Meeting Ava Labs — The Team Behind The Scenes

Published in

Avalanche

5 min readMay 5, 2020

By this point, anyone following Ava Labs knows the names Emin Gün Sirer, John Wu, Maofan “Ted” Yin, and Kevin Sekniqi, but the village it takes to make something as great as Avalanche is much larger than four names.

Over 40 people are working tirelessly to build and deliver the promise of a decentralized future powered by the Avalanche platform.

Let’s get to know some of the faces behind the protocol in a new series we’re calling Meeting Ava Labs. We’ve selected six of the names you’ll see bouncing around emails, in community chats, and on social media to learn more about them and how they’re doing their part to make the Avalanche platform a reality.

Since you’ll now know these fine people, don’t be a stranger! Join our communities (we have almost every platform covered at this point).

Stephen Buttolph — Senior Systems Architect

Stephen Buttolph graduated from Cornell University in 2018 with a B.S. in Computer Science after just 5 semesters where he was consistently among the top of his class. In university, Stephen reached out to Prof. Emin Gün Sirer to find the most challenging research project he could work on. Gün placed him on the Avalanche client team, codenamed “Gecko,” which has since become the reference client for the Avalanche protocol. Stephen is now entering into Cornell’s PhD. program as a student and plans to focus on consensus. When he’s not passionately researching consensus algorithms and developing novel solutions on the Avalanche platform, Stephen is a top-level skier and can be seen flying down the slopes in New Hampshire.

Dan Laine — Senior Software Engineer

Dan Laine graduated from Cornell University in 2018 with a B.S. in Computer Science and a minor in Operations Research and Management Science. Dan has been an essential part of the Ava Labs team since joining in October ’19, inventing Gecko’s serialization format, fleshing out API development, and improving processes for subnet, VM, and chain creation. Dan is presently working on new classes of VMs for the Avalanche ecosystem that will improve the speed, efficiency, and portability of platform smart contracts. In his free time, Dan can be found outside reading books on public policy, history, and sustainability.

Emre Kanatli — Front-End Engineer

Emre Kanatli graduated from NYU in 2018 with a double major in Music Technology and Computer Science, focusing on signals processing and web applications. Prior to joining Ava Labs as a Front-End Engineer, Emre was a front-end oriented Fullstack Engineer for three years building real-time applications with complex user interfaces. From websockets to wasm to WebGL, Emre gets that 60 fps out of Avalanche’s web interfaces. He was awarded “Most Innovative Technology” at Music Tech NYU and received awards for design from AES. When he’s not making dynamic user experiences, he’s DJing, playing with synthesizers, and learning about AI.

Carrianne Fairbairn — Executive Assistant

Carrianne Fairbairn graduated from UNISA (University of South Africa) in 2015 with a B.S. in Psychology. Her ability to coordinate the interests of large groups of highly-active people and intuition for solving the complex challenges inherent in every startup has led Carrianne to become a vital member of the Ava Labs team. Raised by a pack of wolves in the Catskills, Carrianne has the unique ability to hunt down anyone so they’re never late for a crucial appointment. When not keeping everyone in order, she can be found taking long hikes with her own pack of German Shepherds named Gunther and Nyx. Simply put, Ava Labs would not be where it is today without Carrianne.

Lydia Chiu — VP, Business Development

Lydia Chiu graduated from University of Rochester in 2007 with a B.A. in Economics. She began her storied career on Wall Street right out of school at Credit Suisse. In her decade as an internet and technology investor on Wall Street, she discovered the world of blockchain and cryptocurrencies and embarked on a new path. As Director of Digital Assets at SharesPost Digital Assets Group, she stood up a compliant security token trading platform (a herculean feat). She worked with our President John Wu at Investery, who brought her into Ava Labs with its acquisition in 2020. Lydia believes we can make investing in private assets easier through the use of blockchain technology, and is already making waves with our moonshot factory Avalanche-X, positioning Avalanche for regulatory success, and championing new marketing efforts for Avalanche’s release. She has three dogs which she describes as “Cockapoo, morkie, and maltipoo… so … A+B, C+D, and B+C.” When she’s not digging through contracts and speaking with legal, she’s out traveling or practicing her photography skills.

Joseph Ferrara — Business Development Associate

Joe Ferrara graduated from Cornell University in 2019 with a B.A. in Hotel Administration. He’s been working in the blockchain space since 2017, founding the campus organization Cornell Blockchain and functioning as Co-President until his graduation. As a Research Analyst for SharesPost Digital Assets Group, Joe has developed the relationships that would connect and bring him to Ava Labs. As a wearer of many hats and event organizer, you will see Joe coordinating with representatives from Coinbase, Microsoft, Amazon, Goldman Sachs, and NASDAQ. Speaking of NASDAQ, Joe had the honor of ringing the bell on behalf of Cornell Blockchain to open the markets on April 11th, 2019 (proof, or it didn’t happen). Being connected and dashing aren’t his only virtues — Joe is an amazing cook and uses family traditions passed down over generations.

About Ava Labs:

Ava Labs makes it simple to launch finance applications using blockchain technology–with highly scalable and efficient networks, customizable public and private blockchains, the capability to create any digital asset, and more. We are empowering people to build an open, simple, and democratic internet of finance.