summary: Masha (Maria) McConaghy is a Founder & CMO at BigchainDB and ascribe.io.
content: Masha (Maria) McConaghy is a blockchain entrepreneur, Founder & CMO at BigchainDB, a blockchain database, tuned towards handling metadata. She is also the Co-Founder of Ocean Protocol. Career In 2011, Maria was a Curator of an exhibition "CONNECTING.THE.DOTS", a part of the Culture Days Canada 2011 held in Vancouver, BC, Canada. From 2010 to 2013, she served as an Associate Director at Douglas Udell Gallery Vancouver. In 2013, Maria was a Co-Curator of "DYSRAPHIC CITY" exhibition at Node Center for Curatorial Studies. In 2014, she was also a Co-Curator of an exhibition "FLASHBACK Meditations on Memory and Film" at SMAC Berlin. From 2014 to 2015, she served as a Cultural Projects Director at RusMedia RR GmbH. As of September 2022, Masha is the Founder & CMO at BigchainDB. She is also the Co-Founder of Ocean Protocol, a blockchain startup focused on bringing data and AI together. Previously, Masha co-founded ascribe in 2013, the world's first blockchain-based service for digital arts (now known as NFTs) and physical art collectors. In addition to organizing art exhibitions in Paris, Berlin, Vancouver, and elsewhere, Masha also assisted curators at the Louvre Museum in Paris and directed a commercial gallery in Vancouver. Education Masha has a Ph.D. in Arts from Pantheon-Sorbonne University, Paris, and a Museology Degree from Louvre School, Paris. Her Ph.D. explored the distinct relationship between art and commerce over the centuries. She has organized exhibitions throughout the world and has worked with curators at the Louvre Museum, Paris, and directed a commercial gallery in Vancouver. Her current pursuits are at the intersection of art, IP, and applications of new technology.