The VeriMe Team

Photo of Laura Paglione

Laura Paglione, MBA

Co-Founder

Laura brings expertise in software development, global research infrastructure, and federated identity management. As ORCID’s founding Technical Director, Laura launched and directed the member and user offerings for the platform that grew to serve over 5 million users within its first six years. In positions at the Kauffman Foundation, Ford Motor Company and Avid Technology, she created and executed business and technical launch plans for new ventures. Laura has an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Photo of Laure Haak

Laure Haak, PhD

Co-Founder

Laure brings expertise in product strategy, partnerships, governance, and start-up operations along with a global network through her work at Thomson Reuters and as the founding Executive Director of ORCID and Principal of the Mighty Red Barn consultancy. Laure has a PhD in Neurosciences from Stanford University Medical School and was a postdoctoral scholar at the US National Institutes of Health.

Photo of Chris Phillips

Chris Phillips, CIDPRO

Co-Founder

Chris brings over 20 years of experience in identity and access management, secure systems architecture, and digital trust frameworks. He served as a founding technical architect of Canada’s national research and education identity federation, advancing federated identity and digital trust infrastructure for over 100 members. He remains deeply engaged in international identity standards and governance communities. As Principal of Adiūcō, a consultancy, he advises on IAM strategy, zero-trust architecture, and the application of AI in secure, scalable systems. Chris is IDPro certified, a contributing exam author, and holds a BSc in Computing from Queen’s University at Kingston.

Photo of Shady El-Damaty

Shady El Damaty, PhD

Advisor and Partner

Shady is founder of OpSci, CEO of Holonym, and principal in the human.tech project, a decentralized identity protocol with 2m+ users and 35.4m credentials created, on which we plan to build our code base. Shady has a PhD in Neuroscience from Georgetown University.