Prior to establishing New Layer Capital in 2021, he served as a Business Development Lead at Aramco, the world's largest integrated energy company with a market cap of $2T. During his tenure, Mr. Safford was responsible for managing all aspects of the M&A and JV investment processes. His primary focus was on comprehensive energy sector investments, encompassing areas from upstream, midstream, and downstream operations, to renewable power, clean fuels, hydrogen, carbon capture utilization & storage, and emerging technologies.

Before joining Aramco, Mr. Safford held various investment roles at venture capital and private equity firms, including Pacbridge Capital Partners, Mekong Capital, and Riveria Investment Group. Since 2006, Mr. Safford has been an active angel investor and advisor to technology startups, and notably, he has been investing in Bitcoin startups since 2018.

Mr. Safford holds an MBA from The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology and a BS in Finance from George Mason University.

Alex Lyashok is a seasoned executive with extensive experience in hi-tech operations. Prior to joining New Layer Capital, Alex made over 150 angel investments and has been investing in Bitcoin since 2013. He serves as an advisor to several New Layer Capital portfolio companies.

From 2015 to 2021, he served as the CEO of WorkFusion, an Intelligent Automation SaaS AI company. Under his leadership, the company generated $800M in value, reached $50M in sales, and raised $180M in venture capital. He managed a team of 350 people across the US, Europe, and Asia, serving major banks and insurance companies.

Prior to WorkFusion, Alex held various positions at EPAM Systems, a NYSE-listed product development services firm, including Head of Global Operations and CTO. He helped the company grow from $150M to $730M in sales and achieve a $2.5B market cap. His roles involved operations, marketing, strategy, and the development and marketing of service offerings. He led the acquisition of five companies and launched several successful practices.

In 2022, Alex oversaw the U.S. expansion of the prominent European bitcoin miner, White Rock Management.

Alex has an MBA from New York University Stern School of Business and an MS/BS in Computer Science/Applied Math and Physics from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. 

Dave Perrill is a seasoned executive with 30 years of experience spanning the data center, Bitcoin mining, energy, and information security sectors. A four-time technology founder, Mr. Perrill's fervor for innovation and his commitment to fostering talent are evident in his achievements. He's been honored as an Inc. 100 award recipient, named EY Entrepreneur of the Year, and ranked #1 in the Fast 50 in Minnesota.

Mr. Perrill is a Board Member of the Nasdaq-listed Hive Digital Technologies. As the founder of Compute North, Dave spearheaded what became one of the largest high-performance compute and bitcoin mining infrastructure companies, boasting a peak capacity of 750 megawatts (MW). From August 2017 to September 2022, under his leadership, the company flourished, and he managed a dedicated team of over 150 employees.

Mr. Perrill earned his BS in Management Information Systems and an MBA in Finance from the University of Minnesota. 

Troy Cross is Professor of Philosophy and Humanities at Reed College where he teaches courses in metaphysics and epistemology. Prior to coming to Reed, he held positions at Yale and Oxford. Troy has also been involved with bitcoin since 2011, studying the whole range of bitcoin-related issues, but especially its relation to energy and impact on the environment.

In 2021, Troy had an idea for how to hold bitcoin in a carbon-neutral way—co-authored with Andrew Bailey—that propelled him into the public discourse. He amassed a sizable social media following, became a Fellow at the Bitcoin Policy Institute, and made the rounds of podcasts and conferences. 

Troy’s vision for bitcoin deepened as he met entrepreneurs, academics, policymakers, and financiers, across the whole gamut of ideology and orientation towards bitcoin and energy. Through these conversations, Troy transitioned from merely thinking up ideas, as a philosopher, to advancing real projects alongside founders. Connecting people became a passion, as did brainstorming and critically thinking through business ideas, as did bringing exciting projects to the public eye. 

Formally, Troy is now advising half a dozen companies; informally, many more. Every company or organization Troy advises aligns with his vision of bitcoin as a tool for improving humanity, and makes use of bitcoin’s unique properties as a consumer of energy to transition us to a world of sustainable, abundant energy.

Troy has a PhD from Rutgers University.

Jeff Gardner has been building software and working in high-growth startups for more than 15 years. He currently works full time building open source software on the Nostr protocol and advising startups in the Bitcoin and Nostr space. Working with the support of an OpenSats grant, he’s built Nostr.how, Listr, Ostrich.work, and Ontolo. He also is a significant contributor to NDK, the Nostr Development Kit and has contributed several NIPs to the Nostr protocol spec.