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.
Yvo Rico
Head of Corporate Office
Yvo has an impressive track record occupying senior level positions for different distribution- and technology companies. At Dusk Network Yvo will mainly focus on the day to day operations and apply his expertise on Business Development, Human Resources and Legal work. With his experience he will be able to further strengthen the Dusk Network organization and help streamline the business into the next growth phase.
“We have a strong financial position and are less dependent on current market conditions. Our runway is secured up to well into 2025. The insecurities of capital markets therefore have little effect on us as a company. Of course we are vigilant with regards to interest rates and inflation, the war in Ukraine and regulatory developments, but we don’t fear that a possible recession will impact the growth of Dusk Network.”
Ryan King
Head of Business Development
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.”
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.
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.
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.
Hein Dauven
Core Developer
Hein’s first introduction to coding was when his dad put him in front of a code editor at the age of 8. Since then, he's become inseparable from his computer and his love for creating applications. He has been working in the crypto space for 5 years now, being involved in everything from building token sales, NFTs, working on Layer 2 scaling solutions and as a highlight working on Norway's CBDC project. Hein has always been a very active member of the Dusk Network community and we are very proud that we can announce him as one of ours.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Marcus Engel
Marketing Expert
Marcus has a track record of having worked in sports, automotive, and creative industries over the past years. In each of these industries, he combined his creativity and storytelling skills to create engaging stories, concepts, and campaigns to build communities of like-minded people. A media company founder and avid podcaster, Marcus joins the team with a focus on examining new marketing opportunities for Dusk Network.
"Dusk Network has done an exceptional job of developing technology for the future. Now is the time to translate those concepts to a broader audience. I could not be more excited to be part of the thrilling journey ahead for the company.“
Yannick Planteijdt
Marketing Expert
Yannick has a track record of having worked in hospitality, both as a Project Manager and marketer, working for club and restaurant chains in the Netherlands. In each of these companies, he combined his creativity, structure and hands-on mentality to create engaging concepts and campaigns to create the right hype for the correct audience. Yannick was first approached by Dusk Network for his background in hospitality to help organize the logistics of a number of company trips/workcations. After meeting the team and working together, both parties decided it was time for Yannick to join the marketing team for a full time position.
Joah Hinloopen
Business Controller
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!"
Jade Doherty
Copywriter and Content Creator
Jade has a strong background in copywriting and content creation and has previously written for a global humanitarian and meditation organization, as well as various blockchains and crypto companies. She sees a lot of similarities between crypto and meditation; both are very cool but no one really knows what’s going on or what these words and concepts mean! Jade is thrilled to join Dusk and work with a passionate team on a product that has so much potential, and to contribute to the way we tell and share our story.
“I’m really happy to be here and do my part to make the financial system better. I look forward to taking complicated topics and making them accessible, relatable, and relevant to you” -says Jade Doherty
Zaira Pindado Tost
Cryptography Researcher
Zaira is a Mathematician who loved solving puzzles, mathematical problems and playing board games since she was a child. After finishing her Masters degree in Advanced and Professional Mathematics, specializing in research, she worked as a consultant and developer for different technology companies for 4 years. After that, she went back to the academy to start her PhD in Cryptography. During this PhD, she worked on improving the efficiency and security of Zero-Knowledge Proofs and designing new cryptographic primitives like commitment and signature schemes. She has published 5 papers on these topics. After her PhD, she worked one year for QPQ as a Cryptography Researcher where she wrote 2 patents in the topic of privacy using Zero-Knowledge proofs.
"Dusk Network is doing a great job to protect the privacy of its users and I'm really excited to be part of the research team that works to that goal. I'm really happy to take the challenge this job implies and work with such young, exciting and talented people." -says Zaira.
Frederico Franzoni
Network Security Expert
Federico is the typical boy whose teacher would tell he could choose any career in life. He chose Computer Science, whose study shaped his brain into an organization and problem-solving machine. After graduating at the Sapienza university of Rome, he started his professional career as a security researcher, first collaborating with researchers at the Italian National Research Council (CNR), and then earning a PhD title on the security of the Bitcoin network protocol. He spent the last year applying his skills and knowledge to help improve code, design, and documentation of smart-contract-based blockchain protocols. A fortunate turn of events crossed his path with that of Dusk at the perfect time and place, which made joining forces the most natural decision for both.
"Making a blockchain network open, secure, private, and auditable at the same time sounds like a chimera in today's DeFi. Yet Dusk Network is openly facing this challenge with no fear, and I feel proud to help them fulfill this dream. The path is full of perils, but fortune favors the brave." -says Frederico
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.
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.
Hein Dauven
Core Developer
Hein’s first introduction to coding was when his dad put him in front of a code editor at the age of 8. Since then, he's become inseparable from his computer and his love for creating applications. He has been working in the crypto space for 5 years now, being involved in everything from building token sales, NFTs, working on Layer 2 scaling solutions and as a highlight working on Norway's CBDC project. Hein has always been a very active member of the Dusk Network community and we are very proud that we can announce him as one of ours.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Zaira Pindado Tost
Cryptography Researcher
Zaira is a Mathematician who loved solving puzzles, mathematical problems and playing board games since she was a child. After finishing her Masters degree in Advanced and Professional Mathematics, specializing in research, she worked as a consultant and developer for different technology companies for 4 years. After that, she went back to the academy to start her PhD in Cryptography. During this PhD, she worked on improving the efficiency and security of Zero-Knowledge Proofs and designing new cryptographic primitives like commitment and signature schemes. She has published 5 papers on these topics. After her PhD, she worked one year for QPQ as a Cryptography Researcher where she wrote 2 patents in the topic of privacy using Zero-Knowledge proofs.
"Dusk Network is doing a great job to protect the privacy of its users and I'm really excited to be part of the research team that works to that goal. I'm really happy to take the challenge this job implies and work with such young, exciting and talented people." -says Zaira.
Frederico Franzoni
Network Security Expert
Federico is the typical boy whose teacher would tell he could choose any career in life. He chose Computer Science, whose study shaped his brain into an organization and problem-solving machine. After graduating at the Sapienza university of Rome, he started his professional career as a security researcher, first collaborating with researchers at the Italian National Research Council (CNR), and then earning a PhD title on the security of the Bitcoin network protocol. He spent the last year applying his skills and knowledge to help improve code, design, and documentation of smart-contract-based blockchain protocols. A fortunate turn of events crossed his path with that of Dusk at the perfect time and place, which made joining forces the most natural decision for both.
"Making a blockchain network open, secure, private, and auditable at the same time sounds like a chimera in today's DeFi. Yet Dusk Network is openly facing this challenge with no fear, and I feel proud to help them fulfill this dream. The path is full of perils, but fortune favors the brave." -says Frederico
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.
Yvo Rico
Head of Corporate Office
Yvo has an impressive track record occupying senior level positions for different distribution- and technology companies. At Dusk Network Yvo will mainly focus on the day to day operations and apply his expertise on Business Development, Human Resources and Legal work. With his experience he will be able to further strengthen the Dusk Network organization and help streamline the business into the next growth phase.
“We have a strong financial position and are less dependent on current market conditions. Our runway is secured up to well into 2025. The insecurities of capital markets therefore have little effect on us as a company. Of course we are vigilant with regards to interest rates and inflation, the war in Ukraine and regulatory developments, but we don’t fear that a possible recession will impact the growth of Dusk Network.”
Ryan King
Head of Business Development
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.”
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.
Marcus Engel
Marketing Expert
Marcus has a track record of having worked in sports, automotive, and creative industries over the past years. In each of these industries, he combined his creativity and storytelling skills to create engaging stories, concepts, and campaigns to build communities of like-minded people. A media company founder and avid podcaster, Marcus joins the team with a focus on examining new marketing opportunities for Dusk Network.
"Dusk Network has done an exceptional job of developing technology for the future. Now is the time to translate those concepts to a broader audience. I could not be more excited to be part of the thrilling journey ahead for the company.“
Yannick Planteijdt
Marketing Expert
Yannick has a track record of having worked in hospitality, both as a Project Manager and marketer, working for club and restaurant chains in the Netherlands. In each of these companies, he combined his creativity, structure and hands-on mentality to create engaging concepts and campaigns to create the right hype for the correct audience. Yannick was first approached by Dusk Network for his background in hospitality to help organize the logistics of a number of company trips/workcations. After meeting the team and working together, both parties decided it was time for Yannick to join the marketing team for a full time position.
Joah Hinloopen
Business Controller
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!"
Jade Doherty
Copywriter and Content Creator
Jade has a strong background in copywriting and content creation and has previously written for a global humanitarian and meditation organization, as well as various blockchains and crypto companies. She sees a lot of similarities between crypto and meditation; both are very cool but no one really knows what’s going on or what these words and concepts mean! Jade is thrilled to join Dusk and work with a passionate team on a product that has so much potential, and to contribute to the way we tell and share our story.
“I’m really happy to be here and do my part to make the financial system better. I look forward to taking complicated topics and making them accessible, relatable, and relevant to you” -says Jade Doherty
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.