Micah Winkelspecht Founder,CEO

Micah Winkelspecht is the CEO and Founder of Gem. Micah has been active in bitcoin since 2012. In the early days, Micah established an active Bitcoin community in Los Angeles and grew it to over 1,000 members. Micah is also a significant contributor to the blockchain developer community as the author of MoneyTree, a popular open-source library used to create blockchain wallets and the first Ruby implementation of a Bitcoin HD wallet. Prior to his contributions to blockchain technology, Micah spent 10+ years developing software for companies including AT&T Interactive, Guide Financial and Pose.

When it was founded, Gem offered security-as-a-service for developers building on top of Bitcoin. As blockchain technology popularized, Gem was increasingly approached by financial institutions to apply our security to other digital assets. We designed GemOS to expand security beyond digital assets, to apply it to identity, data, and logic frameworks that can be implemented on a blockchain. Today, Gem works with leaders in finance, healthcare, insurance and beyond.

Emily Vaughn Headof Accounts

Emily grew up in South Mississippi, where she learned to sail and survive hurricanes, though thankfully not in the same day. She made a small but timely investment into bitcoin in 2012, a decision that prompted and financed an abrupt personal pivot that eventually landed her a career in the industry. Emily is a graduate of the University of Alabama, where she now supports student innovation as a founding chairperson to the Board of Advisors for the Office of Community Affairs. Emily travels constantly, a lifestyle that suits her nomadic nature, but when she dreams of peace, it’s on a quiet farm in Tennessee. She spends her time doodling, discovering new music, watching Vine compilations and Rihanna music videos. The opportunity to join Gem was nothing short of serendipitous. Emily didn’t think twice and hasn’t looked back.

Chitra Ragavan ChiefCommunication Officer

Chitra Ragavan is the Chief Communications Officer at Gem. She works closely with the CEO and with Gem’s teams to communicate Gem’s technology, product, brand, and culture to customers, press, and investors. Prior to Gem, Chitra served for eight years as senior strategic advisor to the CEO of Palantir Technologies, the $20 billion dollar Silicon Valley unicorn. Chitra brought unique qualifications to her role as a strategic advisor: her wealth of long-term trusted relationships; the ability to wrestle complex issues to the ground; and a national reputation for integrity and excellence. Prior to joining Palantir, Chitra was a nationally recognized reporter. Her credentials include: chief legal affairs correspondent, U.S. News & World Report, and correspondent, National Public Radio (NPR). Chitra has a Masters degree in journalism from the University of Georgia, and a Bachelors degree in biochemistry and biology from the University of Mumbai, India.

Siva Kannan VP,Engineering

Born in Hyderabad, India, Siva’s formative years with math and physics included solving logic problems with his mathematician grandfather, sticking a math instrument into an electric socket to discover what electricity felt like, and outrunning a cyclist crossing his path by calculating their mutual velocities. After graduating from the University of Madras, Siva worked at Microsoft, Symantec, and myDevices. Siva thrives on running, skydiving, bungee jumping, and teaching driving to new Indian immigrants. The low point of that experience occurred on Seattle’s SR 520 Floating Bridge during a torrential downpour, when Siva realized that his panicked student driver suffered from aquaphobia. Siva joined Gem to combine his passions for building operating systems, securing operating systems and platforms, and creating IoT platforms.

Jeff Shelton VP,Product

Jeff grew up on the sandy beaches of Maui where his family had been working in the sugar industry since the 40’s. An avid golfer and go to caddie for Michael Jordan and other celebrities in Maui, Jeff made a difficult move to Seattle, where he earned a dual degree in Creative Literature and Cinema Studies at the University of Washington. Jeff worked in every medium and genre, making music videos, producing documentaries, online content, and educational materials, as he wound his way from the Independent Feature Project in Seattle to Madonna’s Maverick Films, then Content House, Crash.tv, New York Times Baseline, and finally, Studymode. His body of creative, consumer, and enterprise focused work brought Jeff home to Gem. While not at work , Jeff is an active leader in the product community and currently sits on the board of directors for the Product Managers Association of Los Angeles.