Our Team

The Founders of Symmetric and Other Contributors

Darren Oliveiro-Priestnall — Founder

Founder

Expertise: Software development and entrepreneurship

Alias: TheNewAutonomy

Social media: https://twitter.com/TheNewAutonomy https://github.com/TheNewAutonomy https://thenewautonomy.medium.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrenop

Darren is a privacy advocate and DeFi pioneer, he was Chief Executive Officer for a London based blockchain company called Atlas City. Over a period of 2-years he managed a team of 25+ to develop the Catalyst blockchain network. A short intro of this project from ‘The Telegraph’ can be seen at Atlas City Global: In focus | Great British Business (telegraph.co.uk). Darren has also presented for the Global Investment Leaders Club, the London Stock Exchange, Oxford University and Imperial College London. He is a Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), Certified Network Defence Architect (CNDA) and a Chartered Professional Member of the British Computer Society (MBCS CITP). He has consulted on a number of blockchain projects (notably Pillar Project and Akropolis), with 20 plus years of experience developing large-scale systems for organisations like BAE AI, UK gov’t, Microsoft and partners, Deutsche Boerse, European Commission and Disney.

Erica Stanford — Founder

Expertise: Marketing, business development and entrepreneurship

Alias: N/A

Social media: https://twitter.com/ericacstanford https://scottcbusiness.medium.com/crypto-wars-scams-hacks-with-erica-stanford-7c1eb3065b4b https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericastanford

Erica is also the founder of the Crypto Curry Club; UK’s top rated business and technology networking-events company. She is a regular speaker at industry events, publishes the monthly ‘Blockchain Industry Review’ magazine and the Crypto Currier newsletter, read by over 4,000 people each week. Erica is also a published author — having recently written and published ‘Crypto Wars: Faked Deaths, Missing Billions and Industry Disruption’.

She is passionate about bringing credibility to DeFi by providing market intelligence, educating DeFi users and asking thought-provoking questions of industry leaders — which inevitably helps propel the sector forward.

Harsimran Singh — Founder

Expertise: Software development and entrepreneurship

Alias: CoDefi

Social media: https://twitter.com/0xCoDeFi https://github.com/0xCoDeFi https://www.linkedin.com/in/hsimransingh

Certified Enterprise Architect, 20+ years of software development and architecture experience in enterprise applications, e-commerce & financial applications. Harsimran has worked on several blockchain projects (notably Pillar Project and Cent Finance) in London, U.K.

Harsimran enjoys building and creating great user experiences into his products. Providing tangible benefits to DeFi end users and solving their problems head on — is what moves and inspires him to show up everyday.

Uzair Qidwai — Founder

Expertise: Finance, strategy, and entrepreneurship

Alias: Uzi

Social media: https://twitter.com/UziQidwai https://medium.com/@uzair.qidwai https://www.linkedin.com/in/uzair-qidwai-22204022

Uzair is a driven and experienced entrepreneur from the fintech and blockchain sectors. He completed his MBA with distinction from Imperial College London, where he was active in promoting blockchain and crypto through his leadership in the finance & fintech club. Uzair has completed levels 1 & 2 of the CFA exams and is also the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Cent Finance, a London based DeFi company building a mobile DeFi wallet and related services. He has previously worked in leadership positions at both corporates and start-ups in various sectors.

Uzair is passionate about using the latest financial technologies to help fight and reduce social inequity. His vision is to see a more inclusive, transparent, permission-less and decentralised financial services sector, accessible to everyone. A proponent of diverse and inclusive projects in blockchain & DeFi — he is eager to promote social-impact projects and ESG funds within the Symmetric ecosystem.