Exceptional Leaders

Serial entrepreneurs in tech, media, and finance, as well as PhDs and engineering leaders from Fortune 500 companies

Charlie Silver

FOUNDER / CEO

Charlie is a successful entrepreneur who has founded and exited 5 startups in technology, media, and finance. He co-founded Onramp Invest, Blockforce Capital, and Reality Shares which created 7 publicly traded ETFs including the first Blockchain equity ETF(BLCN). In the dot-com era, he built RealAge which was successfully sold to Hearst for over 9 figures.

Lauren Griewski

CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER

Lauren brings 15+ years of media, advertising, technology, and executive experience with the world’s leading platforms including Facebook (Meta), Roblox, VEVO, and Viacom. Lauren joins Permission from running her own tech platform and consulting business, where she led business leaders and organizations through global growth and transformation.

Jenny Silver

GENERAL COUNSEL

Jenny has over 20 years of executive experience in brand strategy, business development, and communications. She is an attorney and leadership consultant, and has served as a strategic advisor for numerous businesses and nonprofits.

Jeff Cao

VP OF SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

Jeff joined Permission with 8 years of experience at Microsoft, where he worked on projects including Windows 7, WCF and Azure. He also worked for 7 years with FinTech company Globys, and for 4 years with EdTech firm Promethean, where he built and ran a brand new firmware engineering organization.

Andy Stocker

PRINCIPAL SOFTWARE ENGINEER

Andy's 25+ years of experience as a full stack software engineer includes a decade at Microsoft, where he developed the infrastructure for MSN amongst several other projects. Andy has also worked for SGI, Web Startups, RhythmOne and Coupang.

Allen Luce

PRINCIPAL SOFTWARE ENGINEER

Before joining Permission, Allen worked for several years as a Senior Software Engineer at EdTech firm Promethean and before that, AdTech firm RhythmOne. An expert in several language systems, he has also worked in FinTech at J. P. Morgan Chase, cryptography/HPC at IBM and filesystems at Isilon.

Rodney Lafaye

DIRECTOR OF INVESTOR RELATIONS

Rodney has an extensive background in finance and technology. He has worked in various industries ranging from banking to nonprofit and is committed to maintaining strong relationships with all stakeholders, investor confidence, and regulatory compliance.

Ashley Tang

ACCOUNTING DIRECTOR

Ashley is a CPA and CMA with more than 15 years of accounting, finance, and management experience at United Airlines and NRG Energy. Ashley is also highly experienced in large scale merger and acquisition transactions.

Virginie Saget

DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS

Virginie has more than 10 years experience in IT project management for big companies (Airbus, Continental), where she successfully drove teams to deliver complex embedded software. She has been working for several years as a consultant to help companies achieve exceptional efficiency. Virginie is certified in Project Management (PMP®) and Agile Methodologies (CSM® & CSPO®).

Robert Morris

PRODUCT ARCHITECT

Robert is a Swiss Army Knife of talent. A highly skilled writer and analyst, he has a passion for digging deep into challenges, developing strategic solutions, and telling meaningful stories through values-based products.

Naomi Harrison

DIRECTOR OF MARKETING

A born communicator with a successful digital marketing career spanning both sides of the Atlantic, Naomi brings a refreshing creative flair and strategic instinct to further elevate Permission’s social media presence.

Huzaifa Jalil

SOFTWARE ENGINEER

Ranking Top 10 in Pakistan's prestigious IEEE Xtreme 13.0 Programming Competition, Huzaifa is a full stack software engineer with over five years of experience, having collaborated with teams to bring cutting-edge ideas to life. His work includes being a part of the team that developed an AI platform that forecasts changes in the cryptocurrency market, enabling investors to make well-informed decisions.

ERSHAT Ul ISLAM

SR SQA ENGINEER

Eshrat is an accomplished Software Quality Assurance professional with a wealth of experience in diverse testing methodologies. Her expertise lies in ensuring software reliability, performance, and quality across various platforms. With a proven track record of collaborating effectively with cross-functional teams and a commitment to continuous improvement, Eshrat brings valuable skills to the realm of software testing.

SALMAN BUTT

SOFTWARE ENGINEER

Salman, a Full Stack Web Developer with 5+ years of experience, specializes in working on medium-scale to large complex solutions. He places a strong emphasis on coding quality to ensure scalability and maintainability. His expertise shines in complex Product like MindManager (Corel Corporation). He excels in designing user-friendly interfaces, implementing advanced web solutions, and efficiently managing databases.

RASIKH QADEER

SOFTWARE ENGINEER

Rasikh is a dedicated Software Engineer with a lifelong passion for programming and 6+ years of professional experience. With a talent for problem-solving and a love for creative innovation, he brings a fresh perspective to the team. Proficient in a variety of programming languages and technologies, Rasikh specializes in building user-friendly web, mobile and desktop solutions. His contributions have led to increased productivity and smoother processes.

Ammar Haider

DEVOPS ENGINEER

Web3 specialist Ammar has 3+ years of professional experiences both in the DevOps & Software Engineering. His DevOps expertise include AWS & GCP, infrastructure-as-code, Terraform, Docker, CI/CD, Kubernetes, Networks, and business applications security. He also has experience developing scalable web applications in different frameworks, and Web3 domain developing Dapps including smart contract development.

ADVISORY BOARD

Kyung Kim

HORIZON MEDIA SVP DIGITAL INVESTMENT

A leader and innovator in the digital media community for 18+ years, Kyung Kim has led media strategy and investment at some of the largest agencies including Publicis, Omnicom and independent giant Horizon Media, representing some of the largest brands across multiple sectors. He is driven by the changing media landscape and the opportunity to disrupt traditional thinking.

Ichiro Minamikawa

CEO OF COINTED JAPAN

Tokyo-based Ichiro Minamikawa founded 10 companies in 30 years. He is CEO at Cointed Japan and director of several FinTech and HealthTech companies.

Son Nguyen

CTO AT ANDO

Technology entrepreneur and founder of multiple successful startups in the financial technology industry. Son is a proven leader who continues to innovate and create first class software teams and products.

Andrew Essex

CEO AND FOUNDER, PLAN A

An award-winning journalist, Andrew is also the founder and CEO of creative marketing services company, Plan A. His former roles include CEO of Tribeca Enterprises (the parent company of the Tribeca Film Festival,) and CEO of global advertising agency Droga5.

Jason Young

PRESIDENT AT CHICORY

Jason Young is a 30 year veteran of the media, digital advertising, and adtech markets. A tenured founder and operator, his experience includes serving as CEO of Ziff Davis (tech publisher), CEO of Crisp (mobile ad platform), and Chief Media Officer of Quotient Technology (media/marketing platform). Involved in the early days of digital media, Young specializes in new digital ad platform/product development, launching, and scaling.

Sean Holzman

HEAD OF AD PLATFORMS AT IRIS.TV

Sean has built his career on consistently blowing out revenue goals while driving brand recognition across highly-competitive, dynamic environments. With a talent for identifying opportunities in new technologies and platforms, his strategic and creative perspective breeds results. Sean is a resourceful and agile facilitator skilled in aligning individual strengths with business needs and functions to drive success in fast-paced and challenging environments.

Hunter Jensen

Technology Advisor

Having launched his first website in 1998 and first iOS app in 2008, Hunter has been at the forefront of the software design and development industry for over 20 years. He is a distinguished speaker, author, entrepreneur and thought leader in the digital world, well-known for leading teams to release best-in-class web & mobile products, including for Samsung, Cisco, Salesforce, Avalara, and many more.

Rob Gregory

CEO OF POST-INTERRUPTIVE

Rob is a media veteran with 30+ years experience in advertising, revenue growth, and brand strategy. Before Permission, Rob served as co-founder and President at WhoSay, President of The Daily Beast, and Publisher of Maxim and Rolling Stone magazines.

Richard Li

GENERAL PARTNER AT ALPHABLOCK.COM

A Hong Kong businessman, philanthropist, and founder and chairman of the private investment group Pacific Century Group, Richard has been investing in blockchain since 2012. He has advised several successful cryptocurrency offerings and is a seed investor in Permission.

Robin Bloor, PhD

TECHNOLOGY EVANGELIST

Robin has over 30 years experience in big data and information management. He has authored books on e-commerce, service management and cloud computing.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Brad Murdoch

LIGHTBEND EVP STRATEGY & PRODUCT

A seasoned strategist and product manager, Brad has held executive roles in biz dev, marketing and operations for early and growth stage companies in the professional open source, cybersecurity and enterprise mobility markets, including for JBoss (acquired by Red Hat), Prevoty, Framehawk (acquired by Citrix), Nukona (acquired by Symantec) and OpenSpan (acquired by Pegasystems).

Eric Ervin

CEO OF BLOCKFORCE CAPITAL

Eric is the co-founder and CEO of Blockforce Capital and Co-Founder at Onramp Invest. He formerly served as the Vice President of Wealth Management at Morgan Stanley. He has extensive expertise in alternatives, e.g., dividend swaps, and quant-based cryptocurrency strategies, and is a member of the CFTC Virtual Currency Subcommittee for the Technology Advisory Council.

Bill Ingram

AVALARA BOARD MEMBER

Bill Ingram served as CFO and Treasurer of Avalara Inc., where he completed their IPO and secondary equity offerings, launched SOX/404 internal compliance, and consolidated multiple strategic acquisitions. He has previously served as Interim Chief Financial Officer of Khan Academy, held various executive roles at Leap Wireless, and founded Nuera Communications, where he was CEO.

Brandon Fishman

FOUNDER/CEO OF VITACUP

A seasoned entrepreneur, Brandon has raised millions for VitaCup and prior startups. He founded and successfully sold Internet Marketing Inc., serves on multiple CPG boards and is a consultant and eCommerce advisor to several growing CPG brands.