Smarter Contracts welcomes Usman Ahmad, Chief Executive Officer of Zodia Markets to their board of Strategic Advisors. Ahmad joins Lord Waverley (Member of the House Of Lords), Andrew Dowsett (COO / CTO at PA Media Group), Ulrika Dellrud (Chief Privacy Officer at PayU) and Debbie Reynolds (The Data Diva Podcast) to provide executive level expertise and guidance relating to the growth and strategic direction of the business.
Zodia Markets is a digital asset brokerage and an exchange platform for institutional clients in the UK and Europe and is a joint venture between Standard Chartered Bank and BC Technology. Prior to helping establish Zodia Markets, Ahmad was the Group CIO of BC Technology Group and led the company as one of the only providers of trading and blockchain technologies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Ahmad will provide a crucial set of skills that will support the continued growth of Smarter Contracts and their data-privacy and consent management platform Pulse®.
Wayne Lloyd, CEO of Smarter Contracts, comments: “Having known Usman personally and professionally over many years, I’m delighted he will be supporting the Smarter Contracts team. There is a business imperative for financial services platforms to integrate data privacy tooling like Pulse®, whether they operate across traditional or decentralised finance. Usman’s executive experience spans both worlds. This, combined with his deep understanding of technology, financial regulation and digital assets, provides our advisory board with a unique set of skills needed as we scale Pulse® and deepen its functionality via The Pulse Token.”
Ahmad, who has also held executive leadership positions at Merrill Lynch and HSBC comments, “Having worked with Wayne and members of his team in the past, I have complete faith in their ability to integrate Pulse® into complex client environments. Beyond the confidence in their ability, what really compelled me to be part of their journey was the fundamental need for improved privacy and consent management and the important set of use cases that Pulse® can solve. I strongly believe the Smarter Contracts team have developed a unique and exciting proposition and I look forward to supporting the team and providing some of my experience to help them achieve further success.”
Smarter Contracts which was valued at £32 million in June 2021, will be making several announcements before the end of the year relating to client wins, strategic partnerships and product development which will cement their place as one of the most innovative privacy companies in the world.
- end -