Meet the TokenTraxx founders
Introducing the core team who are intent on delivering the TokenTraxx vision to disrupt the music industry.
TokenTraxx is a cutting-edge music platform that offers a whole new way to create, curate and collect music through NFT technology. Delivering this vision are a core team that consists of a number of experienced and valued music industry leaders. Together they are dedicated to evolving the way the music industry operates, creating new value streams for both creators and fans.
This article takes a look at the three TokenTraxx founders, TommyD, Paul Taylor and Brian Elders, and their three co-founders Miles Leonard, Tim Gentry and Max Kantelia who make up the core team.
These founders sit on top of a broader team of specialists and advisors who bring the total team to thirty people (at the time of writing), who all share a passion for music, technology and NFTs. You can meet them on the TokenTraxx website in the Explore section.
Let’s meet the founders…
TommyD: CCO — Originator & Founder
Tommy Danvers, (TommyD) is an award-winning multi-platinum selling music producer, songwriter, artist, DJ, Graffiti6 member, TV presenter, public speaker and both founder & creator of 808 Whisky.
Tommy has spent his life mixing: mixing genres, mixing tunes, even mixing whisky. He believes in “Harmony Through Mixology”, mixing styles to create something new.
He has sold over 60 million units and his music is featured in over 3 billion streams! He is known for working closely with artists such as Kanye West, Beyoncé and Kylie, and is still very active in today’s music scene, working with artists such as Mabel, Little Mix, London Grammar, Paloma Faith, Bugzy Malone and Emeli Sande, among others, in 2021 alone.
He successfully developed an educational and self-help program, centred around the concepts of creativity and collaboration called Harmony-Through-Mixology (HTM), which helps cre8ives, be cre8ive, stay cre8ive and stay true to their ‘why’”. He has lectured HTM in some of the most prestigious music universities and colleges in the world and garnered many plaudits for the support it offers
It is no surprise that Tommy is a strong advocate of disruptive technology around the creation, registration and distribution of music. “I’ve been into synths and electronic music since the 90’s and have been campaigning for music creatives rights, especially within the digital domains for over 15 years” He is always looking for new and exciting ways to bring support and value to all forms of creativity, giving artists the recognition and remuneration they rightfully deserve.
Paul Taylor: CEO — Originator & Founder
A Durham University graduate, Paul Taylor has had a varied career working in emergent and disruptive technologies and markets. He started his career working at The Guardian, the UK’s first national newspaper to move online as the internet facilitated a sea change in the media landscape, with senior management roles in media, marketing and sales promotion including running multi-disciplinary teams.
As an early observer of the blockchain and related tech markets, Paul’s interest is in applying technological innovation to real-world use cases, aiming for positive social outcomes in developing markets.
Brian Elders: CFO — Founder
Brian is an enthusiastic participant in the Digital Asset ecosystem globally and . Brian is the Founder of Sors Digital Assets, a VASP based in Ireland & Hong Kong that helps companies bring to market and trade digital assets including tokenized equity, funds, cryptocurrencies, utility tokens and NFTs. He is also a partner at securities tokenization specialists, Black Manta Capital Partners, a founder of Fortuna Digital Custody, and Defactor, enabling businesses across the globe to access DeFi. Brian is also on the governance councils of NDAU (the worlds first adaptive digital currency) and EnreachDAO (the DeFi 2.0 Toolkit for engineering better financial outcomes).
Armed with a degree in Business and Law and further qualifications in accounting, treasury and quant finance, he has lived and worked across the world, including his native Ireland, Poland, Hungary, Singapore and Hong Kong. He displays a unique passion for innovation and is evangelical about the impact that blockchain technology can have on the world of finance, both at a global level and for individuals across the world.
Miles Leonard: Chief Talent Officer — Co-Founder
Miles Leonard is a British music industry executive and former Chairman of Parlophone as well as Warner Bros. Records UK.
Miles previously worked for Virgin Records, EMI Records and Roadrunner Records. Within his first year at Virgin as an A&R scout in 1991, he signed the band The Verve. Miles played a pivotal role in reviving Kylie Minogue’s career when she signed to Parlophone in 1999. Minogue’s first single with Parlophone, “Spinning Around,” saw the artist achieve her first UK #1 single in a decade and heralded the start of a massive career revival!
Miles was confirmed as the president of Parlophone in 2006, and in 2011, he was appointed the newly created position of “President of Parlophone & Virgin A&R Labels” where he led both Virgin and Parlophone’s music discovery and development teams in the UK. In 2013, he became co-chairman of Warner Bros. Records UK.
Following Warner Music Group’s acquisition of Parlophone Label Group, Miles was appointed Chairman of Warner Bros. Records UK. Miles Leonard has also been credited as signing on record-breaking artists such as Coldplay, Gorillaz, Royal Blood, Paul Weller, Lily Allen, and Tinie Tempah.
He currently has his own label and management company, Viva La Music.
Tim Gentry: COO — Co-Founder
Tim Gentry has extensive publisher and technology leadership experience as The Guardian’s Global Revenue Director, and the MD, EMEA for leading TV software Videology. As a leader throughout the era of digital transformation in media, he has learnt to create opportunity through change and has a deep understanding of digital media, technologies and business models.
Tim is expert at devising and implementing growth strategies that deliver long term transformation built on short term results. At The Guardian he developed the global and digital business including commercial launches in US and Australia, and has extensive experience of building and leading large teams that deliver hundreds of millions in revenues.
Having been at the forefront of navigating change in Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 for publishing and TV advertising, Tim is excited about TokenTraxx’ opportunity to create a transformational movement through Web3 for the music industry, which has been a lifetime passion as an avid collector and DJ.
Max Kantelia : Advisor — Co-Founder
From the start-up to rev-up of fast growth tech and financial services companies, Max Kantelia is a serial entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in companies across cities around the world including London, Singapore and New York.
Max established Anquan Capital, a private investment company, in 2015, with a 5 year mission of launching a set of innovative tech ventures based on scientific research from a research lab at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Between the years of 2015 and 2020, Anquan launched; Ziliqa, a world-leading blockchain platform with a market cap of over $1 billion and also recently announced their partnership with TokenTraxx; Aqilliz, a leading blockchain-based digital advertising company and; Treasure Cloud, a cloud-storage platform with a privacy-first approach.
In 2020, Max successfully exited two ventures, one in AI (untapt) and the other in voice tech (Speik) during the global pandemic.
Following on from Max’s decision to join TokenTraxx as both co-founder and advisor to the company in 2021, he is looking forward to helping more entrepreneurs launch new NFT and blockchain ventures from mainstream industrial adoption in 2022 by using Zilliqa as the layer 1 platform together with Zilliqa’s ‘Metapollis,’ an upcoming metaverse infrastructure to contribute to the creation of Web3.
Get on the guestlist
If the TokenTraxx team sounds like the sort of people you want to get involved with, join us on our journey. Visit our website to get on the TokenTraxx guestlist for launch or join the conversation on our community channels:
- Website (get on the guestlist)
- Twitter (join the conversation)
- Telegram (group chat)
- Discord (collaboration)
