & Regulation: Kathy Kraninger, Solidus Labs
Policy & Regulation: Caroline Malcolm, Head, International Public Policy & Research, Chainalysis
Policy & Regulation: Matthew Homer, former NYDFS; Executive-in-Residence, NYCA Partners
Portugal: Hugo Volz Oliveira, Co-Founder and Secretary, Instituto New Economy
Puerto Rico: Dante Disparte, Chief Strategy Officer, Head Of Global Policy, Circle
Romania: Evelyne Vilcu, Head of Business Development, Stakeborg
Rwanda : Norbert Haguma, CEO, AfrOrient Group
Saudi Arabia: Abdullah Almutlaq, VC Investments, Sovereign Wealth Fund
Science & Technology: Juan Benet, Founder, Protocol Labs
Science & Technology: Joseph Lubin, Co-founder of Ethereum; CEO of ConsenSys
Security & Resilience: Pramod Gopalakrishna, Global Product Manager, EY
Security & Resilience: Edward K Thompson, Blockchain Advisor, Infragard
Security & Resilience: Mark Young, Chief Risk Officer, ConsenSys Software Inc.
Serbia: Dr. Nebojša Stanković, Founder, and Principal, Stankovic and Partners
Sierra Leone: Edmund Tamuke, Senior Research Economist and Analyst, Bank of Sierra Leone
Singapore: Arnaud Brolly, Head of Blockchain Solutions at SITA.aero
Singapore: Greg Li, Head of Asia Pacific for The Bitfury Group
Singapore: Eric SayWei Neo, Executive Chairman & Board Director, Neo & Partners Global Private Limited
Singapore: Cristina Ventura, Chief Catalyst Officer, White Star Capital
South Africa: Tanya Knowles, Business Manager, Adhara; Chairperson, South African Financial Blockchain Consortium;
South Africa: Vinny Lingham, Cofounder and CEO, Civic Technologies
South Africa: Nasia Seria, General Manager, Fintech Risk & Compliance, MTN
South Korea: Dr. Kibae Kim, Principal Researcher, Fourth Industrial Revolution Intelligence Center and the Korea Policy Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution of Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
South Korea: Junhaeng Lee, Cofounder and CEO, Streami
Southeast Asia: Dom Braun, CEO, Lykke
Southeast Asia: Ivan Ferrari, Head of Business Development, Elevandi
Southeast Asia: Alex Hong, Business Development (ASEAN), World Climate Foundation
Southeast Asia: Marc Lepage, Asian Development Bank
Spain: Irene Arias, CEO of IDB Lab, Inter-American Development Bank Group (IADB – IDBLabs)
Spain: Victoria Gago, Co-CEO & Co-Founder of European Blockchain Convention and European Tech School; Director of OBS’ Business School; Three Points’ Master in Blockchain and Founder & President of Accelerate Network
Spain: Csilla Zsigri, VP Strategy, Blockchain Technology Partners (BTP)
Sub-Saharan Africa: Alex Cahana, MD, Venture Partner, Impact Rooms
Sub-Saharan Africa: Michelle Chivunga N, CEO, Global Policy House (GPH)
Sub-Saharan Africa: Philip Thigo, Senior Director for Africa, Thunderbird School for Global Management, Arizona State University
Sweden : Johan Toll, Vice President & Head of Digital Assets and New Market Product Lines, Nasdaq
Switzerland: Catrina Luchsinger Gahwiler, Partner, MLL (Meyerlustenberger Lachenal Froriep) Ltd
Switzerland: Daniel Gasteiger, Founder and CEO, Procivis AG
Switzerland: Thomas Puschmann, Director, Universität Zürich (University of Zurich)
Switzerland: Amitabh Singh, Field CTO EMEA, Palo Alto Networks
Taiwan: Jason Hsu, Senior Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School
Tanzania: Joyce Mung’ong’o Muzuma, Managing Director, Faith Medical Tanzania Clinics
Taxation: Jeff Saviano, EY Global Tax Innovation Leader, EY
Taxation: David K Spencer, Managing Partner, DKS Tax & Consulting
Tech Ethics: Nichol Bradford, Co-Founder and Partner, Nirmeia Collective; Co-Founder, TransformativeTech.org
Tech Ethics: Diana Saville, Co-founder, COO, BrainMind
Thailand: Amarit Charoenphan, Partner, Unfold Ventures
Thailand: Navaporn Nalita, Founder and Project Leader, Chiangmai Crypto City
The Netherlands: Dennis Post, Tax Partner, Tax Technology & Transformation, EY
The Netherlands: Rachel Pipan, Managing Director, Maneuvre
The Netherlands: Ton van’t Noordende Founder, PHX; Investor-in- Residence, Techleap
Tunisia: Sami Benjamaa, Managing Executive Officer and CIDO, JERA
Turkey: Mustafa Baltaci: Co-Founder of KOOPHub; Co-Founder of Istanbul Fintech Week
Turkey: Muhammed Yesilhark, Founder, Chief Investment Officer, Q2Q Capital
Turkey: Demet Zubeyiroglu, Chairperson of FINTR (Financial Innovation and Technologies Association); Managing Director and Co-Founder of KOOPHub
Uganda: Cornelius Kalenzi, Post-Doctoral Researcher, Korea Policy Center for the Fourth Industry Revolution at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
Ukraine: Nataliya Dyka, Lawyer (France and Ukraine)
Ukraine: Mark Ginzburg, President, Ukrainian Federation of Robotics
Ukraine: Jan Keil, Head of Innovation, Infopulse Ukraine LLC
Ukraine: Roman Kravchenko, CEO, 482.solutions
United Arab Emirates (UAE): Makki Ibrahim, Manager, EY
United Arab Emirates (UAE): Ola Johannes Lind, CEO, FTFT Capital Investments
United Arab Emirates (UAE): Sheikh Zayed Al Nahyan
United Kingdom: Glenn Hall, Head of Government Relations & Public Policy, Norton Rose Fulbright
United Kingdom: Doug Johnson-Poensgen, CEO, Circulor
United Kingdom: Duncan Johnston-Watt, CEO & Co-Founder, Blockchain Technology Partners (BTP)
United Kingdom: Hannah Meakin, Partner, Norton Rose Fulbright
United States: Rod Beckstrom, Former President and CEO of ICANN,The Rod Beckstrom Group
United States: Jim Newsome, Founding Partner, Delta Strategy Group; Former President and CEO, NYMEX; Former Chairman, CFTC
United States: Bill Tai, Board Chair, ACTAI Global; Venture Capitalist
United States: Jason Weinstein, Partner, Steptoe & Johnson LLP; Former Department of Justice (DOJ)
Uruguay: Alex Nascimento, Managing Director, 7Visions
Uzbekistan: Rustam Rahmatov, Founder & CEO, IMAN
Vanuatu: Glen Craig, Managing Partner, Pacific Advisory
Vietnam: Valerie Van Tran, Harvard Kennedy School
Vietnam: Ashish Verma, Director – Finance, IT and Operations, 2X Global Ltd
Zimbabwe: Christopher Light, CEO, E-Livestock Global
About GBBC
Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC) is the largest leading industry association for the blockchain technology and digital assets community. Launched in Davos in 2017, GBBC is a Swiss-based non-profit, with more than 500 institutional members, and 231 Ambassadors across 109 jurisdictions and disciplines. The organization is dedicated to furthering adoption of blockchain technology by convening regulators, business leaders, and global changemakers to foster collaboration and advance dialogue to create more secure, equitable, and functional societies.