Team backgrounds include
Team
Meet the Team
Sensei Paul Misir
ATHL Founder; coach of high-profile combat athletes for over a decade; inventor of Patent #11,623,128 around sports data and prediction markets; economic research published in Venture Capital Journal, European VCJ and others; 10 years as Founder & Managing Partner of private equity fund Morning Street Capital, an early pioneer of secondaries strategies that have since become widely adopted.
Chris Kelly
ATHL Treasury Corp Co-Founder & CEO; Co-owner of the NBA Sacramento Kings since 2013; FacebookS's 25th employee, and its first General Counsel, Head of Global Public Policy, and Chief Privacy Officer (left to run for Attorney General of California); Founder & Managing Partner of Kelly Ventures focused on deep tech, web3 and AI, including being the earliest investor in Alchemy.com (ATHL development partner).
Michael Spanos II
ATHL Co-Founder; over 12 years within the NFL including 3 years at the NFL League Office and afterward at the Los Angeles Chargers in a full time capacity (third-generation family owner); Co-Founder of Hypereon Labs, a data sciences and AI software development company; former running back for the Stanford football team.
Susannah Griffee
ATHL Chief of Staff; corporate attorney focused on fund formation and M&A; previously COO at Subconscious.ai (surveying tech); former journalist at The New Yorker, NYTimes and USA Today; Mentor at University of Chicago startup incubator.
Shane Pearson
ATHL founding member; University of Texas alumnus with 20 years experience building scalable web applications across multiple industries; Former engineer at Kimbia maintaining Giving Day platform; Before, led development of APIs and curation tools selling Fine Art for publishers like Conde Nast and Getty.
Ryan Lester
Co-founded Cyph (cybersecurity based on 10 patents); former engineer at SpaceX; Carnegie Mellon dropout; author of pqcrypto.js; and code security auditor for HackerOne; inventor on 15 patents in applied cryptography; occasional speaker at Black Hat, DEF CON, and Web3 Expo.
William Corbett
Over 20 years in alternative investments. Head of Blockchain & Digital Assets Group at Pickwick Capital. Founder of Mapstone Labs, a blockchain technology company focused on digital infrastructure and asset tokenization.
Ali Khanzadi
Head of Data & Analytics at ATHL with deep expertise in data infrastructure, analytics engineering, and data science, driving growth and product strategy.Previously led analytics and data products at Los Angeles startups across fintech, e-commerce, and ad tech.
London Scully
Creative Director, and active runway model, having walked for the top fashion houses over an 8 year career, including: Prada, Alexander McQueen, Valentino, Balmain, Georgio Armani, Jean Paul Gaultier, and more.
Advisors
Dr. Peter Holden
Dunworth Capital Founder & CEO; 25 years as a General Partner of multiple institutional venture capital and private equity secondaries funds, including at Coller Capital for more than 5 years; Co-Founder of Hughes Holden Foundation, bringing AI to bear on mental health research.
Demetri Argyropolous
Founder of Avant Global in 1999; founding investor in Ripple Labs ($XRP) and other significant technology companies in Silicon Valley such as SandboxAQ; has since invested in more than 100 companies across many sectors globally.
Ray Garcia
Author of StartUP SOAR Coaching; focus on computation and AI including as Co-founder of Science4Data; former EIR at MIT Media Lab, professor at University of Pisa School of Business, and business expert for E.U. Commission Horizon 2020 SME.
Matthew Stedman
Managing Director at Seaport Global Securities; Partner at Level Field Media (film fund); over 30 years as a trusted advisor to corporations, high-profile startups, and investors as an investment banker at Drexel Burnham and PaineWebber, among others.
Ari Smith
AI engineering executive; Managing Partner at Hypereon Labs; CTO of FatRat.ai; Co-Founder of Balance Farms, a AI-driven sustainable microcommunity; Founder of AlertWire (acquired); patent holder and former AI professor at Yonsei University (SK).
Partners
Building With
Web3 Infrastructure
Among the largest groups today in web3 and blockchain platform development, scaling the platforms of clients such as RobinHood, PolyMarket, and JP Morgan. ATHL is co-developing its upcoming Athlete Token transition to an L2 custom EVM chain with Alchemy.
Development Firm & Agency
New York City-headquartered agency with 100+ people serving major sports clients including the NBA, MLB, AVP, Bleacher Report, and more. ATHL co-develops its gamification features, UX/UI, and branding experience alongside Utility.