Meet the OPTF
Board of Directors
Simon Harman
Public Officer, Chair
Simon is a co-founder and the CEO of Oxen — the OPTF’s first major project. Since 2017, he has successfully driven the strategic direction of Oxen using his broad range of technical and project management expertise.
Simon is a longstanding member of Australia’s blockchain community, from facilitating grassroots education at the Blockchain Centre, to founding one of the country’s largest blockchain projects. From casual conversations to conference keynotes, Simon has helped build Melbourne’s bustling blockchain community with his passion for sharing, educating, and innovating in the blockchain arena.
Improving privacy and security in the digital age have also become paramount to Simon’s work as both an advocate and entrepreneur. By implementing blockchain technology, he is helping create tools which give the public free and easy access to secure designs which keep their information private and democratic freedoms intact.
Christopher Pavlesic
Secretary
Chris was one of the founding directors of the OPTF. He was integral to the initial setup of the foundation, assisted the foundation in becoming acknowledged as an official not-for-profit organisation, and provides the foundation ongoing assistance with its operations.
Chris is also a co-founder and the CEO of Coinstop, Australia’s largest and longest-serving provider of blockchain and cryptocurrency hardware. Coinstop specialises in hardware wallets for digital assets, which help people securely store cryptocurrencies — safe from hackers and attackers.
Chris is passionate about helping people secure their digital assets and information, and has consulted as an educator and advisor with a wide range of businesses and organisations around Australia.
Chris McCabe
Chris is a co-founder and the COO of Oxen. He is responsible for managing Oxen’s daily operations, and has been integral in orchestrating Oxen’s scale-up from a startup of 4 to a bustling team of over 20.
Despite managing a busy operation like Oxen, Chris continues to help others understand the basics around blockchain and cryptocurrency, as well as providing education on attaining market intel, understanding analytics and solving technical issues.
Jason Rhinelander
Jason has an extensive background in economics and computer science. He has merged these fields to conduct postgraduate level research focusing on the computational modelling of economic activity.
Jason believes that in order for a society to flourish, it must allow, engender, and encourage both privacy and openness. Strong privacy should be freely available to the individual, while the institutions who govern and affect the lives of those individuals must demonstrate high levels of transparency.
He is an advocate for the proliferation of decentralised technology, which he hopes will lead to better dissemination of knowledge and information.
Jason got his start with Oxen by contributing as an open-source developer, and joined the Oxen development team full-time in mid-2019. He has been a director of the OPTF since early 2019.
John Pacific
John is an entrepreneur, cypherpunk, and cryptography engineer specialising in privacy-preserving technology. He was a founding engineer at the NuCypher project, working on Proxy Re-encryption and Fully Homomorphic Encryption research.
He is a strong believer in radical privacy and free and open-source software. John enjoys working with start-ups and small development teams, which he sees as a powering innovation in the industry of technology.
John is a vehement advocate for distributed networks and software which aim to place control back in the hands of the user. He is extremely concerned about the way in which technology can be abused to restrict the freedoms of people around the world.
John is a cryptography advisor for Oxen — the Oxen blockchain, Session, and Lokinet have all benefited significantly from his cryptographic expertise.
Members
Dr Jason David Potts
Professor of Economics at RMIT University
Jason is an economist and professor at Melbourne’s RMIT University. He is a leading researcher on the economics of blockchains, and is currently the director of RMIT’s Blockchain Innovation Hub.
Josh Jessop-Smith
CMO of Oxen
Josh is a co-founder and the CMO of Oxen. He is a communications specialist with extensive experience in the film, television, and video production industries. Josh offers the OPTF strategic planning for its public communications and media relations activities.
Greg Valles
Managing Director of Valles Accountants
A veteran of the Australian Taxation Office, Greg is actively involved in the Australian financial community. He works with a number of institutes and forums, including the Institute of Public Accountants.
Rob Morris
Founder of Prismatik
Rob is the founder and CEO of Prismatik, a tech innovation hub which advises and consults technology start-ups.
Glen Lovsin
Privacy Enthusiast
Glen is a long-time digital privacy advocate. He takes an active interest in multiple privacy technologies, and has a wide range of technical expertise and knowledge.
Suelette Dreyfus
Blueprint For Free Speech
Suelette is a prominent technology researcher, journalist, whistleblower advocate, and author of Underground. She is currently a lecturer at the University of Melbourne.
Michael Bacina
Partner at Piper Alderman
Michael is a partner in law firm Piper Alderman’s FinTech Group based in Sydney.
If you are interested in becoming involved with the OPTF, get in touch.