Allan Matheson

Allan is a tech entrepreneur, technology strategist, board advisor and blockchain investor who built his career by identifying and living on frontiers. In 1998, after finishing his BA in International Relations at the University of British Columbia, he moved to Beijing, China to learn Mandarin Chinese. In 2000, he moved to Hong Kong and became the Executive Director of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, the largest Canadian Business organization outside of Canada. In 2003, he took over as the General Manager of Verify Screening Solutions, growing a small private equity backed pre-employment screening operation into Asia’s second largest provider, eventually selling to First Advantage. In 2009, having observed the need for improved compliance standards in global banking operations and Fortune 500 corporations, Allan founded Blue Umbrella, growing it to become one of the largest KYC and third-party compliance research and technology providers having offices in seven offices on four continents. In 2021, the business was sold to private equity backed AML RightSource.

Allan also sits on the board of Oliver Benefits Administration Software, Sarrut Holdings and Lefebvre Sarrut, a leader in Europe in value-added services in the legal and tax market with 2,600 employees in Europe and a turnover in excess of €500M.  Allan is also a moderator and contributor to yWhales, a YPO-affiliated crypto group that engages the community with forums, ideas and education on blockchain matters. He is also a Mentor for Creative Destruction Labs Montreal in the Blockchain/Web 3.0 Cohort and has done numerous speaking engagements with family offices and corporate boards on the transformative power of blockchain technology and its suitability as an investable asset class.

Allan has been involved in technology and blockchain for several years, devoting his attention to decentralised finance and other blockchain innovation. Combining his ability to understand complex business and financial mechanics along with his previous success in frontier markets, he has successfully invested substantially in crypto ventures and assets and founded Golden Pear to help service sophisticated investors’ requirements for long crypto exposure.