Shane Rodgers
Co-Founder
Mr. Rodgers has more than 30 years experience in investment banking and corporate finance, as well as management and operations, in Australia and the United States. Mr. Rodgers served in a wide variety of positions, including as Co-founder and Chairman and CEO of Anglo Arabian Corporation Ltd. , an unlisted Australian public investment company from 1980 to 1985; A director at Satco Power Corporation, which he helped take public, from 1985 to 1987 Chairman and CEO of the Chancellor Group, Inc., a publicly-traded US oil & gas company, from 1997 to 2001; as a partner and Chairman of Capital General Partners, an Australian boutique corporate advisory firm from 1996 to 1998, and as a Partner in KKR Associates, an Australian investment partnership (unrelated to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.), from 1993 to 1995.
Mr. Rodgers has invested in and has raised capital for companies across a diverse range of sectors, including media and communications, power generation, real estate, oil & gas, business and financial services, and biotechnology. Mr. Rodgers has also originated, or advised upon, a variety of reverse-merger transactions in the United States since 1985, and has structured and negotiated tax efficient debt and equity financings in the power generation sector.
Mr. Rodgers was also on the boards of US Mining Inc., a public company currently in the process of relisting, and with mining and mineral trading operations in the US, Australia, Mongolia, and China; Luminx Industry Corp, a manufacturer and wholesaler of LED lighting technology with manufacturing, assembly, R&D, and administrative operations in the US, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, and Europe; Global Fashion Group Inc, a roll-up of fashion industry design, manufacturing, wholesale and fashion retail businesses operating in the US, China, Taiwan, and Korea; and was formerly an advisor to GreenTec-USA Inc, a US defense contractor and manufacturer of advanced computer technology based in Reston, Virginia.
Annelyse Fournier
Chief Operating Officer
Ms. Fournier is the Founder and CEO of AIF London Limited and AIF Advisory - FCZO in Dubai, an independent Reward and Leadership Advisory Practice that focuses on C-Suite and Board Remuneration, Organization Transformation for IPO, M&A or corporate restructuring and start-up.
With over 20 years' of executive experience in C-Suites and Boards at multi-cultural and multinational environments, she advises across industries, from FMCG, Biotech, Financial Services, FinTech, Family Office, Private Equity etc.
She holds Non-Executives Board roles as a Director and Board member of the Grosvenor Waterside Residents Company (London) and is Vice Chair of the Council and a member of Audit Committee at The Welding Institute (TWI - Cambridge University).
Her passion for education led her to serve as a school Governor at Chesterton Primary School (Wandsworth) and she has close ties with Sophia Women in Hong-Kong, an organization that specializes in financial education for women.
She is also the Founder of Lime & Zest Wellness, a nutrition and wellness start-up.
She is a trained economist and holds an MBA from the European University of Geneva, Switzerland, and is also a qualified Nutrition and Wellness coach. She is fluent in French and English, with good knowledge of Italian and German.
Monika Proffitt
Senior Advisor
Monika Proffitt is an international speaker, author, and serial entrepreneur working at the nexus of fintech and social impact. She has founded businesses in the real estate, technology, fine arts, education, and hospitality sectors. Through these endeavors, she has brought a social impact ethos and a tangible investment model to sustainable rebuilding efforts that target some of the poorest regions in the United States. Monika is the Founder of Rise Markets and Managing Director at Weild & Co. in New York City, as well as the author of Blockchain 101, a straightforward explanation of how cutting edge technology is moving finance and capital markets into the future.
Monika is a nationally-recognized financial speaker, author and serial entrepreneur. She co-hosts the podcast, the New Trust Economy, which is available on Spotify, iTunes, etc., and serves as a resource for Inc. Magazine, Forbes, Nikkei, Venturebeat, Hackernoon, GritDaily, and has spoken at MIT, Princeton, Notre Dame, and other universities throughout the US and Europe on topics as wide-ranging as the value of cultural capital, access-driven economic structures, regulations and laws that affect the financial industry, and how to bring sustainable impact to any business.
Monika's expertise showcases how the convergence of new technologies will enable the consumer of the future to be the driver in nearly every vertical of the new, post-blockchain economy. From discussing new marketplace entry points, to describing how consumer and worker interests will be reflected in new market movements, Monika uses her platform to enthusiastically illuminate how blockchain technology is set to disrupt how we think of consumers, creators, and drivers of value in the global economy.
She has been featured in Forbes, Inc. Magazine, and Vogue Italia, and has spoken at universities throughout the US and Europe. She also lectures in blockchain and cryptocurrency at City University of New York.
Sam Hennes
Advisor - Payments Platforms and Commercialization
Sam Hennes is a seasoned software Founder & CEO who has scaled two companies, leading to their successful exits. The last company that he founded was an e-commerce booking marketplace which integrated via API to various 3rd party point of sale software systems assisting businesses in filling their last-minute openings seamlessly. The company was acquired in 2017 by Monetary, a payment processing company. Prior to that, Sam started and scaled a full service digital marketing company with a primary focus on email marketing for businesses of all sizes. This company was acquired in 2015.
Sam has a proven history of:- - Identifying untapped opportunities and building products around them to scale.
- - Creating compelling and profitable go-to-market strategies for the products developed.
- - Rolling up his sleeves to do whatever it takes to take an idea from the product development phase, to a successful execution and exit.
Sam is working closely with PDX to define, implement and execute its go-to-market strategies in respect to the full global roll-out of its crypto-to-fiat payments platform and associated apps, including negotiating mission-critical commercial arrangements with key partners.
Dr. Sidhic A, Muhammed
Senior Advisor, Blockchain Technology and Applications
Dr. Muhammed is a post graduate of Commerce from University of Kerala, India 1991. He is the founder of the Chancellor European Digital University, Dr. Sidhic is also the President of Canada Blockchain Summit Ltd., situated in World Trade Center, Toronto, and is the Managing Director of the European Blockchain Center in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.
Over the past 25 years he has become an authority on doing business in the Asia and in the Middle East. Having spent the past 10 years in Saudi Arabia forming educational programs that would make the world more aware of the technology of Saudi Arabia and Asia, he has become an expert on these particular markets.
Most recently, in 2019 he was honored at the University of Dubai by its President Dr. Eesa Bastaki for his preeminent achievements in Blockchain technology. He regularly speaks at blockchain summits around the world, and can also be seen frequently in the cryptocurrency and blockchain related media.
Arvind Sharma
Senior Technology Advisor
Mr. Sharma is based in London, UK, where he is on the team at Quontex, a boutique software development and technology consulting firm.