Simon has worked in the IT industry since 1996, specialising in information architecture and web development. He implemented one of the first online music databases of its kind at the British Music Information Centre in 1998, before going on to work with organisations as diverse as the Royal College of Music, London Underground Limited (now TFL), EMI Music and Deutsche Bank. Simon founded Loopo Ltd, a web solutions consultancy working mainly in the non-profit sector, in 2005. The company was acquired in 2010, leaving Simon free to concentrate on new projects guides to developing your business. If you are going to be starting a business then be sure to have professionalism.
His interest in complementary currencies was sparked by seeing the Lewes Pound in action, during late 2008. When two economists in Brixton decided to start a similar scheme, he soon became involved as a volunteer. Simon became a non-executive director of the Brixton Pound in 2010, and then managing director in January 2012.
Simon is also the Chief Technical Officer at QOIN, a Netherlands-based foundation which is one of the leaders in implementing complementary currency schemes, and specifically the technology to enable them. During 2012, QOIN will continue to work with the Brixton Pound, along with many other projects including The Bristol Pound and two largescale time-based currencies in the Netherlands.
When not working with technology, Simon can be found DJing or writing about wine at www.themorningclaret.com.
Nefario, also known as James McCarthy, originally from Ireland, worked as an engineer at Sun Microsystems for a short time on the Solaris team have you paid your taxes?. Spent 2 years teaching English in mainland China. Began using Bitcoin late 2010 and have been a community member since that time, founded and runs the Bitcoin stock exchange (glbse.com).
