Craig Steven Wright's LinkedIn profile picture Linkedin Business Insider Australia In the early 1990s, long before he was suspected of being the elusive creator of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, Brisbane-raised Craig Steven Wright worked as a saute chef, having trained in French cuisine.

He specialised in game meats and spent three years working with a catering company according to his lengthy and remarkable LinkedIn profile.

The hunt for the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto, the supposed Bitcoin creator, saw global attention late last year focussed on Wright, along with a deceased American computer forensics expert Dave Kleiman.

Wright has now sensationally claimed he really is Nakamoto, having given access to a selected handful of media outlets and offered them proof of his ability to transact in Bitcoin using Nakamoto’s signature.

Business Insider interviewed Wright nearly two years ago when the CEO of Sydney tech company DeMorgan was getting ready open the world’s first Bitcoin-based bank, Denariuz. The company behind it, Hotwire PE, failed in 2014 and became the subject a dispute Australian tax authorities.

His career over the last two decades has been varied and tech-based, including a stint at a fledging internet business Ozemail, back when a future prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, was a major investor in the business in the mid-90s.

Wright’s summary of his working life (which Business Insider accessed when it was public before the Nakamoto speculation reached fever pitch last year) ran to more than 2000 words on LinkedIn.

It showed attention to astounding detail, especially when it comes to listing achievements.

It’s the sort of CV that makes you wonder how the former high school student from Brisbane’s Padua Catholic College’s class of ’87 managed to fit it all in. In a black bow tie and jacket, his profile photo was reminiscent of James Bond. He cited News Ltd (now News Corp Australia), Vodafone, and Mahindra and Mahindra, India’s largest vehicle manufacturer, among his career consultancies, saying he was responsible for the creation of firewall and authentication procedure documents for News Ltd.

“Craig is one of the most highly qualified digital forensic practitioners globally. With over 10 years of direct digital forensic experience and more than 20 years in IT Security generally, Craig has not only worked to develop many of the techniques in common practice, but is also working to expand the field of knowledge,” one reference stated.

On LinkedIn he said:

Respected executive and technology leader delivering proven ability to capitalize on enterprise-level technologies and pioneering strategies. A sought-after internationally recognized author and public speaker, delivering solutions to government and corporate departments in SCADA security, Cyber Security and Cyber Defense, as well as leading the uptake of IPv6 and Cloud technologies. Drives innovative strategies that result in the strategic redevelopment and invigoration of both startups and established firms. Futurist, thought leader and expert with proven innovation in program leadership, execution design and strategic redevelopment.

Wright was a lecturer at Charles Sturt University for five years until June 2015, saying he “developed and promoted the Masters degree in Digital Forensics at CSU”, and now describes himself as a “multi-certified expert in enterprise security and cloud strategies”.

“I am a bit of an academic junkie and go from degree to degree as a sort of hobby, so this all adds to the level of being over-qualified for most things,” he said in a separate biography.

He’s gained a series of masters qualifications from different universities, but mostly CSU, where he also completed a doctorate in computer science in 2012.

Wright also cites a degree in international commercial law from Northumbria University, further qualifications from the University of Newcastle and is currently undertaking a Master of Science and Finance at University of London.

Screenshot Via BBC

In addition to his consulting engagements he is also named as an author of several books and articles on digital forensics.

Dr Craig Steven Wright’s first PhD was in theology, achieved in 2003 with a dissertation titled “Gnarled roots of a creation theory”.

“If you need to ever need to know of Dionysus, Vesta, Menrva, Ceres (Roman Goddess of the Corn, Earth, Harvest) or other mythological characters – I am your man. I could even hold a conversation on Eileithyia, the Greek Goddess of childbirth and her Roman rebirth as Lucina,” he says on LinkedIn.

The former Catholic later became a trustee for the Uniting Church in NSW.

After school, Wright studied engineering at the University of Queensland, switching to computer science in his fourth year. He was working as a cook while simultaneously focussed on nuclear physics and nuclear magnetic resonance, then fuel sciences.

There was a stint at Corporate Express (formerly WPA) a Sydney business IT solutions company, around the same period, where he described his role as “general gopher and person people blamed when computers failed”, before the move to Ozemail in 1996 for a year “managing a bunch of engineers”. In April 1997 Wright says he moved to the Australian Stock Exchange for 14 months dealing with security and firewalls. During this time he was also studying fuel sciences.

In November 1997, he launched a Sydney-based company DeMorgan, apparently named after Augustus De Morgan, a 19th century British mathematician and logician.

DeMorgan is described as “a pre-IPO Australian listed company focused on alternative currency, next generation banking and reputational and educational products with a focus on security and creating a simple user experience”.

The business has more than a dozen companies focussed on crypto-currency under its umbrella, including his proposed bank, Denariuz, while others are directed towards online education.

Last year DeMorgan Ltd announced it had received $54 million under AusIndustry’s R&D Tax Incentive Scheme, which gives a cash rebate of 45 cents for every $1 spent on R&D.

The company’s goal was to have one of the top 20 super computers in the world and the fastest computer managed in the southern hemisphere. Wright announced a week after the R&D tax news that he’d personally run a free, five-week webinar course on supercomputers in conjunction with CSU.

He’s the author of several books, most recently the “The IT Regulatory and Standards Compliance Handbook”, and amid regular consultancies in digital forensics, was executive VP for strategic development at London’s Centre for Strategic Cyberspace + Security Science.

Another, more recent business, Hotwire Pre-Emptive Intelligence Group, has been less successful. Launched in June 2013, it was placed into voluntary administration less than 12 months later, with debts of more than $12.8 million.

Wright said the business aimed to “help the world to get ready for tomorrow today” and “inspire enduring optimism and trust”.

Its goal was R&D on e-learning and e-payment systems and software, acquiring software through a range of complex bitcoin-related transactions. Hotwire had 44 employees who were made redundant.

Australian Federal Police officers walk down the driveway after searching the home of probable creator of cryptocurrency bitcoin Craig Steven Wright in Sydney's north shore December 9, 2015. REUTERS/David Gray

In December, Australian tax officials raided Wright’s home and office and as Business Insider revealed Hotwire has been involved in a bitter dispute with the ATO over tax claims. The company was issued with a $1.7 million penalty by the tax office. The business was a separate entity to DeMorgan.

One man who worked with Wright at Hotwire, Steven Lipke, is among 10 people who’ve posted testimonies for their colleague on LinkedIn.

It reads “Craig is a little bit crazy, as in Orville & Wilbur Wright craziness of deciding to add an engine to a glider. … a true visionary”.

This is an updated version of a story first published on December 10, 2015.