Meet The EDNA Team
The executives are driven to change the face of the DNA industry.
EDNA Board of Directors
EDNA Executives
Anthony Stonefield
Chief Executive Officer
(U.S. & South Africa)
Bachelor’s degree in Biology – University of California, Santa Cruz. With 28 years of innovation venture development experience in the U.S., U.K., E.U., Middle East and sub-Sahara African tech markets, Anthony has raised over $36 million in venture capital for disruptive start-ups which have generated $1.5+ billion in revenues. As a global innovator, he pioneered downloadable songs, spearheaded the creation of the mobile content business, and authored 11 international patents. Anthony has consulted for Fortune-500 companies (including AT&T, Qualcomm, Nokia and Ericsson) and has co-managed the tokenization of crowd-financing pioneer, Sun Exchange and bank services for Africa’s XRP pioneer, Xago Technologies. Specialist in Exponential Organization methodologies, Anthony specialized skills span biotech/biomed, green energy, mobile/telecoms, digital media and fintech (including blockchain and digital currencies).
Werner Booysen
Chief Operating Officer
(Southern Africa)
Seasoned Microsoft Certified Programmer with institutional-grade skills and experience in data security, management and analytics. Founder of EDNA Africa (Pty.) Ltd., EDNA’s field service and operating entity in Africa, the principles of which have a long history of time spent in rural Africa. Their ability to collect DNA based on previous contacts within African villages across the continent is renowned. Trust and reward principles ensure that communication lines are strengthened with every single engagement. EDNA Africa will accommodate essential support like changing a phone number with the said individuals. Language barriers are overcome with translators. With no invasive procedures associated with the medical industry present (drawing blood with needles and others), individuals want to participate without fear or prejudice.
Dana Smirin
Chief Marketing Officer
(U.S. & Southern Africa)
Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Policy and Science – University of California, Berkeley. Dana has over three decades of entrepreneurial and expert consulting experience in the U.S., U.K., E.U. and Southern Africa in the Health, Sustainability and Food sectors. Her business experience was developed by watching and learning as her parents built successful companies on four continents. Her specialty is being a business conduit, building relationships, uniting networks, identifying leadership, sourcing advanced technologies, and building multi-disciplinary/cultural teams. She has held innovation commercialization roles at UC Berkeley, Innovation Norway, Dutch Business in Development Network, and U.S.-South Africa Bi-national Commission, she excels as marcomm, business development, and sales. Mostly based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Dana is co-founder and director of an integrative medical center in Cape Town.
Dries Oelofse
Specialist Advisor - Bioinformatics
(Southern Africa)
Master’s degrees in Bioinformatics and Biotechnology and MBA. Currently interim Managing Director of Artisan Biomed, Dries develops exponential technologies for building a bioeconomy in Africa, with a particular focus on the commercial application of scientific discoveries and knowledge through 4IR technologies, like AI, Blockchain, Cloud Computing, IoT and Big Data. Dries has extensive experience in IP development and transfer, having co-founded a precision medicine enterprise similar to EDNA in 2018. Additionally, Dries has held a range of senior executive positions in biotech where he has developed an invaluable Southern African and international network of key partners, customers and affiliations to ensure that EDNA achieves its mission.
Greg Simpson EDNA Founder &
Chief Technology Officer
(U.S.)
As a serial entrepreneur and former Senior Principal Engineer at Oracle, Greg’s eclectic career has ranged from nuclear weapons cryptology and military satellite communication systems and enterprise resource planning software architecture and SWAT-Team leadership for the fortune 100s critical systems. Fast-forward to today, where his fascination with the rapidly exploding technologies of both genetics and blockchain provides in his words “… the perfect tool-set to allow us to make a legitimate difference combating personal data abuse and even poverty”.
TBD - Staff Consultant
Dir. Lab Operations
(US)
To ensure EDNA is compliant with all regulations and certifications related to genetic labs, we’ve elected to retain a consultant specialized in this highly complex and challenging navigation of the regulatory environment.
