Dr Paolo Tasca – 

Governing Board Chair

Paolo is an adviser on blockchain technologies for different international organisations, including the EU Parliament and the United Nations. Paolo is the founder and Executive Director of the UCL Centre for Blockchain Technologies, the largest academic blockchain research centre in the world. Previously, he was Lead Economist on digital currencies and P2P financial systems at the Deutsche Bundesbank. During his career he has written various scientific articles about blockchain published by prestigious scientific journals and two books: “Banking beyond Banks and Money” and “Blockchain Economics: Implications of Distributed Ledger Technology”. He is also an entrepreneur and inventor of several blockchain-related technologies including Overledger. As Board Chair, Paolo will guide the consortium with his extensive blockchain experience and help develop the research areas and overall strategy of it.

Antony Welfare  –

Executive Director

Antony is a Retail expert, Blockchain leader and author of the #1 bestseller, The Retail Handbook.  Antony has a lifetime of retail and e-commerce expertise, working with, and advising, global retailers and consumer brands.  Antony is currently, Innovation Strategy Director at Oracle Corporation, where he leads the Retail thought leadership for enterprise customers.  Antony is an advisor to the Government Blockchain APPG, UCL Blockchain lecturer and keynote speaker on Blockchain in Retail and Supply chain. Since 2015, Antony had been working with Blockchain technology – focusing on its impact on the entire Retail value chain. As Executive Director, Antony will lead the growth of the consortium, ensuring that the team deliver practical solutions across the Retail value chain utilising Blockchain. 

Geri Cupi –

Technical Director

Geri has extensive experience in retail e-commerce technologies after founding a social commerce company (JOOK) and Social DNA which was exited to Levi's. Geri is currently CEO & Co-founder of MonoChain, a blockchain start-up which is developing provenance and tracking for the luxury second life market. He has been in the blockchain space since 2014 while he was working as a VC at Velo Partners. Also, Geri is a visiting lecturer at University of Bath, UCL & University of Edinburgh. As Technical Director, Geri will look after the blockchain technology development and thought leadership for the consortium.

Nikhil Vadgama – 

Ecosystem Director

Nikhil is the Deputy Executive Director of the UCL Centre for Blockchain Technologies and was responsible for orchestrating the world first accredited Blockchain Executive Education Programme. His experience has spanned multiple sectors including Education, Real Estate and FinTech. Most recently he has been involved in commercialisation of academic research in the AI and Blockchain domains. He was previously an Investment Banker with HSBC. Nikhil has an MBA from INSEAD, an MPhys from Oxford University and has passed all three levels of the CFA programme. As Ecosystem Director he is responsible for managing the effective delivery of the objectives of the consortium to those members of the RBC ecosystem.

Peter Bambridge –

Operations Director

Peter has extensive experience providing solutions to the Retail and Consumer Goods industries. Peter focuses on emerging technologies such as Blockchain, AI and IoT and how they can be utilized in the industry to drive profitable growth. Peter is currently Director - Retail and Consumer Goods, Industry Solutions Group at Oracle Corporation.
In recent years, Peter has explored the potential use cases for Blockchain in Retail and Consumer Goods and is working with customers in the Retail value chain to establish Proof of Concepts and roll them out into production. As a Director within the consortium, Peter will help establish the working parties that will address the needs of the industry, clarify the potential use cases, establish best practice standards and help facilitate their adoption through Blockchain technologies.