Built by the people
who built the industry.
Ten years of turning college students into founders,
operators, and protocol builders.
Leadership
The people running BEN today.
UF Warrington College of Business grad ('20) and past president of the Gator Blockchain Club. General Partner at BEN Ventures, a fund backing student founders building Web3 startups. Advisory Board member at the UF Blockchain Lab, which secured a $270K Algorand Foundation grant to build open-source blockchain education. Previously at Oracle HQ, multiple VC firms, and GDA Capital. Leads BEN's ecosystem growth, strategic partnerships, and network expansion across 10,000+ students in 35+ countries.
Antonio Gomes
President & GP, BEN | Advisory Board, UF Blockchain Lab
Studied in Budapest. Former finance lead at Morgan Stanley, where she managed a team across financial operations. Now Chief Marketing Officer at BEN, driving brand strategy, campaigns, and growth for the network.
Zsofia Kerekes
Chief Marketing Officer, BEN
Instituto Superior Técnico grad. Leads AI and product development at BEN, building autonomous agents and AI-powered tools at the intersection of artificial intelligence and blockchain. Also a consultant at Efficio.
Filipe Lucas Inês
Head of AI & Product, BEN
Universidade Metodista de São Paulo grad, now based in Lisbon. Lead software engineer at BEN, building and maintaining the network's web platform. Previously a software engineer at IBM.
Gabriela de Almeida
Lead Software Engineer, BEN
Miami University grad and former president of its Blockchain Club. Runs the annual Zebu Live conference in London and advises BEN on events strategy and partnerships. Also at Onchain Foundation.
Ashton Barger
Advisor, Events & Partnerships, BEN
University of Mindanao grad. Manages data operations, research workflows, and intelligence gathering across BEN's global network. Supports leadership with structured analysis and operational insights across BEN's 10,000+ student network.
Reynaldo Darit
Operations & Research Analyst, BEN
Last Executive Director of BEN before going full-time founder. Building NestEgg — blockchain-powered investing in real-world infrastructure like solar. Deep experience in blockchain partnerships and network strategy.
Dean Masley
Advisor, Partnerships & Ecosystem, BEN
Managing Partner and Co-Founder of OneSixOne Ventures. Previously founded Gainesville-based content marketing agency Rootex and is a publishing partner at Innovations of the World. Advises BEN on venture strategy, fund operations, and LP relationships.
Pablo Casilimas
Advisor, Ventures & Partnerships, BEN
Been in crypto since 2013 — 3 exits, 4 acquisitions, 70+ portfolio companies. Founded Bitcoin Canada and MLG Blockchain before building GDA Capital. Took Tron ($20B peak) and Loopring to capital markets. Advises BEN on capital markets strategy and institutional partnerships.
Michael Gord
Advisor, Capital Markets & Strategy, BEN
MIT grad and former president of the MIT Bitcoin Club. Researched with the MIT Digital Currency Initiative. Oversees strategic direction at BEN while serving as Ecosystem Lead at Nibiru Chain.
Erick Pinos
Board Director & Head of Strategy, BEN
Babson College grad and Colombia native raised in New York City. Founder of Vera Ventures. Advises BEN on global operations, community strategy, and cross-border growth initiatives.
Mel Vera
Advisor, Operations & Community, BEN
Notable Alumni
They started as students. Now they run companies.
Founded BEN at the University of Michigan in 2014, then co-founded Augur — the first decentralized prediction market on Ethereum and first utility token ICO. Also founded SAAVHA and was EIR at Blockchain Capital.
Jeremy Gardner
Co-Founder, Augur & BEN
UF grad (2010) and former TV host on RT America. Founded The Digital Chamber in 2014 — the largest blockchain trade association in the U.S., representing over 200 companies. Former legislative analyst in the U.S. House of Representatives. Named to Forbes 30 Under 30 and recognized as one of the most influential people in blockchain policy.
Perianne Boring
Founder & Chair, The Digital Chamber
Co-founded Optimism, the Ethereum L2. Started in crypto at the MIT Bitcoin Club, then went to Nasdaq as blockchain PM and co-founded Eximchain before building Optimism.
Jinglan Wang
Co-Founder, Optimism
Co-founded IOTA, the distributed ledger for the Internet of Things, which reached a peak market cap of over $14 billion. Won his first hackathon at 16 and has been building in crypto since 2011. Based in Berlin.
Dominik Schiener
Co-Founder, IOTA
Managing Partner at Pantera Capital, one of the first and largest crypto-focused investment firms. BEN Advisory Board Member since 2017, helping with corporate engagement and fundraising.
Paul Veradittakit
Managing Partner, Pantera Capital
Dropped out of Stanford at 19 to build Bolt, now valued at over $11 billion. Returned as CEO in 2025 to turn it into a super app across e-commerce, financial services, and crypto.
Ryan Breslow
Founder & CEO, Bolt
Founding CEO of CoinList ($1.5B) — ran token sales for Solana, Filecoin, and Near. Started the Stanford Bitcoin Group as a student.
Andy Bromberg
CEO & Co-Founder, Eco; Co-Founder, CoinList
Left NYU at 19 to co-found Injective, now a $1.3B DeFi chain backed by Mark Cuban. Deutsche Telekom runs a validator on the network.
Eric Chen
Co-Founder & CEO, Injective
Co-founded Augur, the first decentralized prediction market, in 2014 — dropped out of college to do it. Now at Founders Fund and an early backer of Polymarket.
Joey Krug
Partner, Founders Fund
Co-founded Noble, the chain that brought native USDC to the Cosmos ecosystem. Previously Head of DevRel at the Interchain Foundation.
Jelena Djuric
Co-Founder & CEO, Noble
Leads BD at deBridge, the cross-chain interoperability protocol. In crypto since 2017 — previously at Orbs and Kyber Network.
Gal Stern
Head of BD, deBridge
Co-founded Roll, bringing social tokens to social networks. Previously led research at CoinDesk and wrote the bestseller '#BreakIntoVC'.
Bradley Miles
Co-Founder & CEO, Roll
Now at Coinbase. Previously VP of Marketing & Web3 Strategy at MouseBelt. Co-founded the Geeks Of The Valley podcast.
Roshan Mirajkar
Coinbase
Built Glass Markets for institutional crypto traders. Previously at Flow Traders in crypto BD and co-founded Triblock.
Matt Batsinelas
Founder, Glass Markets
Runs Tenderize, a liquid staking protocol on Arbitrum for networks like The Graph and Livepeer.
Alec Shaw
CEO, Tenderize
Building Seedplex. Has worked on decentralized systems for over a decade — previously DevRel at Anagram, Developer Advocate at Jump Crypto. Co-founded DistributedID and ran BEN's Chicago region.
Dev Bharel
Founder, Seedplex
UF grad. Co-founded The Rollup and The Rollup Ventures. 75+ angel investments in seed-stage crypto startups. Previously in crypto strategy at TradeStation.
Robert Klages
Co-Founder, The Rollup
UF dropout turned entrepreneur. Co-founded The Rollup and The Rollup Ventures in 2020. 50+ investments, 1,000+ podcast episodes, and events across 40+ countries.
Andy
Co-Founder, The Rollup
Associate Professor at the University of Florida and Director of the UF Blockchain Research Lab, established with a $270K Algorand Foundation grant. 25+ years in academia and digital research, $7M in external grants, and five digital media startups founded. Presented at Talks at Google and GDC. Also Entrepreneur in Residence at UF Warrington College of Business.
Marko Suvajdzic
Director, UF Blockchain Lab
Runs BitBasel — Web3 art events during Miami Art Week every year. Co-founded the Miami Blockchain Center.
Scott Spiegel
Founder & CEO, BitBasel
BEN alumna based in Istanbul. Active in Web3 marketing and community building across the Turkish crypto ecosystem.
Buse Kaya
BEN Alumni & Founder
Based in Istanbul. Founded ATH Partners, focused on blockchain investment and interchain innovation. Active in the Turkish and global Web3 ecosystem.
Aybars Dorman
Founder, ATH Partners
Tbilisi State University grad. Founded Women in Cyber Georgia, championing cybersecurity and blockchain education across the Caucasus region. Based in Tbilisi.
Magda Tavkhelidze
Founder, Women in Cyber Georgia
Jesse Xiong
1995 – 2023Our beloved Global Director of Community. Jesse co-founded BlockHack and organized Delaware's first blockchain hackathon. His passion for connecting people lives on through every BEN event.
$20B+
in companies founded by people from this network.
Alumni also at
Your turn.
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