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Ben Delo

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Ben Delo
Delo at The Spectator's "Who’s afraid of Bitcoin?” conference, October 2018
Delo at The Spectator's "Who’s afraid of Bitcoin?” conference, October 2018
Born
Ben Peter Delo

24 February 1984 (age 35)
Sheffield, England
NationalityBritish
EducationLord Williams's School
Worcester College, Oxford (BA)
Occupation(s)Mathematician, computer programmer, entrepreneur
Known forCo-founding BitMEX

Ben Delo (/diːloʊ/, born 24 February 1984) is a British mathematician, computer programmer, and entrepreneur.[1] He is a co-founder of BitMEX and according to The Sunday Times is Britain's youngest self-made billionaire.[1]

Early life and education

Born in Sheffield, Delo was educated at Lord Williams's School and graduated from the University of Oxford in 2005 with a double first-class honours degree in Mathematics and Computer Science.[2]

About Delo's high-achieving yet idiosyncratic character, Worcester College's Provost Sir Jonathan Bate later commented: "He overcame great difficulties in his school career to win a place at Oxford from a local state school, and went on to a stellar performance – as well as a sometimes colourful career – as a student."[2]

Career

Delo began his career as a software engineer at IBM, where he was named as an inventor on several patents granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the Intellectual Property Office.[3]

He then went on to develop high-frequency trading systems at hedge funds and banks such as GSA Capital and J.P. Morgan, dealing predominantly in kdb+/Q.[4] His expertise covers the design, architecture, and implementation of quantitative infrastructure, systems, and tools.

In 2014, Delo met Arthur Hayes and Sam Reed, and they co-founded BitMEX, a cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform.[5]

Philanthropy

In October 2018, Delo gave £5 million to his Oxford alma mater Worcester College, endowing two teaching fellowships in perpetuity and becoming the youngest major donor in the College's history.[2]

In April 2019, Delo signed The Giving Pledge, a programme orchestrated by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, announcing his intention to give away at least half of his wealth during his lifetime. In his pledge letter, Delo states that his initial philanthropic interests are focused on long-term and large-scale problems and reducing catastrophic risks, and that he is inspired by the philosophy of effective altruism.[6] That month, Delo also became a member of Giving What We Can.[7]

In March 2020, in collaboration with Oxford University, Delo initiated and funded a cross-sectional survey, using nanopore technology (which sequences the whole genome of pathogens) as a diagnostic tool, to determine and level of community-based infection of COVID-19 in the UK. According to Professor Mike Bonsall, “Using rapid diagnostics, we will explore a new method of pathogen detection, which if widely adopted could prove crucial to early containment of future novel disease outbreaks.”[8]

Personal life

Delo lives in Hong Kong.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b "Where's Wallet? Can you spot Ben Delo, the UK's first bitcoin billionaire?". The Times. 1 July 2018.
  2. ^ a b c "Ben Delo gives £5 million to the College". Worcester College, Oxford. 26 October 2018.
  3. ^ "Google Patents". patents.google.com.
  4. ^ "Bored With Banking, This Former Citi Trader Went Full Crypto". Bloomberg L.P. 1 February 2018.
  5. ^ "Breaking the bank". The Spectator. 10 November 2018.
  6. ^ Delo, Ben (15 April 2019). "Ben Delo". The Giving Pledge. Retrieved 17 June 2019.
  7. ^ "Members". Retrieved 18 December 2019.
  8. ^ "Researchers to determine community COVID-19 infection rates in the UK using serology, PCR and Nanopore Sequencing Technology". Oxford Department of Zoology. 4 April 2020.
  9. ^ "More than 200 Philanthropists Have Now Joined the Giving Pledge". The Giving Pledge. 28 May 2019.
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