Crypto Hipster

George Worrell (G.P.), Co-Founder and CPO at Blubird is a product leader with more than 20 years in UX and emerging tech. His leadership has been instrumental in simplifying the path from Web2 to Web3 for organizations worldwide. Beyond product strategy, G.P. plays a central role in Blubird’s operations and financial oversight, guiding execution, resource planning, and growth.

Mamadou Kwidjim Toure is an entrepreneur and finance executive who Forbes named one of the Top 10 Most Influential Men in Africa. He spent over 20 years at major institutions like KPMG, BNP Paribas, and IBM, where he managed transactions worth over $25 billion across African infrastructure, mining, and technology.In 2015, Mamadou founded Ubuntu Group to expand access to global capital in Africa. His venture Ubuntu Tribe developed digital gold tokens to give the public broader access to precious metal investments and was recognized as a finalist at the African Bankers Awards in 2019. He sees the digital economy as a way to redistribute wealth and empower communities across Africa.Mamadou has studied at Harvard Kennedy School and completed artificial intelligence programs at MIT. As a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, he advocates for using technology to drive sustainable prosperity in emerging markets.

Mamadou Kwidjim Toure is an entrepreneur and finance executive who Forbes named one of the Top 10 Most Influential Men in Africa. He spent over 20 years at major institutions like KPMG, BNP Paribas, and IBM, where he managed transactions worth over $25 billion across African infrastructure, mining, and technology.In 2015, Mamadou founded Ubuntu Group to expand access to global capital in Africa. His venture Ubuntu Tribe developed digital gold tokens to give the public broader access to precious metal investments and was recognized as a finalist at the African Bankers Awards in 2019. He sees the digital economy as a way to redistribute wealth and empower communities across Africa.Mamadou has studied at Harvard Kennedy School and completed artificial intelligence programs at MIT. As a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, he advocates for using technology to drive sustainable prosperity in emerging markets.

Eran Barak, CEOEran Barak is the CEO of Shielded Technologies, where he leads the executive team and all business activities pertaining to the development of the Midnight Network, as he did in his previous tenure at Input Output Global (IOG). He joined IOG following a successful career building and scaling international services companies in the fintech, IT, and telecommunications sectors.Before Shielded, Eran helped found Symphony, the world-leading B2B collaboration workflow in the financial industry, taking it from inception to unicorn status. Over the past 30 years, he served in leadership and executive positions at world-class industry-leading companies such as Parity Technologies, Amdocs, and Thomson Reuters, where he helped create new offerings and scale their businesses globally. He holds a BSc in Computer Science from Tel Aviv University and an Executive MBA in Marketing from the Kellogg School of Management. Eran enjoys spending time with his family and friends, riding steel roller coasters (never wood), solving puzzles, and collecting early 20th-century US wheat pennies. Shielded TechnologiesShielded Technologies is an emerging engineering company pioneering privacy-enhancing, decentralized technologies designed for real-world compatibility.    A spinout from leading Web3 venture studio Input Output, Shielded brings deep cryptographic expertise as the core technology partner for the Midnight Network - a new blockchain that leverages advanced cryptographic proofs and a cooperative tokenomics design to protect data and metadata while ensuring auditability and compliance. In collaboration with the Midnight Foundation, Shielded is shaping a global ecosystem that upholds the fundamental freedoms of association, commerce, and expression.

Eran Barak, CEOEran Barak is the CEO of Shielded Technologies, where he leads the executive team and all business activities pertaining to the development of the Midnight Network, as he did in his previous tenure at Input Output Global (IOG). He joined IOG following a successful career building and scaling international services companies in the fintech, IT, and telecommunications sectors.Before Shielded, Eran helped found Symphony, the world-leading B2B collaboration workflow in the financial industry, taking it from inception to unicorn status. Over the past 30 years, he served in leadership and executive positions at world-class industry-leading companies such as Parity Technologies, Amdocs, and Thomson Reuters, where he helped create new offerings and scale their businesses globally. He holds a BSc in Computer Science from Tel Aviv University and an Executive MBA in Marketing from the Kellogg School of Management. Eran enjoys spending time with his family and friends, riding steel roller coasters (never wood), solving puzzles, and collecting early 20th-century US wheat pennies. Shielded TechnologiesShielded Technologies is an emerging engineering company pioneering privacy-enhancing, decentralized technologies designed for real-world compatibility.    A spinout from leading Web3 venture studio Input Output, Shielded brings deep cryptographic expertise as the core technology partner for the Midnight Network - a new blockchain that leverages advanced cryptographic proofs and a cooperative tokenomics design to protect data and metadata while ensuring auditability and compliance. In collaboration with the Midnight Foundation, Shielded is shaping a global ecosystem that upholds the fundamental freedoms of association, commerce, and expression.

Driss Benamour is Co-Founder and CEO of YO Labs.With two decades of experience in financial technology, Driss brings a wealth of knowledge around DeFi, crypto, and FinTech. Prior to YO, Driss was Uber’s Head of FinTech Products and led Uber for Business. Prior to Uber, he was the VP of Products at SmartBiz Loans. He also holds an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.YO, short for Yield Optimizer, is a multi-chain yield abstraction layer that unifies capital with the highest-performing yield across 50+ DeFi protocols. YO solves three core problems in DeFi: fragmentation, complexity, and opacity.

Driss Benamour is Co-Founder and CEO of YO Labs.With two decades of experience in financial technology, Driss brings a wealth of knowledge around DeFi, crypto, and FinTech. Prior to YO, Driss was Uber’s Head of FinTech Products and led Uber for Business. Prior to Uber, he was the VP of Products at SmartBiz Loans. He also holds an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.YO, short for Yield Optimizer, is a multi-chain yield abstraction layer that unifies capital with the highest-performing yield across 50+ DeFi protocols. YO solves three core problems in DeFi: fragmentation, complexity, and opacity.

Catie Romero-Finger is the Founder and CEO of BABs, a leading web3 marketing agency that drives sustainable growth through data-driven community strategies. Under her leadership, BABS has delivered measurable engagement and TVL growth for tier-1 Web3 projects through strategic communications and community-building initiatives.A veteran technology marketing executive with 20+ years of experience across US, UK, EU, and UAE markets, Catie champions sustainable business models in Web3 that prioritize multiple revenue streams and genuine community engagement over vanity metrics. Her strategic advisory work helps DeFi projects build lasting value through the combination of robust TVL and active user communities.Biggest accomplishment:Catie's biggest accomplishments include architecting BABs' groundbreaking 360° framework, which has fueled significant success for clients in the decentralized economy, such as record-breaking fundraising and mainstream adoption. She has also received recognition as an influential woman in tech/Web3 by multiple organizations, including the Female Tech Leaders Community, and was selected as a Top BAME50 Leader by TechRound.Little-known fact:Catie is bilingual in English and Spanish and has extensive global experience in tech storytelling, working in markets from Chicago to London, Sevilla, and the MENA area.Global Stages:● Proof of Talk Summit● RWA Paris● Global Blockchain Congress● NFT.NYC & NFT London● Metaweek DubaiCatie’s mission is simple:“I aim to create means for inclusivity and creativity to thrive in the Web3 space, contribute to the mass-adoption of crypto, and most importantly, get more chicks into the Web3!”

Catie Romero-Finger is the Founder and CEO of BABs, a leading web3 marketing agency that drives sustainable growth through data-driven community strategies. Under her leadership, BABS has delivered measurable engagement and TVL growth for tier-1 Web3 projects through strategic communications and community-building initiatives.A veteran technology marketing executive with 20+ years of experience across US, UK, EU, and UAE markets, Catie champions sustainable business models in Web3 that prioritize multiple revenue streams and genuine community engagement over vanity metrics. Her strategic advisory work helps DeFi projects build lasting value through the combination of robust TVL and active user communities.Biggest accomplishment:Catie's biggest accomplishments include architecting BABs' groundbreaking 360° framework, which has fueled significant success for clients in the decentralized economy, such as record-breaking fundraising and mainstream adoption. She has also received recognition as an influential woman in tech/Web3 by multiple organizations, including the Female Tech Leaders Community, and was selected as a Top BAME50 Leader by TechRound.Little-known fact:Catie is bilingual in English and Spanish and has extensive global experience in tech storytelling, working in markets from Chicago to London, Sevilla, and the MENA area.Global Stages:● Proof of Talk Summit● RWA Paris● Global Blockchain Congress● NFT.NYC & NFT London● Metaweek DubaiCatie’s mission is simple:“I aim to create means for inclusivity and creativity to thrive in the Web3 space, contribute to the mass-adoption of crypto, and most importantly, get more chicks into the Web3!”

Chief Executive Officer at Acheron Trading, Laurent Benayoun joined the firm following the acquisition of HedgeTech, the prominent trading algorithms and infrastructure provider he co-founded. Passionate about algorithmic trading strategies and market microstructure, Laurent also serves as a peer reviewer for the Journal of Quantitative Finance, as an expert for Alumni Ventures, as an interviewer for the Master of Finance at Princeton, and as a mentor for the Harvard Blockchain Incubator. Laurent holds a Master’s degree in Financial Mathematics/Engineering from Princeton University.