who we are
it sounds like one of those jokes: a Norn’Irish butcher, a Belgian polyglot and a Romanian crypto miner had this crazy idea of creating a transparent digital supply chain, by registering each product as a unique digital asset on a blockchain platform and telling the story of this asset from its creation, transformation, movement and contractual transactions to its consumption through a chain of digital data blocks. but the truth is often stranger than fiction. meet the founders of ubloquity and the wider team.
Kieran Kelly | butcher / IT nerd / TEDx talker
Kieran is a successful tech entrepreneur working with organisations to deliver positive economic change through digital transformation. after spending almost two decades designing and delivering enterprise security solutions for Government, Defence and Aerospace clients, Kieran has been focusing on the benefits of Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) and blockchain to support and enhance supply chain security and digital asset management. for the past six years, he has developed and deployed commercial blockchain solutions for global brands across the food and beverage sector. an established International speaker Kieran has been recognised by Forbes, Bloomberg, The Times and more recently TEDx as an innovator and thought leader in the development of blockchain for asset identification and security. Kieran has begun work on identifying how emerging technologies can be utilised to reduce operational complexities and challenges across the enterprise to support frictionless trade.
Rob Chester | shopkeeper / auditor / thought leader
before taking up the role of CEO at ubloquity, Rob was the Managing Director of NSF’s UK food safety services and operations and part of the EMEA Senior Leadership Team. He was accountable for the wide-ranging UK Public Health business that provides a range of services to all aspects of the food industry from farm to fork. before joining NSF, Rob worked for Walmart, holding positions in the UK, the U.S. and China. whilst in China he was the Chief Compliance Officer, and, in the U.S., he ran Operations Compliance across Walmart’s 5,000 US stores. prior to Walmart he held several compliance roles globally for Tesco. Rob holds an LLB (Hons) and Postgraduate Diploma in legal practice from UCLAN in the UK. he lives near Leeds with his wife Caroline and two Rhodesian Ridgebacks.
Ineke Rentmeesters | project manager / rebel / foodie
Ineke has more than 15 years of experience as an IT Program and Project Manager, skilled in managing complex global IT projects and working with multi-cultural global delivery teams. before moving to the UK and joining NSF, she worked at IBM Belgium, where she delivered several IT software development projects, primarily for clients in the public sector, such as Government Customs and Excise Departments, the EU commission, NATO and the UN. she also lived and worked in Nairobi, Kenya for three years where she managed the Public Diplomacy activities and projects for the Embassy of Belgium. as a foodie with a curiosity in new technologies, she is particularly interested in how these technologies such as blockchain and AI are changing the way we live and what we eat. she has a down-to-earth, pragmatic, people first approach, following a philosophy infused by agile and holacracy methodologies.
Alin Jurj | engineer / tech lead / global do-gooder
Alin is passionate about green field process improvement projects that change the way people interact with one another leading to a better quality of life. with more than 15 years’ experience in software engineering Alin believes there is always more to learn, discover and optimise. he is a DevOps and cloud computing specialist, with vast experience in building enterprise solutions that have the ability to scale. he is an ardent supporter of the SOLID principles, a performance addict and a Linux enthusiast. he believes, that in order to succeed, you need to invest in yourself as a person. the opportunities and worldwide applications that arose with the appearance of blockchain technologies have directed Alin to pursue, study and apply this new tech for the greater good.