Building a World-Class Team at Inrupt
As Tim says, it’s been an enormously exciting and energizing time for us at Inrupt.
The promise of potentially realizing his true vision for the web has prompted world-class organizations to engage with us on truly transformational use cases. Some of that work is starting to make its way into the public domain, and we’re really looking forward to the time when we can talk more about these pilot projects.
It’s become even clearer to me that Inrupt has both the opportunity to spark a huge change, and the associated responsibility to make it happen. To do that we need a team that can address the huge challenges facing this next era of the web.
What we build must be secured from threats that have yet to be considered; users have to be confident that the data they store will be treated ethically and according to their wishes; organizations need help understanding how this can help them unlock completely new kinds of value; and it all needs to operate efficiently at a global scale.
Each a difficult challenge, together they’re pretty daunting. But with the right team, very surmountable. Over the last year we’ve been recruiting the start of such a team.
From backgrounds in startups, science, academia, government, journalism, enterprise technology, and open source software, Inrupters have come together to push the web forward.
By way of introduction, meet some of our new leaders:
Bruce Schneier - Chief of Security Architecture
For decades, Bruce has been the pre-eminent voice in the security industry, predicting change and working hands-on to make the world a safer place. Like no other, he understands how emerging technologies like IoT and 5G will impact the fabric of our digital and physical worlds. His incontrovertible insights and skills are a huge add to Inrupt; he’ll assure the fundamental safety of Solid’s architecture and steer the roadmap in possibly unexpected ways.
“We are stretching authentication and web security protocols in ways that have never been done before and using them in ways that haven’t been considered yet. This isn’t just people authentication but machine authentication.” — Bruce
Davi Ottenheimer - VP of Trust and Digital Ethics
We must ensure our engineering and business practices use scientific principles in full cognizance of their design; measure the economics of intended functions and operate them with regard to human safety. Davi’s career leading security and trust for global organizations over 25 years has been guided by his mission to make the web more effective at being used for good. He’s uniquely qualified to develop and implement real-world decentralization standards with ethics at their core, so that the web as we intend it is not only innovative but also beneficent and trustworthy.
“Inrupt is at the forefront of adapting and applying security models that directly preserve human rights and freedoms, helping to ensure we can achieve a truly trusted and respected web.” — Davi
Osmar Olivo - VP of Product
Industry leaders tell us their ideas weren’t feasible before Solid. Now we get to translate those requirements into viable products. This requires a leader in product management, someone who can establish and execute a robust product roadmap, extracting the most potent capabilities and features from the technology. Osmar’s demonstrated history in enterprise and open source is key to successfully delivering against our promise to the market.
“Joining Inrupt is one of those rare opportunities to build something that will change the everyday lives of billions of people. The world is changing and existing technologies aren’t designed to solve these kinds of problems. Everyone else is retrofitting for a safer world, Inrupt is building one.” — Oz
Emmet Townsend - VP of Engineering
Our goals for the scale of adoption are matched only by our demand for the highest quality, reliability and performance of our technology. It needs to meet the expectations of governments, large enterprises, and tens of millions of users. Emmet brings 25 years of experience building and delivering such production-quality software for organizations at massive scale.
“The web is already woven into the fabric of our everyday lives. By enabling people to control the use of their data, and enabling innovative and interoperable apps, we will enrich that fabric, creating experiences beyond anything seen to date.” — Emmet
Each member has talent, experience, and industry acumen. It’s been both affirming and humbling to have them choose to dedicate their careers to the mission. They each bring their own lens to our vision, augmenting the talented global team of Inrupters that’s been growing month by month.
Together with the open source community, which includes academic authorities like Professor Ruben Verborgh, our partners, pilot organizations and the rest of Inrupt, we have a collective force that’s gathering momentum.
There are vital pieces of the puzzle yet to be put in place. But with these exceptional individuals on board, we’re one giant step closer to the web we want.
In case you missed it from our CTO
A Small Step for the Web: Part Two
