Formerly COO at Gala, joining in early 2021 when the team was still small (circa 20 folks) - their mission, at least at the time, was to empower and create more equity for people across the world, using decentralized technologies and entertainment (games) as the portal. About half way through my time there, I moved over to take on the role of CEO for Gala Music - conceptualizing and building a new platform that put artists, fans and web3 enthusiasts in a direct and mutually beneficial relationship. For someone who has been a consultant, entrepreneur, investor and cat herder for many years, I felt there was something amazing about a driver for change, that wasn’t reliant solely on greed or indeed fear - but rather the ‘satisfaction of emotion’. In other words, an experience that an individual and/or a collective could derive enjoyment and a sense of fulfillment from, while also generating the same people, real world value. This approach to technology and decentralization felt fun and uniquely ‘human’, something I thought incredibly important in what is an excitingly limitless, but increasingly transactional, veneered and screen-deep world. Roll forward to 2024, I made a move to become the CEO of a company called MaidSafe, and a project formerly known as the SAFE Network, now known as Autonomi. Among other things, Autonomi is an incredible feat of engineering that, once fully released, will enable the world to benefit from a truly decentralized, web-serverless and autonomous internet - something that has been promised and worked on for many years, but has yet to ever really materialize. What excites me, is Autonomi will enable people and those they work with, to put their aspirations into action - reducing the influence of the few, and removing the manipulation, division and conditioning that 20 years of data dysmorphia has left us with - using Autonomi and any combination of device, network and services a person chooses, to build viable web 3.0 peer to peer applications and experiences.