Twenty years of the same job in different costumes: I helped ~50 foreign companies become real Brazilian entities; I priced what breaks a blockchain’s trust; now I’m building the registry where any entity — human or AI — becomes real, verifiable, and accountable.
I was born in Damascus. I trained as a physician — Faculty of Medicine, October 6 University, 2000–2006 — and kept the training, not the career. Medicine teaches you to examine, diagnose, and act under uncertainty. What held my attention was never the single body; it was the system around it. So I left medicine for the place where systems were rawest: Brazil’s bureaucracy.
In 2011 I became managing partner of Establish Brazil, an FDI and market-entry consultancy in São Paulo. The work was making foreign companies real: incorporated, licensed, banked, hiring. Over the decade we did it for ~50 of them. The Economist covered the work (“Why Make It Simple?”, 2012-01-21); ANBA ran “Syrian Helps Foreigners Open Businesses in Brazil.” The trade taught me the sentence I still build on: an entity is not paperwork — it is how a stranger becomes someone you can trust with money.
São Paulo kept me busy sideways too. I co-founded GenesisBlock, a blockchain lab at FECAP University; ran PDB Capital, a crypto fund, as managing partner; directed the Commonwealth Institute, a language center; sat on the advisory council of Instituto Adus, which reintegrates refugees; co-founded ABJD, an EV and automotive OS. Selected MBA coursework at Insper and FGV, 2016–2017.
In 2018 I asked in public what it costs to break a blockchain’s trust. “The Realistic Lucrative Case of Ethereum Classic Attack” priced a 51% attack on ETC: roughly 1B to gain. Investopedia, Cointelegraph, The Next Web, Bitcoin.com, and CryptoBriefing picked it up. In January 2019, Ethereum Classic was 51%-attacked roughly as the paper modeled. The research held. The lesson held longer: trust has a price, and someone will always do the arithmetic.
Entity.ID, founded 2026, is the same job — this time for the internet. A registry where any entity, human or AI, becomes real, verifiable, and accountable. My Brazilian clients wanted three things: to exist, to transact, to be trusted. AI agents are arriving at the same counter, and no one is behind it. I’m building the registry in San Francisco and raising now — as of July 2026, the brandbook and deck are in front of investors.
Record
Education
- MD, Faculty of Medicine, October 6 University, 2000–2006.
- Selected MBA coursework, Insper + FGV, 2016–2017.
Roles
- Entity.ID — founder, 2026→.
- Establish Brazil — FDI & market-entry consultancy, managing partner, 2011→.
- PDB Capital — crypto VC, managing partner.
- GenesisBlock — blockchain lab at FECAP University, co-founder.
- ABJD — EV & Automotive OS, co-founder.
- Commonwealth Institute — language center, director.
- Instituto Adus — asylum & refugee reintegration institute, advisory council.
Finished arcs
An arc is a discipline taken the whole way: chosen, mastered, taught. The pattern is the point.
- Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu — 3× South American champion (CBJJE); coached at Network School, 2025–2026.
- Skydiving — Category-C professional.
- Mixology — international cocktail-competition finalist; built a known home bar in São Paulo; coached at Network School, 2025–2026.
- Marathon — São Paulo 42K; Damascus Marathon, 2025.
- Scuba — Advanced Open Water.
- Music — piano as a child; Vai-Vai batería, Carnaval São Paulo, 2011; learning flute since July 2026.
- Creative robotics — staged the first humanoid bridal walk, June 2026 (firsthumanoid.xyz).
- Artwear — ten years of carnival costume artistry.
Photos and dates: the photo record.
Speaking & events
The full events table, talk footage, and press coverage are at Talks & press.