It was 1993 at the end of another testosterone-fueled day on the Salomon Brothers trading floor on Wall Street, and Efi Pylarinou had an improv acting class to get to. It never struck her as unusual that she shared an equal passion and talent for complex mathematics and creative expression. It had always been that way since she was a child.

Growing up on the idyllic island of Zakynthos, part of the Ionian Islands between Greece and Italy, Pylarinou dreamed of becoming an actress. As a child she was a voracious reader who wrote poems and short stories. Her family encouraged her talents and she flourished academically and socially.

As if out of movie script, an inspiring high school teacher ignited her passion for mathematics, thus changing the trajectory of her life. She went on to study mathematics at university in Greece. Shortly after graduation, a conversation with her statistics professor motivated her to explore the finance industry, where she could apply her mathematical brain in diverse ways. She completed her PhD in finance at the University of Tennessee on the topic of chaos theory in stock market returns.

“I do sense that we have another generation of big swinging dicks in crypto, and that's fine, because among the beautiful flowers, there will always be weeds”

While presenting part of her dissertation at a Financial Management Association Conference in San Francisco, Pylarinou noticed that some of the Wall Street firms were interviewing candidates at the event and decided to apply. Keen to make an excellent impression, she headed straight to Macy’s department store and bought herself a purple power suit.

“It was 1992. I walked into that interview with a real attitude and got a job at Salomon Brothers in New York,” she said. “I will never forget that suit! I thought I would end up in academia, but I ended up on Wall Street. And that's how my journey in finance started - out of curiosity.”

Deep curiosity has marked every decision that Pylarinou has made over her 30-year career, and is summed up perfectly by her guiding principle - growth through fun exploration.

Today, she’s recognized as a leading fintech expert who tops finance industry lists as an influencer and trusted voice. 

For 20 years she travelled the world with her husband, now a retired diplomat, and they raised two children together. During those years, Pylarinou set herself up as an independent consultant, advisor and author. She has been based in Switzerland since 2013.

It was in Switzerland that she was exposed to the development of crypto and blockchain. Sensing that this was a big infrastructure and technology with a lot of potential, Pylarinou shifted her focus to fintech from 2015. 

Pylarinou with Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin in Davos

“I got inspired by the people who at that time were at the cutting edge and involved in experimenting with crypto in different ways,” she told me recently. “For the first time we had a technology that was bottom-up. We saw retail individual adoption grow first and foremost. But by 2018, I felt that we were at risk of losing the original vision of this technology, which is in its nature collaborative. I was worried it was going to be all about the traders again.”

What most excites Pylarinou today is the huge potential for blockchain technology to blur lines and break silos. She has witnessed this technology become the catalyst for pushing professionals in diverse sectors - like technologists, educators, healthcare workers, artists, scientists, brand specialists, social impact warriors - to meet each other for the first time and explore ways to collaborate. She believes the potential exists for collaboration on a scale we have not yet witnessed as a society, and web3 has made it possible. 

These developments have given Pylarinou pause to reflect on what meaningful collaboration and community building is, and how she intends to seek out future opportunities with collaborators who are aligned with her values.

“I do sense that we have another generation of big swinging dicks in crypto, and that's fine, because among the beautiful flowers, there will always be weeds,” she said. “What I want to see is this technology being used to ignite a truly collaborative culture that promotes financial inclusion and benefits humanity.”

On a deeper level, Pylarinou is exploring what could be possible if she consciously converges her right and left brains and views the next chapter of her career holistically. 

“I'm delighted to be in this space because it's tickling my mind to see these changes in our society,” Pylarinou said. “Rethinking money, rethinking the way we are organizing. Rethinking the way we are collaborating. Everything is on the table to be disrupted right now. And you know, that's scary, but it's also a fantastic time to be part of it.”

Miz Feiler is a Metaverse community builder, podcaster and creator based in Singapore. She co-creates, as well as independently produces programs, events and creative projects in word, sound video, music and art - both physical and digital. Her NFT project New Day Tomorrow is a collective of musicians, artists and creative technologists exploring Memory and its tangled complexities. She educates entrepreneurs about Web 3 and the Metaverse through her podcast, The Metaverse With Miz.