6 March 2021|Latest Posts, Meet the Successful Founder
Dr Amber Ghaddar is one of the founders of AllianceBlock, a blockchain startup building the framework for the world’s first globally compliant capital market by bridging CeFi and DeFi. The startup was formed in 2018 and has constantly ranked in the best early-stage fintechs in Europe (Money2020, Websummit). AllianceBlock issued its token in September 2020 and is now in the top 250 crypto projects by market capitalisation. It, however, ranks fourth in terms of women founded crypto projects by market capitalisation.
Amber is the mastermind behind participative capitalism and calibrocracy and has been invited to world-class events to give talks on the subject (Davos, Money20/20, TEDx, UN Women, BBC). She was listed in the “Rising Women In Crypto Powerlist 2020” by the Fintech Times. Additionally, she is a guest lecturer at EDHEC Business School in France.
Previously, Amber was a bond trader at JP Morgan London where she held various leadership positions. Amber started her career in Global Investment Research at Goldman Sachs London and moved from there to the Cross-Asset Solution team at JP Morgan London in 2012, where she built the JP Morgan UK MultiAsset franchise. Later, she spearheaded the Macro Systematic Trading Strategies team at JP Morgan London. She holds a B.Sc in Science & Technology, three Masters (Neurosciences, Microelectronics & Nanotechnologies, and International Risk Management & Business) and a PhD in Molecular Medicine. She is a graduate of McGill Canada and HEC Paris.
In her free time, Amber is an advocate of women in tech and blockchain, she believes in order to see more women in C-level roles we need to increase the pool of women developers which currently stands at just 12.5% of total developers in the UK. She sits on the board of BIBA and is a mentor at the Global Thinkers Forum, Like-Minded Females Network and UN Women. She recently founded the 200 Billion Club, an initiative aiming to finance women-led startups in the UK and return £200bn to the post Brexit economy.
What would you love to share to encourage other women to start their own company?
I highly advise young graduates to start in the corporate world for 2/3years to shape up their resume, experience and most importantly to learn discipline. After that, I encourage them to start their own enterprises. Nowadays, the upside of entrepreneurship is much higher than any other corporate job.
Being a woman entrepreneur can lift the weight the corporate world puts on us to conform to bypassed rules or to have to suffer unconscious and conscious bias in silence. Additionally, as the global pandemic has mainly affected women and threatens to reverse years’ worth of gender pay equity progress, now is the right time for ambitious and driven women to step up. At the moment. we are very lucky that the issue of funding for women driven businesses is under the spotlight and there is no doubt that we should grab this opportunity.
What are your top tips for entrepreneurial success?
Ambition and self-confidence: you cannot be the part if you don’t look and sound the part.
Patience: It will take time and a lot of pain to get your business to a cruising level. You need to be willing to put in the nights and the tears that come with lifting a business or an idea from the ground up.
Failure: There is no doubt you will fail, so reflect on your failures and use them to enhance your arsenal.
People: Surround yourself with a team that has complementary skills to yours and listen to them.
Passion: Work on something you’re passionate about, so when you wake up on a rainy day after a failure you still have enough passion in you to keep pushing onwards and upwards.
Who are the five women who inspire you the most ?
Recent figures:
Anne Boden (Founder and CEO of Starling Bank)
Cathie Wood (CEO and CIO of Ark Invest),
Jacinda Arden (Prime minister of New Zealand).
Historical figures:
Ada Lovelace in the 19th century (The first computer programmer)
Queen Aethelflaed of Mercia who defeated the Vikings invaders in the 9th century and laid the foundations for England.
What is your favourite saying/inspirational quote?
One quote I’ve used throughout my career is by Chinese Philosopher Confucius. “The green reed which bends in the wind is stronger than the mighty oak which breaks in a storm”. This is really about being agile and flexible as a person, but also as a business. I think for us all, this was especially relevant throughout 2020. With Covid locking the world down we were left with no choice but to quickly adapt as a business to the new normal we found ourselves in. That being said, a crisis always brings opportunity. A good business person is one that can turn a misfortune into an opportunity.
Website & Socials
Website: https://allianceblock.io/#
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amberghaddar/?originalSubdomain=uk
