Alexander Skidanov is the Co-founder of NEAR Protocol, a team of early MemSQL engineers and ex-Googlers building a sharded blockchain with an emphasis on usability. Alexander Skidanov started his professional career at Microsoft in 2009, then joined memSQL in 2011 as Engineer #1, where he worked for 5 years as Architect and Director of Engineering. He is a 2x ICPC medalist (gold in 2008 and bronze in 2005).