It’s been a great run during the last few weeks after the announcement of the merger. We’re currently in the process of integrating our technology and team with Polygon.
We would like to take a moment to introduce the Polygon Hermez team to the rest of the Polygon ecosystem. You can also check the team out on our website.
In this post, you’ll find the bios of the Polygon Hermez team members and some relevant links to their social or GitHub accounts. From now on, we’ll be introducing every new incorporation on our social channels and newsletter. Let’s jump right in!
Jordi Baylina – Technical Lead
Jordi is one of the strongest Solidity developers in the world and a high impact contributor in the Ethereum community. He leads the technical development of the Polygon Hermez zkRollup and is currently working on the implementation of the zkEVM.
He is the co-founder of the White Hat Group, which played a major role in rescuing funds from TheDAO and Parity Multisig hacks. He’s the author of the MiniMe token contract, the elliptic curves Solidity library, as well as numerous other established contracts in the Ethereum space.
Jordi is also a well-respected auditor, most notably leading teams to audit the MakerDAO Stable Coin system and Aragon project. Jordi is the co-founder of the donation platform Giveth, DAppNode, Iden3 and most recently, Polygon Hermez.
David Schwartz – Project Lead
David has over 20 years of experience in the IT industry, having held different engineering and executive positions in telecom operators, consulting firms, and technology providers. Since 2018, he has been leading projects at iden3 and Polygon Hermez.
David shapes the project strategy and leads the execution to deliver the products and technologies. He is currently based in Switzerland but he moves around a lot.
He enjoys travelling, eating well and doing some sport, but not too much. Contact him any time with suggestions or proposals, he is always happy to hear them.
Antoni Martin – Polygon Enterprise Lead
Antoni leads the business development and future growth opportunities for Polygon Hermez, always aiming to build solutions for the real world. He looks for people’s pain points, analyses them, and focuses on delivering cutting-edge solutions.
As Polygon Enterprise Lead, he liaises with governments, regulators, banks, consultancy, or ETH companies implementing L2 solutions in his new role.
In this free time, he enjoys reading history books and engaging in outdoor activities such as swimming, skiing, and climbing. Antoni continually pursues intellectual enlightenment and pushes established boundaries like his idols John Nash, Johan Cruyff, or the All Blacks.
David Ruiz – Support Team
David has more than 15 years of experience in the semiconductor design industry, where he’s worked in many roles, including growing startups to acquisitions in the process.
One day, Jordi called him and asked if he wanted to help to build a GPU prover, and since then he’s been working with the iden3 and Polygon Hermez teams. During his free time, he plays the piano, with a questionable outcome.
Carlos Matallana – Software Engineer
Carlos is a software engineer aiming to provide decentralization to people through blockchain technology.
He discovered Ethereum in 2017 and started playing around with it, which led him to study a postgraduate based on blockchain technology.
He’s a big fan of the Ethereum ecosystem, loves to read all about it and other blockchain-related content. He also enjoys dabbling into other blockchains whenever he can. Carlos likes to go running and playing paddle, and is a fan of betting.
Ofra Ram – HR Manager
Ofra is an experienced HR Manager, having worked in the past in big, mid-size and small startups.
She enjoys communicating with people and feeling that her work is making a difference in people’s careers and lives.
Rafal Nazarkiewicz – Product Manager
As a product manager, Rafal explores the applications of blockchain technology for products, with a focus on digital inclusion.
He has spent over ten years developing digital services and designing user interfaces for financial, medical and web startups. He’s interested in science and travel.
‘Tony Toro’ – Head of Communications
Responsible for taking care of all Polygon Hermez communications, including the writing of this article.
Cryptocurrency and blockchain fanatic from the 2013 class, an advocate of freedom, privacy, digital rights and decentralized consensus. Avid user and beta tester of many DeFi protocols, member of several DAOs, sock connoisseur and jpeg collector.
When not in front of the screen, you’ll find him laying down on a sunny beach, kite-surfing, jumping to electronic music and petting any dog that comes within reach. Currently writing and self-publishing a historical novel.
Alberto Elías – Software Engineer
Alberto has been into decentralization for many years now, following different projects and thinking about interoperable identities.
He’s been a JavaScript developer for more than nine years, working in places like the Financial Times. He’s also very much into VR, AR and loves travelling.
Jeff Prestes – Node Tech Lead
Jeff Prestes is the Node Tech Lead at Polygon Hermez, advisor at Agrotoken.io and contributor of several open source projects. He has over 20 years of experience in software development in international companies.
He’s a professor and responsible for the Smart Contracts Programming course at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo/Brazil (PUC- SP).
Miroslav ‘Miros’ Milenkovic – Methodology & Project Manager
Miros is an experienced team builder, transformation and agile coach, engineer, and project manager. But you be the judge of it.
During his career, he has observed that trust is one of the main keys to success which is why he focuses on improving collaboration and building trust within the team. Always pushing for transparency, leadership, delivery, agility, ownership, autonomy, responsibility, and above all, team.
In regards to the development, he’s been climbing the front-end stairs for 15 years now, and still loves it. He’s a proud father and husband, and a wannabe musician. Human rights advocate, always open to know about new cultures, landscapes, music, foods and languages.
Arnau Bennassar – Software Engineer
Arnau is a software engineer who has played with many different topics and fields, from microcomputers to VR, AI and, of course, blockchain.
He believes in self-sovereignty and thinks that blockchain technology is currently the best approach to achieving this goal. He is also an advocate of constructive criticism, so feel welcome to share any thoughts that you feel that may have a positive impact, even when it feels uncomfortable!
Laia Soler – Software Engineer
Laia started her career in the blockchain world as a software engineer with Polygon Hermez. She graduated from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) with a degree in Network Systems from the faculty of Telecommunications Technologies and Services Engineering.
She started working in Iden3 because she did her final degree project about blockchain and wanted to pursue her career in this field. She’s focused on learning something new and improving her English every day. A little shy at first, Laia loves to dance hip-hop and house, travelling and spending time in nature. Recently initiated in the world of yoga.
Jesus Ligero – Software Engineer
Jesus is a software engineer who loves decentralized technologies. The blockchain ecosystem is full of great ideas, new challenges to solve and very bright people, and this is why he loves working here!
He's always looking to learn new things. Recently, he started to learn advanced math to better understand the technologies that he uses. In his free time, he likes to practice sports like paddle tennis and playing video games.
Raul Jareño – Software Engineer
Raul has been involved in mobile software development for over ten years, working in multiple and diverse projects, but specialized in security and fintech.
He’s into philosophy, yoga, minimalism, playing the guitar and vagabonding. He’s also into privacy and believes that publishing this bio could be used for social engineering (please, don’t).
Cristina Capdevila – Business Development Executive Assistant
Cristina focuses on researching and pursuing new horizons and business leads for the growth of Polygon Hermez. Her academic background comes from a Major in International Relations.
She’s based currently in Barcelona, but has lived all over the world: Lleida, Sydney, Kolkata, New York, just to name a few. She loves travelling, spending time with her family and reading poetry.
Chami An – Visual Product Designer
Chami is part of the product team in Polygon Hermez, working in the design of interfaces and the graphic content of the project. It’s already been 3 years since she started in the blockchain field.
Her previous experiences have been in startups developing software revolving around blockchain technology. Her background comes from contemporary art, becoming really passionate about the Postinternet movement thanks to the 9. Berlin Biennale.
She enjoys travelling with the excuse of visiting a cool exhibition and then looking for food markets and good restaurants in the area. She loves music and dancing, especially funk disco house, and good sessions of Detroit techno.
Elías García – Software Engineer
Elías is a software engineer based in A Coruña, in the north of Spain. He has been working for more than five years developing user interfaces used by thousands of people every day.
He's part of the frontend team at Polygon Hermez, where he contributes to developing all the user interfaces in the network, like the wallet or the explorer.
In his spare time, Elías likes to surf on the Galician coast, especially during the winter, when it’s less crowded. He shares a love for classic motorcycles and likes getting lost in the old Galician roads with his 1974 Honda CB550.
Jenna Osorio – Support Team
Jenna connects with community members regarding technical issues and user experience. Previously, she was a teacher focusing on early childhood education, Spanish, and outdoor education.
She’s originally from Seattle, USA, and moved to the Barcelona area 2 years ago with her husband, two kids, and dog Jackson. She loves yoga, kayaking, hiking, and going to the beach.
Alonso Rodríguez – Software Engineer
Alonso studied Telecommunications engineering and a Cybersecurity Master in UPM. He’s been working with blockchain technology since 2017, contributing to several private companies in a variety of fields like telecommunications and banks.
He’s also a Blockchain professor at the Master’s degree in Telecommunication and Master in Cybersecurity at the ICAI School of Engineering.
Michael Wall – Software Engineer
Michael has over five years of professional software engineering with a broad experience in back-end/fintech/blockchain development.
Originally from Irkutsk (Eastern Siberia), currently located in Saint Petersburg, he likes skiing, crossfit, walking, reading books, travelling and improving his technical knowledge.
Thiago Lemos – Software Engineer
Thiago is a senior Software Engineer, with over 16 years of experience in software development in international companies. He loves to code, deal with logic challenges, and is an enthusiastic user of the Go programming language.
Thiago loves to play games and he's a huge fan of the God of War franchise, having the Blade of Chaos tattooed on both of his forearms! He's always keen to help and to talk about everything, but be aware that his slogan is "I understand your point, but I disagree because of...".
Thiago is a professional with a strong focus on the value he delivers in order to make life better for everyone. He has a strong "dressing the user shoes" mindset when proposing new ideas and solutions. Words that describe Thiago, in short, are father, husband, software engineer, investor, Gopher, Spartan.
Marcelo Castellani – Senior Backend Developer
Marcelo is a software developer and has been involved with open-source projects for over two decades. A Linux user since the beginning, he participated in some very renowned projects like NetBeans.
With extensive experience in the financial markets, he was for over a decade a developer of high-performance systems in one of the largest banks in Brazil, creating highly available and reliable hardware for banking automation. He developed encrypted keyboards, thermal printers and security mechanisms.
He’s also a co-founder of one of the oldest software communities in Brazil, as well as a writer and speaker at various events. He published the first material in Portuguese about the Rust language, among other several articles and books on programming.
When he's not programming he maintains a rock band called Vingança Vil where he is the vocalist, takes care of his dog Luke Skywalker, two cats and his nine-year-old son, for whom he would carry the world on his back.
Mário Idival – Software Engineer
Currently working from Brazil as a blockchain developer, Mário Idival is a knowledge-thirsty professional, with nearly 10 years of experience developing software and managing high-performance teams in the areas of loans, travel and artificial intelligence.
Mário also studies theology in his free time and loves compilers.
Adrián Fernández – Software Engineer
Adrián loves to learn new technologies and expand his knowledge through experimenting with things.
He’s interested in offering the best experience to users and improving it by constantly checking data. He’s deeply interested in researching new ways of governance.
Àlex Monsó – Software Engineer
Àlex is a self-taught graphic design and UX enthusiast who writes front-end applications in a declarative, strongly-typed, pure, immutable, and functional style, with either Elm or TypeScript.
Even though he’s new to the blockchain world, he’s 100% motivated to learn more about this exciting technology with the potential to make the world fairer.
Born, raised, and happily living in Barcelona with his partner Ingrid and their three children: Nua (dog), Jack, and Meg (cats).
The Team Is Growing
This is us for now, but we’re always looking to fill new roles. In fact, we have three vacancies at the moment, check them out here:
If you have any questions about the team, you can ask us on Discord and Telegram. You can also follow us on Twitter for future updates and subscribe to our monthly newsletter. The first email is going out at the end of September.
You can join Polygon’s Discord and Telegram communities, and follow them on Twitter.
