Meet the Dusk Network team
Jelle Pol
Business Lead
Jelle Pol is in charge of business at Dusk. He started his career at the aPaaS platform Mendix, which was recently acquired by Siemens. After experiencing what it is like to work for a scale up, he went on to play a key role in the Technical Innovation department at Shell, where he founded the blockchain team. During his time in the blockchain team the first three blockchain projects were started and Shell joined the EWF and Ethereum Enterprise Alliance. He finished his career at Shell in Renewable Energies, before venturing out to start his own ventures in the blockchain space. He is considered all rounded, meaning deep knowledge of both the technical development, the company structure and fundraising.
Fulvio Venturelli
Lead Devops
Fulvio Venturelli (Amazon, Excite, TomTom) is a software engineer at heart. Specializes in project management, software architecture and infrastructure. Together with Emanuele, he published four patents in the realm of IoT, sensor networking, positioning system and blockchain.
Mels Dees
Marketing Lead
Mels Dees graduated Cum Laude in Business Economics. Specializes and actively researches blockchain uses case and is an experienced digital growth strategist. His corporate experience stems from the financial industry where he performed classification and measurement on a near thousand of financial contracts and architected financial disclosures. Prior to starting Dusk he founded a blockchain consultancy where he build go-to-market strategies for newly funded companies. Former RaboBank.
Pascal Putman
Commercial Lead
Pascal Putman (ABN Amro, PostNL) specializes in New Business Development and IT advisory. After finishing the PostNL Talent Programme, he founded a consulting start-up in the blockchain space where he helped newly funded companies to build a go-to-market strategy. As a hands on consultant and manager in his former companies, he has vast expertise in creating entire infrastructures as well as pushing new IT products to market.
Dmitry Khovratovich
Lead Cryptographer
Dmitry Khovratovich got his PhD from University of Luxumbourg in 2010. He is the author of the Equihash (Zcash’s hashing algorithm) and MTP proof-of-works, the designer of the Argon2 password hash function, the author of the first attacks on the full AES block cipher. He is a recipient of two IACR Best Paper Awards, and his papers account for >2500 citations.
Milosz Muszynski
Senior Developer
Industry veteran. After attaining his Master’s Degree in Computer Science, worked his magic at major US and Swiss banks, including Goldman Sachs, UBS & Credit Suisse. Has worked as Senior Developer at US & UK firms and now shares his experience and skills in Scala, C++, and blockchain solution development with Dusk Network.
Emanuele Paterna
Software Developer
During his 15 years as a professional software engineer, Emanuele has been involved in a wide variety of industries, including the traditional (banking & notarization) and the high tech (gaming, telcos & automotive). He attributes his ‘polyglot’ software skills to this dichotomy, making him proficient with many technology stacks in Rust/C/Java/Javascript/.NET and more.
Pedro Moranga
DevOps Engineer
Pedro completed his Bachelor in Computer Science at the Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie in São Paulo, Brazil. In addition to his broad expertise in IT infrastructure (for both large and smaller-sized companies alike), he is also passionate about automation and the simplification of IT and its many processes.
Bence Kodaj
Developer
A coder since the age of 14, Bence has an MSc in mathematics and learned C and C++ while attending University. Since then, he has worked in multiple industries (including 3D modeling and aviation finance) and has become an expert in C++. His interest in blockchains and the Rust programming language is what compelled him to join the Dusk Network team.
Xavier Salleras
Cryptography Researcher
Cryptography researcher working mainly on Zero-Knowledge Proofs. He is a PhD student in Applied Cryptography at Pompeu Fabra University, the developer of ZPiE (a C implementation of Groth16 and Bulletproofs Zero-Knowledge proving system), and an adjunct professor of Cryptography & Security.
Javier Silva
Cryptography Researcher
Mathematician with a PhD in Cryptography, during which he worked on improving the efficiency of Zero-Knowledge Proofs and building post-quantum cryptographic primitives based on isogenies of elliptic curves. He has published 6 papers on these topics, and is currently an adjunct professor at Pompeu Fabra University.
Marta Bellés Muñoz
Researcher
Hailing from Spain, Marta’s academic background covers mathematics, cryptography, blockchain, and even classical saxophone. Alongside her efforts at Dusk Network, she’s currently doing a PhD at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, further enabling her to share her advanced knowledge on topics such as classic cryptography and zero-knowledge proofs.
Eduardo Leegwater Simões
Cryptographer
Eduardo trained as a physicist at Leiden University, before shifting his focus to cryptography. As a former consultant for a large IT firm (and part of their blockchain working group), Eduardo is well acquainted with leveraging state-of-the-art technology for business applications.
Robin Massini
Strategy Manager
Robin operates at the core of Dusk's decision-making. Piecing together all of dusk’s processes, he taps into his wide array of experience and puts his curious mind to work. Former strategy consultant at his own boutique, involved in the sustainable growth of DLT companies, Robin actually started his career in Finance at Dutch Logistics Firm PostNL.
Sabine de Witte
PR Comms and Spokesperson
With 11 years under her belt, Sabine joins Dusk Network as a PR-executive and Spokesperson. Having worked for a wide variety of clients and projects as a freelance journalist, pr-executive and consultant, she is an experienced marketeer. Her interest in new technologies plainly shows in her FinTech and Blockchain track record. Prior to Dusk Network, she was part of a Berlin based startup that creates self-sovereign identity (SSI), organised the Dutch Premiere of the StartPage movie where Snowden made a video appearance, mentored at Rockstart: the Amsterdam based startup accelerator, and worked as a scout for Venture Capital investors.
Victor Lopez
System Developer
Victor Lopez contributes to the Zero-Knowledge Virtual Machine. Rust evangelist, speaker at RustRush. Actively participated in projects like Ethereum, where he did research and experimentation on the Ethereum 2.0 lighthouse implementation. Former TOTVS, Ortobom and National Platform where he implemented several large scale distributed financial systems.
Kristoffer Ström
VM Engineer
At Dusk Network, Kristoffer Ström is developing the Web Assembly/Rust zero-knowledge proof VM for smart contracts. Prior to Dusk he worked for InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) where he was in charge of developing the electron client and IPFS geo-ip. At Parity Ethereum he fixed bugs and worked on an experimental database backend.
Fahad Rana
Community Builder
Fahad is an entrepreneur at heart and a Communications graduate from the University of Toronto, with a core specialization in Media Studies. As a System’s Solutions Architect for AWS, he wears his fondness of Cloud Services on his sleeve. Even more significant is his love of contemporary technologies, capable of providing benefits for small retailers and large enterprises alike. He has joined the Dusk Network team to become its dedicated and knowledgable community builder.
“I'm passionate about that which serves a focused purpose to the benefit of many. Blockchain is a vast sea of limitless potential; Dusk Network is pushing Privacy & Compliance to make it all legitimate. It takes committed and dedicated people to execute that vision and there's no way I am missing out on a chance to be part of it!"
Ryan King
Senior Project Manager
Originally hailing from Morecambe in the U.K., Ryan gained his Master’s Degree in International Relations from the International University of Japan. Since then, he has proven himself adept in a host of positions occupied internationally. Proficient in Japanese, Chinese, and Korean, he’s served as mentor, strategic advisor, and as a Senior Lecturer at multiple universities on the topics of Marketing Management, Entrepreneurship, and Business.
“I’m here because of privacy. It’s a fundamental human right and it has to be built into businesses on a foundational level. On my first call with [co-founder] Jelle Pol, I realized that we were aligned on this issue.”
Berndt de Wit
Head of Marketing
Berndt has been working in the marketing industry and leading marketing teams for a variety of multinational companies over the past few years. Bringing in his expertise on marketing, brand management, performance and content strategies, Berndt will be able to bring the Dusk Network marketing activities to the next level.
Emanuele Francioni
Project & Tech Lead
Inventor of the Dusk Network blockchain and the Segregated Byzantine Agreement consensus mechanism. Author of the Dusk Network whitepaper. Emanuele Francioni (Tomtom, Commerzbank and Vitrociset) has 20 years in R&D, tech leadership and software development on Byzantine Fault Tolerance systems, distributed computing, sensor networks and cryptography. Together with Fulvio, he published four patents in the realm of IoT, sensor networking, positioning system and blockchain.
Fulvio Venturelli
Lead Devops
Fulvio Venturelli (Amazon, Excite, TomTom) is a software engineer at heart. Specializes in project management, software architecture and infrastructure. Together with Emanuele, he published four patents in the realm of IoT, sensor networking, positioning system and blockchain.
Dmitry Khovratovich
Lead Cryptographer
Dmitry Khovratovich got his PhD from University of Luxumbourg in 2010. He is the author of the Equihash (Zcash’s hashing algorithm) and MTP proof-of-works, the designer of the Argon2 password hash function, the author of the first attacks on the full AES block cipher. He is a recipient of two IACR Best Paper Awards, and his papers account for >2500 citations.
Milosz Muszynski
Senior Developer
Industry veteran. After attaining his Master’s Degree in Computer Science, worked his magic at major US and Swiss banks, including Goldman Sachs, UBS & Credit Suisse. Has worked as Senior Developer at US & UK firms and now shares his experience and skills in Scala, C++, and blockchain solution development with Dusk Network.
Emanuele Paterna
Software Developer
During his 15 years as a professional software engineer, Emanuele has been involved in a wide variety of industries, including the traditional (banking & notarization) and the high tech (gaming, telcos & automotive). He attributes his ‘polyglot’ software skills to this dichotomy, making him proficient with many technology stacks in Rust/C/Java/Javascript/.NET and more.
Pedro Moranga
DevOps Engineer
Pedro completed his Bachelor in Computer Science at the Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie in São Paulo, Brazil. In addition to his broad expertise in IT infrastructure (for both large and smaller-sized companies alike), he is also passionate about automation and the simplification of IT and its many processes.
Bence Kodaj
Developer
A coder since the age of 14, Bence has an MSc in mathematics and learned C and C++ while attending University. Since then, he has worked in multiple industries (including 3D modeling and aviation finance) and has become an expert in C++. His interest in blockchains and the Rust programming language is what compelled him to join the Dusk Network team.
Xavier Salleras
Cryptography Researcher
Cryptography researcher working mainly on Zero-Knowledge Proofs. He is a PhD student in Applied Cryptography at Pompeu Fabra University, the developer of ZPiE (a C implementation of Groth16 and Bulletproofs Zero-Knowledge proving system), and an adjunct professor of Cryptography & Security.
Javier Silva
Cryptography Researcher
Mathematician with a PhD in Cryptography, during which he worked on improving the efficiency of Zero-Knowledge Proofs and building post-quantum cryptographic primitives based on isogenies of elliptic curves. He has published 6 papers on these topics, and is currently an adjunct professor at Pompeu Fabra University.
Marta Bellés Muñoz
Researcher
Hailing from Spain, Marta’s academic background covers mathematics, cryptography, blockchain, and even classical saxophone. Alongside her efforts at Dusk Network, she’s currently doing a PhD at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, further enabling her to share her advanced knowledge on topics such as classic cryptography and zero-knowledge proofs.
Eduardo Leegwater Simões
Cryptographer
Eduardo trained as a physicist at Leiden University, before shifting his focus to cryptography. As a former consultant for a large IT firm (and part of their blockchain working group), Eduardo is well acquainted with leveraging state-of-the-art technology for business applications.
Victor Lopez
System Developer
Victor Lopez contributes to the Zero-Knowledge Virtual Machine. Rust evangelist, speaker at RustRush. Actively participated in projects like Ethereum, where he did research and experimentation on the Ethereum 2.0 lighthouse implementation. Former TOTVS, Ortobom and National Platform where he implemented several large scale distributed financial systems.
Kristoffer Ström
VM Engineer
At Dusk Network, Kristoffer Ström is developing the Web Assembly/Rust zero-knowledge proof VM for smart contracts. Prior to Dusk he worked for InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) where he was in charge of developing the electron client and IPFS geo-ip. At Parity Ethereum he fixed bugs and worked on an experimental database backend.
Jelle Pol
Business Lead
Jelle Pol is in charge of business at Dusk. He started his career at the aPaaS platform Mendix, which was recently acquired by Siemens. After experiencing what it is like to work for a scale up, he went on to play a key role in the Technical Innovation department at Shell, where he founded the blockchain team. During his time in the blockchain team the first three blockchain projects were started and Shell joined the EWF and Ethereum Enterprise Alliance. He finished his career at Shell in Renewable Energies, before venturing out to start his own ventures in the blockchain space. He is considered all rounded, meaning deep knowledge of both the technical development, the company structure and fundraising.
Mels Dees
Marketing Lead
Mels Dees graduated Cum Laude in Business Economics. Specializes and actively researches blockchain uses case and is an experienced digital growth strategist. His corporate experience stems from the financial industry where he performed classification and measurement on a near thousand of financial contracts and architected financial disclosures. Prior to starting Dusk he founded a blockchain consultancy where he build go-to-market strategies for newly funded companies. Former RaboBank.
Pascal Putman
Commercial Lead
Pascal Putman (ABN Amro, PostNL) specializes in New Business Development and IT advisory. After finishing the PostNL Talent Programme, he founded a consulting start-up in the blockchain space where he helped newly funded companies to build a go-to-market strategy. As a hands on consultant and manager in his former companies, he has vast expertise in creating entire infrastructures as well as pushing new IT products to market.
Robin Massini
Strategy Manager
Robin operates at the core of Dusk's decision-making. Piecing together all of dusk’s processes, he taps into his wide array of experience and puts his curious mind to work. Former strategy consultant at his own boutique, involved in the sustainable growth of DLT companies, Robin actually started his career in Finance at Dutch Logistics Firm PostNL.
Sabine de Witte
PR Comms and Spokesperson
With 11 years under her belt, Sabine joins Dusk Network as a PR-executive and Spokesperson. Having worked for a wide variety of clients and projects as a freelance journalist, pr-executive and consultant, she is an experienced marketeer. Her interest in new technologies plainly shows in her FinTech and Blockchain track record. Prior to Dusk Network, she was part of a Berlin based startup that creates self-sovereign identity (SSI), organised the Dutch Premiere of the StartPage movie where Snowden made a video appearance, mentored at Rockstart: the Amsterdam based startup accelerator, and worked as a scout for Venture Capital investors.
Fahad Rana
Community Builder
Fahad is an entrepreneur at heart and a Communications graduate from the University of Toronto, with a core specialization in Media Studies. As a System’s Solutions Architect for AWS, he wears his fondness of Cloud Services on his sleeve. Even more significant is his love of contemporary technologies, capable of providing benefits for small retailers and large enterprises alike. He has joined the Dusk Network team to become its dedicated and knowledgable community builder.
“I'm passionate about that which serves a focused purpose to the benefit of many. Blockchain is a vast sea of limitless potential; Dusk Network is pushing Privacy & Compliance to make it all legitimate. It takes committed and dedicated people to execute that vision and there's no way I am missing out on a chance to be part of it!"
Ryan King
Senior Project Manager
Originally hailing from Morecambe in the U.K., Ryan gained his Master’s Degree in International Relations from the International University of Japan. Since then, he has proven himself adept in a host of positions occupied internationally. Proficient in Japanese, Chinese, and Korean, he’s served as mentor, strategic advisor, and as a Senior Lecturer at multiple universities on the topics of Marketing Management, Entrepreneurship, and Business.
“I’m here because of privacy. It’s a fundamental human right and it has to be built into businesses on a foundational level. On my first call with [co-founder] Jelle Pol, I realized that we were aligned on this issue.”
Berndt de Wit
Head of Marketing
Berndt has been working in the marketing industry and leading marketing teams for a variety of multinational companies over the past few years. Bringing in his expertise on marketing, brand management, performance and content strategies, Berndt will be able to bring the Dusk Network marketing activities to the next level.
Inventor of the Dusk Network blockchain and the Segregated Byzantine Agreement consensus mechanism. Author of the Dusk Network whitepaper. Emanuele Francioni (Tomtom, Commerzbank and Vitrociset) has 20 years in R&D, tech leadership and software development on Byzantine Fault Tolerance systems, distributed computing, sensor networks and cryptography. Together with Fulvio, he published four patents in the realm of IoT, sensor networking, positioning system and blockchain.