Riccardo is a member of the Monero Core Team, who are stewards of the Monero Project, and is also the lead maintainer of the Monero and Monero Core projects. With an academic background in informatics and logistics, Riccardo spent many years in software development, before starting a business in the import/export industry with his wife. Due to the success of that business, he had enough freedom to start tinkering with Bitcoin early in 2011. In 2012 he became involved in various cryptocurrency-related projects, and more recently he has launched PayBee, a digital currency payment processor. Riccardo and his wife live along the Garden Route on the coast of South Africa, where he spends weekends pack rafting, hanging out with their six dogs, building and flying multicopters, and playing with LEGO.