Leading pioneers
In AI, gaming & global impact
The people building the EARTHwise Arena for agentic alignment and benevolent AGI, together with the Elowyn game.
The core team
Dr. Anneloes Smitsman
Founder & CEO
Award-winning futurist, systems scientist, and entrepreneur. Globally recognised for her pioneering work in systemic transformation and human development. Lead architect of the EARTHwise Arena, EAB framework, Elowyn game, and the EARTHwise and AGI Constitutions. Named among the 2025 Leading Women to Watch™, recipient of the 2022 Visioneers Lifetime Achievement Award, and overall African winner in Human Development at the 2022 Africa’s Most Respected CEOs Awards. LL.M. from Leiden University and Doctorate in Systemic Transformation from Maastricht University, the Netherlands.
Dr. Kurt Barnes
Chair
Senior psycho-social expert and architect of the EARTHwise Human Diagnostics for Psycho-Social Transitions. Expert in testing, guiding, and measuring behavioural change across individuals, organisations, and complex systems. Worked globally in support of large-scale social wellbeing initiatives aligned with the UN SDGs. Registered Naturopathic Physician with specialisations in psychology, psychotherapy, and biofeedback. Knighted in the Order of Academic Palms by the French Republic in 2004 for outstanding service. Holds advanced degrees from Université Paris 8, France.
Alex Peake
AI Designer
Lead Developer of the EARTHwise Arena and AI designer for the AI interactive features of the Elowyn game. Senior simulation developer with deep experience building intelligent systems at the intersection of AI, game engines, and immersive technologies. Led and built development teams at Meta, Luminar, Google, and SingularityNET, combining AI models for vision, language, and planning with mixed reality and robotics hardware. Built the SDK team for Meta’s AR headset platform, led the driving AI LiDAR simulation team at Luminar, developed Google’s MediaPipe multimodal machine learning pipeline, and helped build the SophiaVerse AI metaverse at SingularityNET.
Chris Dowell
Chief Product Officer
Over 25 years of experience in building and scaling products, leading nine-figure initiatives, and delivering award-winning innovation. Served as Chief Product Officer for four startups and led $100M+ engagements for Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 clients, driving strategic product development and market impact. With deep expertise in product strategy, user experience, and cross-functional leadership, he helps shape the design and delivery of player-centred systems within the Elowyn game and AI Alignment Arena. His work focuses on aligning product vision with measurable outcomes and scalable growth across diverse platforms and audiences.
Berick Cook
Lead AI Architect
Lead AI Architect and creator of AIRIS (Autonomous Intelligent Reinforcement Inferred Symbolism), the advanced adaptive AI of the Elowyn game and EARTHwise Arena. Senior game developer and AI researcher with deep expertise in experiential learning systems. Former AI lead at SophiaVerse and SingularityNET, where he further developed AIRIS to extend beyond games into practical AI applications. His work bridges game design, adaptive learning, and emergent AI behaviour, contributing to systems that can evolve intelligently in real time.
Tamara Mathew
Elowyn Community Lead
Coordinates and nurtures the EARTHwise and Elowyn community, fostering connection, collaboration, and active engagement across a diverse international network. She brings over 16 years of experience in community building, customer engagement, operations, and service design. With a strong people-centred and values-driven approach, she supports inclusive participation and meaningful exchange at the intersection of sustainability, regenerative development, and social impact.
Hanie Mathew
Elowyn Community Lead
Active in the Crypto, NFT, and Web3 space since late 2021. Builds strong connections and hands-on experience as a community lead and Discord builder. With a natural talent for bringing people together, he now oversees Discord and Telegram management at EARTHwise, focusing on optimisation, security, and community growth. Backed by over a decade of service leadership experience in the hospitality industry, he applies his people-first mindset to help foster a strong, organic, and globally active Elowyn community.
Lake Watkins
AI & Game Designer
Game industry veteran, AI technologist, and founder with over 20 years of experience in deep tech and interactive entertainment. Shipped dozens of game titles across all major platforms and specialises in designing AI motivational systems that align advanced intelligence development with human stewardship. Held senior roles across gaming and AI projects internationally and applies his cross-disciplinary expertise to the evolving intelligence of the EARTHwise Arena and Elowyn ecosystem.
Manu Deenapanray
Gameplay Designer
Youth leader and part of the EARTHwise Games team since its inception. Passionate gamer from an early age, contributing his experience of gaming cultures. He also contributed to the Future Humans Trilogy, where he lent his voice and ideas to shape the teenage character Olaf, collaborating closely with his mother Anneloes. Manu’s diverse interests span music, gaming, entrepreneurship, science, international relations, and physics. Enrolled as a drummer at the Conservatory of Mauritius.
— Our advisors
Pioneers in AI, science
and global impact
Dr. Ben Goertzel
World-renowned AI scientist, entrepreneur and author. Founder & CEO of SingularityNET.
Liv Boeree
World Poker Champion, Win-Win podcast host, TED speaker, influencer and game theorist.
Dr. Trista Patterson
Former Sustainability Director of Microsoft/Xbox. Co-founder of the Playing for the Planet Alliance.
Dr. Mariana Bozesan
Polymath, AI pioneer, and award-winning integral investor for exponential technologies within planetary boundaries.
Dr. David Hanson
Creator of Sophia Robot, Founder & CEO of Hanson Robotics. Awards from NASA and NSF.
Daniel Mihai
Contract specialist and regenerative systems strategist. Founder of RegenRatio.
Rachel St. Clair
AGI expert, founder & CEO of ServaMind. She created the initial AI infrastructure for the Elowyn AI Arena.
Dr. Mihaela Ulieru
Award-winning Professor of AI Innovation. President of IMPACT Institute for the Digital Economy.
Viktor Mirovic
Founder & CEO of KeenCorp. 20+ years of experience in corporate finance, venture capital, and business innovation.
Kees van der Vleuten
Global business leader. Operations and strategy advisor for a company with a €6B portfolio.
Roeland Reinders
Serial entrepreneur in scaling businesses and driving growth in global markets.
Dr. Alexander Laszlo
EARTHwise Steward and founding member of the EARTHwise faculty. Evolutionary systems scientist.
Peter Warren
Award-winning investigative journalist: The Guardian, Sunday Times, BBC. Founder of Future Intelligence.
Mitch Apley
Executive Producer. Senior filmmaker, Northwestern film graduate, and director of international documentaries in the Middle East and Africa.
Dr. Jude Currivan
Renowned cosmologist, former senior businesswoman, futurist and award-winning author.
— About EARTHwise
AI Lab, game studio & global think tank
The EARTHwise Arena is developed by EARTHwise BV, our AI Lab incorporating in the Netherlands. The Elowyn: Quest of Time game forms part of the Arena and is built by our game studio, EARTHwise Ventures USA Inc. Both form part of Samara: Europe’s Smart Sovereign AI Factory.
Benevolent intelligence for a win-win future.