Secure the crypto world

CertiK leads blockchain security by pioneering the use of cutting-edge Formal Verification technology on smart contracts and blockchains. Unlike traditional security audits, Formal Verification mathematically proves program correctness and hacker-resistance.

Leadership Team

Cofounder | Zhong Shao
Thomas L. Kempner Professor and Chair of Computer Science Department at Yale University. Ph.D. in Computer Science from Princeton University. Leading figure in research fields such as cybersecurity, operating systems, and certified software. Shao and his Yale FLINT group have developed the world’s first hacker-resistant and concurrent operating system – CertiKOS.
Cofounder | Ronghui Gu
Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Columbia University. Ph.D. in Computer Science from Yale University and Bachelor’s degree from Tsinghua University Distinction Dissertation Award at Yale University in 2016 and was nominated for ACM Dissertation. Expert in Formal Verification of system software and the primary developer of CertiKOS.

Muhan Zou
Chief Strategy Officer
Muhan Zou serves as the founding member of CertiK from company inception, where he contributes with both his engineering abilities and team leadership. Muhan has years of experience in designing and developing enterprise level SaaS products. Prior to joining, he worked as the engineering lead at Comcast to monetize large-scale ads and settop-box/linear raw data into business insights deliverables. He also worked at Oracle where he built the social cloud platform as a Full Stack Engineer after graduation at Yale University.
Muhan Zou
Chief Strategy Officer
Daryl Hok
Chief Operating Officer
Daryl Hok spearheaded Corporate Development at FiscalNote, a global machine-learning legal tech company, where he accelerated growth by completing 3 acquisitions in 12 months, including a $180M purchase from The Economist Group. He was also the Product Manager responsible for ideation and release of SaaS products, along with the development of the core data infrastructure. He obtained a dual BA in Economics and Psychology from Yale University, with concentrations centered around behavioral economics
Daryl Hok
Chief Operating Officer
Vilhelm Sjöberg
Principal Scientist
Vilhelm Sjöberg is a former associate research scientist at Yale University. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania in 2015. He is an industry-leading expert in software verification, programming languages, and type systems. His research is focusing on language support for layered verified systems like CertiKOS, and currently he is developing DeepSEA which is a language to write verified smart contracts. Dr. Sjöberg is the winner of 2016 ACM SIGPLAN John C. Reynolds Doctoral Dissertation Award.
Vilhelm Sjöberg
Principal Scientist
Zhaozhong Ni
VP of Engineering
Zhaozhong Ni was formerly an engineering lead at Google and HP / 3PAR and a researcher at Microsoft Research. He is an expert in systems software and formal verification and has extensive experience in building operating systems kernels and mission-critical enterprise systems. Dr. Ni was a founding member of gVisor, Google’s new security focused OS with cloud-scale production. He holds multiple patents on distributed storage systems. He obtained his BS from Tsinghua University and his PhD in Computer Science from Yale University.
Zhaozhong Ni
VP of Engineering
Yvan Nasr
Global Head of Professional Services
Yvan Nasr led various Product and Business Development initiatives at Samsung Electronics and was the driving force behind Barclays Banks digital transformation in key European markets. Prior to obtaining his MBA, Yvan also led the growth of Europe’s largest retail holding, Kingfisher PLC, diversifying the brands global footprint and product ranges in key markets like Asia. Recently, he was the Head of Partnerships at Hosho, a blockchain cybersecurity startup. He obtained his MBA from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business.
Yvan Nasr
Global Head of Professional Services
Kai Yan
Chief Economist
Dr. Kai Yan has extensive experience in business growth, economic research and financial markets. He previously worked as an economist at the International Monetary Fund and a strategist at a hedge fund. At the IMF, he worked with global regulators to devise new regulations around an improved banking system. While working at a hedge fund, he was responsible for designing and executing trading strategies. Dr. Yan obtained his BA in Economics from Peking University and his PhD in Economics under Nobel Prize winners at Yale University.
Kai Yan
Chief Economist
Yu Chen
Head of China
Yu Chen was the former CTO at Taopaipai, the biggest platform for professional wedding photography in China. He later became the technical VP/CTO at the WD Group and YouLanW and managed the technical team of apps and O2O system to help millions of blue-collar workers find their jobs. As one of the very first iOS developers, he released 2 apps out of 300 on the first day of iOS AppStore and latered founded Teemsoft, Inc, a game development company with 100+ employees. He obtained his BS from Xi’an Jiao Tong University and his Master in Computer Science from Loyola University Chicago.
Yu Chen
Head of China
Zhenhua Cao
Software Architect
Zhenhua Cao is a veteran in designing and building enterprise software. He was a Principal Software Engineer in FreeWheel, a Comcast company that is known for its TV and digital video advertising platform serving large media companies across the globe. He led a few key projects in FreeWheel including UI framework overhauls and UI products unification. Prior to FreeWheel, he was the tech lead for Groupon China with focus on web performance and user experience, and the Co-founder of Gamepub, a twitter-like social network for online gamers.
Zhenhua Cao
Software Architect