Poseidon Foundation appoints Chief Operating Officer and Chief Technology Officer ahead of Token Sale

London, Monday 21st May 2018: The Poseidon Foundation (“Poseidon”), the world’s first retail platform that allows consumers to rebalance their own carbon footprint at the point of sale has appointed Chidi Akutu as Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Cesare Tagliaferri as Chief Technology Officer (CTO). These milestone appointments come as Poseidon enters its public fundraising phase culminating in its Token Sale on Saturday 16th June, which will be open for four weeks.

Poseidon’s platform uses blockchain technology to integrate carbon markets into transactions at the point-of-sale, giving retailers and their customers the opportunity to support forestry conservation projects around the world when they buy and sell everyday items, in turn supporting action on climate change. The lowest cost and most immediate climate change solution is to protect threatened forests. Avoiding the destruction of forests would have the same impact as taking more than 600 million cars off the road, according to the World Economic Forum.

Chidi will be responsible for day to day operations - in particular leading the high performing service that underpins Poseidon’s platform which will be vital to enable the technology to be scaled. Chidi has spent over 18 years working in the financial services industry supporting the development and delivery of front to back strategies at a number of leading industry organisations, including UBS and Barclays.

Cesare brings 18 years of experience from the financial and technology sectors, specialising in automation, user experience and security. During this time he set up his own business, ran teams of quantitative analysts at a major Australian bank while building their new global markets pricing and risk management platform, and established the APAC customer delivery team for an international software vendor.

Chidi said of his appointment, “Poseidon is an incredible organisation with groundbreaking technology that is already enacting real change in the world. I’m very much looking forward to supporting its growth and working with the excellent team it has built over the last year.”

Cesare, added: “This is such an exciting time to be working in the blockchain space – this platform is a global first that will revolutionise the consumer’s relationship with their carbon footprint. Enabling access and creating demand in the carbon markets is truly innovative and I am very excited to be playing such a key role.”

Laszlo Giricz, founder of Poseidon and CEO, said, “We are thrilled that Chidi and Cesare have joined Poseidon at this hugely important time for the Foundation. The Poseidon platform will transform people’s relationship with their carbon footprint, encourage vital behaviour change and unlock the considerable growth potential of carbon markets to effectively address climate change. Chidi and Cesare’s vast experience will be invaluable to our team and the platform as we approach our Token Sale on 16th June and beyond as we look to grow our offering.”

The Poseidon Foundation has already protected over 20 million trees and conserved an area 24% bigger than New York City. All of the carbon credits on the Poseidon Platform are sourced from forest conservation projects associated with Ecosphere+, a certified B Corporation. The first project supported by users of the Poseidon platform, the Cordillera Azul National Park, sits at the intersection of the Andes mountain range and the Amazon basin in Peru and is home to around 6,000 plant species, 11 endangered large mammals and numerous indigenous populations.