John is from Devon in the UK, lives in Sydney and has a Masters in intelligent systems (neural networks and genetic algorithms), as well as a Bachelor of Science in AI and Cognitive Psychology and began his career with Fidelity Investments taking on equity / fixed income trade floor operations and technology roles based in London and Boston.John ran PwC's Financial Markets Consulting business across South East Asia and created PwC's first ever Blockchain / Digital Asset Services business unit in 2016. This team focussed on building enterprise grade blockchain, cryptocurrency and P2P digital asset transfer platforms, embedding compliant web 3.0 digital identity solutions and open source permissionless networks.John has spent the last 20 years working on large scale strategic change programs working with organisations such as Samsung SDS, Amazon, Apple as well as global leading FS clients such as Goldmans, Barclays, Citi, Visa and Standard Chartered Bank. Since 2015, John has dedicated his focus to Web 3.0, digital assets, decentralised identity and metaverse related technologies and commerce. Some of the most recent projects include the design and development of Central Bank / Monetary Authorities national digital currencies - advising in the development and deployment of Defi protocols, seed investment and support in metaverse, gaming and related stablecoin payments integration projects.John was previously the Chief Commercial Officer @ Centre.io - a Coinbase and Circle company, owners of USDC smart contracts & standards - in development of a stablecoin global payments network with digital asset natives and financial services providers. John is a founding investor for Ex Populus and is currently the Chief Executive Officer for Xai.Games - an Arbitrum layer 3 orbit chain - built to enable open trade in the next generation of video games