meet
our
team
Darrell O'Donnell
Executive Director
Darrell O’Donnell is the founder and Executive Director of the Ayra Association.
As a long-time advisor to governments, corporations, and NGOs, he has guided and implemented many multi-stakeholder systems from concept to operational state in life-critical and mission-critical domains.
Drummond Reed
Governance Advisor
Drummond has spent over a quarter-century in Internet identity, security, privacy, and trust infrastructure. He leads the First Person Project and is co-author of Self-Sovereign Identity (Manning Publications, 2021), co-editor of the W3C Decentralized Identifiers 1.0 specification, and a founding board member of the OpenWallet Foundation and the Trust Over IP Foundation.
Maxwell Baylin
Business Workstream, Operations & Strategy Lead
Having played multiple roles at Gartner over a decade and a half, he has been an advisor to governments and corporations on strategic initiatives and involved in the implementation of multi-million dollar projects. He has worked globally, leading teams in Europe and North America, while having business interests in Asia and MEA. He is an active investor and advisor in multiple startups.
Mer Joyce
Governance Workstream, Process Lead
Mer Joyce (she/her) is Process Lead on Ayra’s Governance Team. As Founder of the co-design firm Do Big Good, Mer implements inclusive policy-making processes that shift and share power for clients such as the Open Source Initiative and Open Knowledge Foundation. Mer was a Graduate Research Fellow of the National Science Foundation and was New Media Operations Manager for President Obama’s 2008 campaign. Having lived in Ghana, Morocco, Chile, and India, she now lives in Seattle.
Christine
Operations
With over 25 years of experience in executive support and operations management, Christine provides strategic assistance to senior leaders at investment firms, startups, and nonprofits. Her diverse background spans legal, risk management, market intelligence, and governance development across multiple industries.
Join Us in Shaping the Future of Digital Trust
Ready to roll up your sleeves on real business problems and protect your organization’s digital future?