Joel has 14 years of experience integrating manufacturing technology and software development. He is the CEO and Co-founder of SIMBA Chain, a Blockchain as a Service Startup. His company was awarded a Phase I SBIR grant from DARPA for Secure Messaging on the Blockchain Architecture and a DOE SBIR Grant for Peer-to-Peer Solar Energy Transactions using Blockchain. Joel sits on the Technical Advisory Group for MTConnect, an open-source royalty-free standard that is intended to foster greater interoperability between devices and software applications. He developed the first iOS and Android-compatible MTConnect apps, and has developed over 65 manufacturing apps for the App Store and Google Play. He also sits on the Technical Advisory Committee for MxD, a federally-funded research and development organization. Recently, Joel spoke at the White House by invitation of the National Economic Council in recognition of the progress that has been made by himself and his company in the Manufacturing USA program.