The ARK Team is proud to announce our newest member, Ray Alvarez. Ray will be joining the ARK Team as Strategic Partnerships Manager and will be a focal point for our new Powered by ARK Program. His expertise will be integral in creating new relationships and growing the ARK Ecosystem through interaction with current and future projects building on the ARK Blockchain Platform.

For those of you who have yet to meet him, Ray has been an avid ARK supporter for a long time and a valuable member of the community. He started his contributions to ARK over a year ago by joining the ARK Community Committee and supporting various community projects like ARKTimeline and ARKThoughts. After seeing initial success through his contributions, Ray launched Delegate Echo on the ARK Public Network to bring more community services to the ecosystem.

From a formal education perspective, Ray has a strong background in political science and the legal field which makes him a unique asset for the ARK.io Team. He graduated with a BA in Political Science from Florida International University. There, he gained valuable skills in communications, negotiations, problem-solving, legal research and writing, and multitasking. He later obtained his Juris Doctor degree from St. Thomas University.

In 2019, Ray decided to put his legal expertise to good use by writing a number of articles about blockchain technology under the label The Blockchain Bench, and worked with Justin to host a mini-show inside The ARK Crypto Podcast called the Blockchain Legal Roundup. Now a member of the team, Ray will occasionally return to the show to provide more legal insight into the blockchain and cryptocurrency community.

An example of Ray’s Blockchain Legal Roundup Mini-Show.

ARK turned its eyes on Ray out of the need for a key point of contact for blockchain projects building on ARK technology. Ray’s attention to detail will keep bridgechains engaged and ensure we are offering the best possible support to our strategic partners. As the newest member of the Communications Team, he will also keep the ARK community in the loop on the latest bridgechain activity throughout the ecosystem. Over time, these efforts may extend to ‘off-chain’ strategic partners of ARK as well.

His value to the team won’t end there. Ray has extensive experience in digital media strategy with a particular focus on YouTube. In the past, he has managed a network of YouTube partners with subscriber bases that totaled over 10 million subscribers. Ray also has insight into the secret sauce of how the content curation algorithm works for some of the biggest social media platforms in existence today. The communications and marketing teams will be tapping into his knowledge to continue to grow and expand the ARK sphere of influence across the industry.

We couldn’t be more excited to welcome Ray to the team! You can reach Ray via email at Ray@ARK.io, Slack @ Ray.Alva, and Reddit @ ARKjd.