Our team combines extensive experience and passion for blockchain, real estate, fundraising, securities offerings, and groundbreaking technology.
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Derek S. Boirun
Chief Executive Officer
Derek is an entrepreneur with institutional experience in commercial real estate development, EB-5 capital investments, and blockchain-based investing.
He previously founded and currently acts as a managing member of American Economic Growth Fund, an EB-5 investment platform focused on sourcing overseas capital for U.S. based real estate projects which, to-date, owns 2 regional centers, hosts over 100 investors, and sponsors over $1.2 billion in total project cost.
Derek was previously involved with the development of major urban real estate projects while at Tishman Speyer, a leading owner, developer, operator, and fund manager of first-class real estate worldwide with a property portfolio in excess of $70 billion in total value in the United States, Europe, Latin America, India, and China.
Prior to this, Derek was a member of the Manhattanville Development Group at Columbia University where he managed the design, development, and construction efforts for Columbia’s ongoing $6 billion-plus academic mixed-use expansion, including the new Columbia Business School, a $600 million project.
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Kierstyn Kalman
Chief Operating Officer
Kierstyn is a high-energy executive with nearly 10 years of experience accelerating brand experiences, building customer loyalty, creating long-term strategies, and growing market share.
She previously worked in traditional financial services at Fidelity Investments and First Republic Bank and has spent the last 5 years with a variety of startups in the crypto and AI space.
Nicki Sanders
Chief Technology Officer
Nicki is a trailblazing blockchain expert, having been an engineer in the web3 space since 2015. She’s renowned for her pioneering contributions in engineering and thought leadership within the digital asset landscape.
With multiple patents on smart contract patterns, she has consistently led the charge in driving innovation within blockchain technology.Currently serving as the esteemed Vice Chair at the Utah Blockchain Coalition, Nicki is actively shaping and advancing Utah's blockchain ecosystem.
Nicki holds a bachelor's degree in computer science from the University of Utah, laying the foundation for her robust academic prowess. Her unwavering commitment to innovation and the transformative potential of blockchain continues to fuel her leadership, shaping the future of the digital asset landscape.
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Eduardo Romeiro
Director of Engineering
Eduardo is a highly skilled entrepreneur and engineer with a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Biology from Northeastern University.
He is a visionary leader with a passion for cutting-edge technology and innovation. In 2019, Eduardo joined Realio as a co-founder, his second startup venture after spending five years with an AI-powered telematics startup. At Realio, Eduardo brings together his extensive engineering experience, keen interest in blockchain, and unbridled enthusiasm for technology to drive the team's technical vision.
Graham Haley
Blockchain Developer
Graham is a highly skilled full-stack and blockchain engineer. A unicorn of engineers Graham cooly handles any frontend, backend, and data processing tasks.
Graham has made an immediate impact on the Realio platform. He architected a streaming system to process and notify users of Stellar DEX transactions and is currently working on simple and advanced swap pages to give our investors two ways to swap on the Stellar DEX.
Andres Cabrera
Front-End Developer
Andres is an Engineer with over a decade of experience in Front End, Cloud, and Blockchain technology. He is passionate about developing high-impact solutions for Startups, Scale-ups, and Corporations in Europe and America.
His dynamic skill set has allowed Andres to accomplish extraordinary feats in the industry, garnering recognition from President Barack Obama of the United States as a Young Leader of the Americas in 2016. He also earned recognition as a Young Influencer by the Denmark Technical University, leading to their invitation to the prestigious C40 Worlds Mayor Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2019.
Taylor Nielson
Senior Software Engineer
Taylor is an advanced full-stack, cloud, and blockchain engineer known for his adept problem-solving skills, innovative solutions, and expertise in scaling systems, particularly within the dynamic startup environment.
With a track record of contributing to companies from their inception to achieving Unicorn valuations and generating millions in new ARR, Taylor brings a wealth of experience.
In his early role as an engineer focused on crypto tax and accounting at a startup, Taylor played a crucial part in the company’s journey from its early stages to a staggering valuation of $1.3 billion. His contributions were instrumental in establishing the foundation for success, showcasing a deep understanding of the unique challenges in the cryptocurrency space.
A trailblazer in blockchain technology, Taylor spearheaded the innovation of a non-custodial MPC wallet API service, driving rapid growth from 0 to $400k ARR in just 4 months.
Taylor’s diverse experience extends to a role where he worked on tokenizing private equity, facilitating frictionless distribution. His deep understanding of business and blockchain positions him perfectly to contribute to the widespread adoption of tokenized assets.
With a passion for overcoming challenges, Taylor continues to be at the forefront of technological innovation, shaping the future of the digital landscape.
Karl Keppner
Principal DevOps Engineer
Karl is a seasoned Principal DevOps Engineer with over 12 years of extensive experience in designing, implementing, and managing robust DevOps practices for leading tech companies.
With a strong background in architecture, automation, observability, and security, Karl has demonstrated expertise in streamlining development processes, optimizing deployment pipelines, and enhancing the overall efficiency and reliability of software delivery.
Throughout his career, Karl has been instrumental in driving the adoption of DevOps principles and practices within cross-functional teams, fostering collaboration between development, operations, and quality assurance to accelerate the software development lifecycle. His leadership and strategic vision have significantly improved release frequency, deployment quality, and overall system stability.
Karl's technical proficiency spans a wide range of tools and technologies, including but not limited to Docker, Kubernetes, Jenkins, Ansible, Terraform, Python, and AWS. He excels in automating infrastructure provisioning, configuration management, and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, leveraging automation to minimize manual intervention and reduce deployment times.
In addition to his technical prowess, Karl is known for his ability to mentor and coach team members at all levels. He is adept at articulating complex technical concepts in a clear and concise manner, fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement within his teams.
Chris Dobson
Community Manager & Marketing Intern
Chris brings a unique blend of expertise in security tokens, legal research, and community engagement to his role as a Web3 Community Manager.
With a rich background in DeFi projects and startups, he has a proven track record of fostering communities that value transparency, security, and equal access to capital.
Recognized as the Security Token Market Community Member of the Month in November 2022, Chris embodies the spirit of collaboration and authenticity.
His dedication to fostering a supportive and engaged community is matched by his passion for blockchain technology and the principles of decentralization, making him an invaluable member of our team.
Marcelo Moyano
Consultant
Marcelo is an entrepreneur and a technology ninja at the highest level. He is a person who stands at the intersection of creativity, technology, and business.
Marcelo loves interacting with teams of people and helping startups evolve from a basic idea to getting funding through the execution of the concept.
He is a true leader, including currently managing the award-winning tech business (MindSmack) that has specialized in multimedia production and interactive content since 1999. Marcelo is known as an expert designer and animator and is recognized around the world in the media industry.
Marcelo possesses masterful skills in visual design, animation sequences, application development and has led full-scale projects for clients such as DreamWorks, America Online, Citibank, Doritos, MTV, and countless others.
Ilyas Abayev
Advisor
Ilyas is an entrepreneur and has spent his career in NY’s real estate world. He has vast experience in multiple business development roles and in structuring complex deals.
Throughout his career, he has been involved in several development projects, multi-family value add acquisitions, and deployment of private funds in the real estate sector.
Ilyas received his Bachelor’s degree from Cornell University’s SC Johnson College of Business with a minor in Real Estate and a concentration in Real Estate Development.
Tron Black
Advisor
Tron is the lead developer of Ravencoin and Principal Developer at Medici Ventures. He is an entrepreneur and founder of two startups that both sold to publicly traded companies.
Since 2013, Tron has been working in the cryptocurrency space as a miner, developer, investor, and trader. He was one of the first four employees of t0 (tzero), and helped issue the first publicly traded SEC acknowledged parallel crypto-equity for “Overstock.com” and the world’s first crypto bond offering. He worked for ANX International, a Fintech company located in Hong Kong which runs a Bitcoin exchange, and offers Bitcoin Debit cards.
Tron is currently a Principal Developer for Medici Ventures which invests in a portfolio of companies including Factom, Bitt, Ripio, SettleMint, and Spera. Tron has given crypto-currencies to hundreds of people to help increase awareness of how value now moves as easily as e-mail. He’s written articles about Bitcoin, Monero, Dash, and Ravencoin, and been featured on several crypto-currency podcasts.
He has been a panelist at an international blockchain conference and regularly gives talks on crypto-currency topics. Tron is currently an advisor to TZero, and the lead developer for Ravencoin which is both a cryptocurrency and a crypto-asset platform.
Alexander Funck
Advisor
Alexander is the Co-Founder and CMO of BrickMark AG – the world’s first institutional-grade real estate securitization platform.
The company achieved global recognition for the tokenization of a €130m. an asset in the heart of Zurich, Bahnhofstrasse. Previously to co-founding and leading marketing and business development at BrickMark, Alexander supported several ventures, focusing on tech-enabled cross channel marketing and venture building.
He has advised clients ranging from renowned start-up ventures to DAX CEOs. Alexander previously successfully co-founded, build, and raised for his med-tech company resolving pharmacy inefficiencies for thousands of European users.
Charles Kaufman
Legal Counsel
Charles practices corporate, securities, and business transactional law in Los Angeles.
He has over 23 years of experience representing public and private companies in a broad range of industries, including medical devices, healthcare, software, nanotechnology, film and music production, garment manufacturing, retailing, real estate investment, and semiconductors.
He has extensive experience advising public companies on securities regulation and compliance and advising both new and established companies on public and private offerings of equity securities, security tokens and debt securities, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank regulation, global compliance, conflicts, and special committee concerns, internal investigations, listing and delisting, crisis management, and insolvency. His practice also includes international joint venturing and development agreements in addition to supply and distribution agreements, licensing agreements, and general corporate transactions. Charles has attended over two hundred public company board and committee meetings as board counsel.
John Liu
Advisor
John has led product organizations and taken multiple products Fintech products from ideation to multi-million-dollar revenue generation over 19 years.
With his deep expertise in finance, data, and blockchain John advises and leads various blockchain companies including WeDeFi, Fusion, and AXP.
Carlos Rodriguez, Jr.
Advisor
Carlos is the Chief Operating Officer at Driftwood Acquisitions and Development. He received a degree in Economics and International Business along with a certificate in markets and management from Duke University in 2009.
After graduating, he was accepted as part of the Rotational Analyst program at LNR Property, the largest CMBS (Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities) special servicer, investor, and originator worldwide. This two-year program focused on the three main divisions of the company: Investment Management, Asset Management, and REO.
After successfully completing the program, Carlos was promoted to an Associate overseeing a newly formed branch of the company dedicated to high-volume transactions, special resolutions, and direct equity investments. He left LNR to pursue ground-up development with Driftwood Hospitality.
Behzad Taufiq
Senior Advisor | CIO of Valentus Capital Management
Behzad formed Valentus, and prior was the Head of Credit Trading and Managing Director at Hudson Advisors (“Hudson”), from 2011 until March 2020.
Hudson is the asset manager of Lone Star Funds (“Lone Star”), a private equity fund that has raised $85 billion in capital since 1995 and specializes in distressed investing. At Hudson, Behzad was responsible for the oversight and trading execution of Lone Star’s credit assets, which included US Residential Mortgage Bonds, Whole Loans, and Corporate Loans.
In addition to his trading responsibilities, he supervised the Credit Underwriting (assessing new investment opportunities) and Credit Modeling (forecasting and maintaining fundamental views on existing investments) teams. During his tenure at Hudson, he grew within the mortgage securities trading team rapidly from Associate, Vice President, Director to Managing Director.