Agoric is an open-source development company launching an interoperable Proof-of-Stake chain and economy. Our JavaScript-native smart contract platform offers developers a safe, reusable library of DeFi components to rapidly build and deploy on-chain.
The team includes experts with proven success in bringing disruptive technologies and products to market.
Mark S. Miller is a pioneer of Agoric (market-based secure distributed) computing and smart contracts, the main designer of the E and Dr. SES distributed persistent object-capability programming languages, inventor of Miller Columns, an architect of the Xanadu hypertext publishing system, a representative to the EcmaScript committee, a former Google research scientist, and a senior fellow of the Foresight Institute.
Dean Tribble co-designed the negotiation process and contract for the first smart contracting system, AMiX. As a Principal Architect at Microsoft, he co-designed the Midori distributed object-capability operating system. As founder and CTO for Agorics (acquired by Microsoft), he architected the brokerage information system for Schwab’s active traders and the WebMart electronic contract system for SunLabs. As CTO of VerifyValid and VP of Deluxe, his echeck systems have carried billions of dollars.
Turadg is a software engineer driven by social impact. The past 25 years he has worked in education technology, from research labs at UC Berkeley and Carnegie Mellon University to high growth startups Coursera and Quizlet. He has published in IEEE and presented at CHI, CSCL, and EDM. As a software engineer he enjoys open source and improving developer experiences, beginning in 1999 making php-mode for Emacs and more recently leading product architecture at Quizlet. He holds a PhD in Human Computer Interaction. When not at the computer, he enjoys walking with his wife and daughter, learning about human nature, and dabbling with bass guitar.
Bio coming soon!
Dan is a distinguished software engineer and instrumental in developing numerous industry standards that drove the Internet’s evolution. Working alongside Tim Berners-Lee at the IETF and Web Consortium, Dan’s roles include work as editor and working group chair of HTML, HTTP, and URL specifications. As a research scientist at MIT, he led semantic web efforts (RDF, OWL, SPARQL) and published formal systems research in venues such as the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. Dan has worked as a software developer at startups to large institutions and led research and large-scale data integration efforts. Outside of work, he enjoys time with family, hitting the trail with his dog, and playing guitar with friends.
Josh has over a decade of experience in the law, advising the world’s most prominent Wall Street banks, fintechs, and crypto companies. A graduate of Harvard, the London School of Economics, and Vanderbilt Law School, Josh clerked for a federal district court judge before joining the bank regulatory group at Sullivan & Cromwell. Before joining Agoric, he was Senior Product Counsel at Ripple and the General Counsel of two early-stage technology companies.
Michael is a generalist software developer and system administrator with 25 years of experience who enjoys the challenges of working with diverse technologies at all layers of the computing platform. He has a background in free software, embedded systems, operating systems, language virtual machines, full-stack development, and network security. Notably, Michael has worked as a developer for the Free Software Foundation and a system administrator for Google. When not on the computer, he spends time with his daughters, plays the accordion, and enjoys good food.
Richard Gibson was principal architect of the Managed DNS service and other robust distributed internet systems at Dyn and Oracle, and author of internal and external consistency guidance at both organizations. He has been a frequent contributor to and occasional maintainer of open source projects across GitHub since first getting involved with jQuery in 2011 and ECMA TC39 a few years later. Richard lives with his family in New Hampshire on purpose, where he can frequently be seen running over hill and dale all year long.
Rowland Graus is a highly accomplished startup software company product leader. He has launched multiple enterprise products driving the growth of millions in revenue. Rowland began his career in private equity, where he led research projects resulting in billions in acquisition value. Rowland is obsessed with defi products and is probably farming yours right now. Rowland earned his BA in Economics from the University of Virginia and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Hannah is a DeFi specialist with experience quantifying risk of DeFi projects and optimizing DeFi ecosystems. She also specializes in tokenomics planning, completing the Token Engineering Commons Academy course and leading two token launches at DeFi startups. Before entering web3 and blockchain, she worked as an actuary. She volunteers with Giveth Foundation, a nonprofit DAO utilizing cryptocurrency and blockchain technology to offer a permissionless way to donate and fundraise currencies for charity.
Chris is a software engineer who has worked on email security, financial cryptography, S/W development tools, highly social mobile games, and privacy. He wrote Zocalo, an open source platform for Prediction Markets. He has worked at Xerox PARC, Digital Equipment, Google, and several small companies. On his own time, he reads science fiction, plays volleyball, and is a rock climber.
Mathieu is a software engineer, passionate about pushing the boundaries of what can be built using web technologies, from low level JavaScript features to front-end APIs. At Stripe, he improved the security, reliability, and performance of their browser Payments SDK. At Citrix, he spearheaded the creation of browser-based collaboration experiences, from prototyping early GoToMeeting web clients to designing the underlying communication protocols. On his own time, he enjoys cooking, solving distributed garbage collection, and riding his mountain bike.
Michael is a proven industry disruptor. In his 25+ years of strategic leadership, he has leveraged disruptive technologies, (IP, VoIP, Smart Home) to both drive monumental change and unleash brand new business opportunities. At Spectrum (formerly Time Warner Cable), as VP of Product and Strategy he launched and led the growth of Digital Phone to over 4M subscribers and $2B in annual revenue. Off the clock, Michael is literally a wanderer, usually traveling sans map or solid plan.
Joyce Kim came to Agoric from BloFi, where she served as an operations analyst. She has a BA in Government and East Asian Studies from Smith College. She loves to volunteer and help out her church and community. Joyce plays tennis and is a big foodie.
Kris Kowal introduced the JS community to asynchronous promises with the popular Q library and is the author of the CommonJS module system popularized by Node.js and NPM. Kris built infrastructure at Uber for five years. On nights and weekends, Kris is a Middle-earth cartographer, Elvish calligrapher, OpenMoji contributor, interactive fiction creator, cellular automaton curator, and a hiking camper.
Jim Larson comes to Agoric after 13 years at Google where he primarily worked on Megastore, Google's first planet-scale database that provided fault-tolerant, scalable storage for Gmail, App Engine, and other properties. Before that he developed the replication architecture for Amazon SimpleDB, AWS's first No-SQL database. He brings diverse experience ranging from telemetry and navigation software for deep space probes at JPL, bioinformatics, and large-scale email and mobile messaging platforms. He enjoys running and rock climbing. He has Masters degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science.
Ivan Leichtling has focused his career on building teams and products that impact billions of users. Product highlights at Microsoft include Terminal Services and the RDP protocol, Xbox 360, and the Zune device. At Yelp, he founded and led teams for all aspects of security. At Apple, his security teams contributed to iOS, macOS, iCloud, and data center security. Ivan earned his BS in computer science at Columbia University.
Over 20 years in software development, Touseef has made contributions at industry giants like Meta, Airbnb, and Microsoft. His works include the core kernel of Windows OS, VMWare's novel container Linux distribution, and a decentralized control plane for building scalable microservices. Armed with a master's in theoretical computer science, he blends his professional pursuits with personal passions. He cherishes quality moments with his family, jogs through the scenic routes of Seattle, and actively leads discussions at a local tech meetup.
Anthony Mandelli, aka Antman, is a crypto and technology marketing professional with a background in content, social media, analytics, and digital communication. He’s experienced in long-term content production and strategy, social media strategy, and community building. Recently, he has held roles at Coin Metrics and TQ Tezos, and has consulted with many projects and teams in the crypto industry. When he's not partnering with the Avengers, Antman plays guitar and makes homemade hot sauces.
Chip Morningstar led software development for AMiX, including implementing its smart contracting system. He is a pioneer in virtual worlds and online games, designing and leading the creation of Lucasfilm's Habitat, the first MMO, for which, among other things, he coined the term "Avatar" in its modern usage. He co-founded Electric Communities where he was one of the implementors of the E programming language and many other technical precursors to Agoric's approach to distributed systems. He is the co-creator of the JSON data interchange format and current editor of the Ecma/ISO JSON standard. He is also an avid photographer and model railroader.
Matthew builds high-performing teams by fostering equity, belonging, and performance. With psychology degrees from Northeastern University (BA) and William James College (MA), he applies his understanding of organizational behavior and design to everything from sourcing diverse talent to collaborating with leadership. He came to Agoric from Sundae, where he was Director of Human Resources and Talent, following time with ?What If! Innovation at Accenture, Denstu Aegis, and Vecna Robotics. In his spare time, he likes to play and produce music.
Brendan has led technology and design teams in building successful technology products at start-ups to large organizations like Royal Bank of Scotland and Telstra, across crypto, banking, and telecommunications. He firmly believes well-designed, human-centric products have a considerable part to play in defining standards and norms. He received his undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Biochemistry and Business Studies from the National University of Ireland, Galway. He loves to learn, read non-fiction, travel, surf, and work out in his downtime.
Jeet worked previously as the Academic Partnerships and Educational Programming Manager for the Chicago Blockchain Project. He is also a Gitcoin KERNEL fellow. Jeet worked as an instructional designer at General Assembly, creating courses focused on web development and data. Jeet previously co-founded Behold.ai, an AI diagnostics company. He was also an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the NYU Steinhardt EdTech Accelerator. Jeet holds a Bachelor’s degree in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Master’s degree in Instructional Technology and Media from Columbia University. In his free time, he likes to mentor rising entrepreneurs and find new ramen restaurants in New York City.
A versatile emerging technology and business development professional, Anjon focuses on the intersection of digital, financial markets, and blockchain. He’s worked in roles across the entire “go-to-market stack” at startups and large organizations, including Gartner, S&P Global, Sapient, Royal Bank of Canada, and SIMBA Chain. He has a bachelor’s in computer science from Connecticut State University and an MBA from Georgetown University. When not at work, he’s chasing around his three young sons and playing something vaguely resembling soccer.
A.J. has excelled in efficiently executing multiple IT programs throughout his career. He's contributed significantly to organizations, including Pinterest, CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield, and WhoLabs, where he played pivotal roles in planning and managing technology-driven projects to enhance products and services. He's led projects and programs in big data, machine learning, communications, fintech, payments processing, and e-commerce. AJ is passionate about global equality of access to technology for the happiest human race.
Raphael is a seasoned security engineer who excels at uncovering vulnerabilities and crafting robust defenses. His tenure at Meta saw him scaling native code analysis as part of the product security team. Raphael helmed a team of infrastructure security engineers at WeWork and fortified Spotify’s infrastructure in anticipation of its public listing. As a security consultant for iSEC Partners and NCC Group, he further broadened his expertise. Off the clock, Raphael delights in gaming, domino matches, and judo. Raphael lives in Linden, New Jersey.
Santiago is an expert blockchain and smart contract growth marketer. He was previously at Hype Partners, a Berlin-based blockchain project marketing company. There, he worked on numerous initiatives to launch global developer programs and execute successful funding rounds (ICO & Private). He co-ran the international OFFDevcon blockchain conferences in Prague and Osaka. On the side, you will find Santiago surfing Product Hunt or writing for UI/UX publications. He has a BFA, and MFA in Art, Design, and Media.
Sam is an experienced full stack developer with prior experience earned while working at Shopify, Amazon Lab126, and most recently Google where he spent 3 years building core front-end frameworks and components. He graduated from the University at Buffalo with degrees in math and computer science. Apart from crypto and programming, his interests include gaming, getting lost in the woods, health and fitness.
Bio coming soon!
Bill Tulloh was a market manager at smart contract pioneer AMiX, was co-founder of the Agorics Project on markets and computation, and was a lead researcher of the Virus Safe Computing project both at George Mason University. He has served as a product manager and director of business development at various software companies.
Brian Warner built Foolscap, a Python-based distributed object-capability system. He created Buildbot, a popular continuous-integration system, co-founded the Tahoe-LAFS capability-based secure distributed storage system, and co-authored the prescient security review of Ethereum. At Mozilla, Brian developed a framework for reviewing modular browser add-ons, co-developed Firefox Sync, and led the security design of the Firefox Accounts login system.