Management Team

Prior to serving as MARA’s chief executive officer, Thiel co-founded and served as chairman of Sprocket, a blockchain and cryptocurrency technology and financial services company whose mission is to reduce the risk and friction of cryptocurrency trading across marketplaces, regions and exchanges by establishing a federation of exchanges that together create a single aggregated global trading marketplace with large scale liquidity, rapid execution, minimal counter-party risk, and price transparency. Prior to that, Thiel served as chairman and chief executive officer of Local Corporation, an $80 million Nasdaq-listed leader in online local search and digital media, mobile search monetization and programmatic retargeting markets with over 240 million unique annual visitors.

During his career while holding the title of CEO across multiple companies, Thiel successfully created in excess of $750 million in shareholder value, efficiently raised more than $150 million through both public (IPO and secondary offerings) and private capital sources, led multiple successful corporate transformations resulting in highly accretive exits, built high output agile product development organizations, and established corporate innovation groups resulting in the creation of new product businesses that generated significant new revenues in their first year.

Prior to joining MARA, Salman Khan served as chief financial officer for Verb Technology Company Inc., a Nasdaq listed leading provider of interactive video-based software-as-a-service applications and an e-commerce platform. Prior to being appointed CFO, Khan held various roles at Verb including interim CFO, and executive vice president of corporate development and strategic planning. Before joining Verb, Khan served in various senior executive level positions at Occidental Petroleum Corporation and its spinoff, California Resources Corporation, including director of renewable energy, director of corporate development, director of technical accounting and financial reporting, and business division controller and chief financial officer. Khan also spent eight years at major accounting firms including Arthur Andersen, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young, where he served domestic and international clients in the technology, media, telecommunications, entertainment, and biotechnology industries. Khan holds a Master in Business Administration from the University of Michigan, Ross School of Business and is a licensed chartered certified accountant (UK).

Zabi Nowaid is MARA's General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. Zabi oversees all of MARA's legal matters, including corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property, litigation, and securities compliance. Zabi joined MARA from Open English, a leading global education technology company backed by TCV and Insight Partners, where he served as Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary. Prior to Open English, Zabi was the General Counsel & Corporate Secretary of a Nasdaq-listed technology company and held leadership roles at Occidental Petroleum Corporation and its NYSE-listed spinoff, California Resources Corporation. Zabi began his legal career as a corporate lawyer at White & Case LLP, a leading global law firm. Zabi has proven executive expertise in technology, energy, and leading a public company legal department.

Zabi earned a bachelor's degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and a law degree from the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco.

Mr. Crawford has over eighteen years experience in the technology and business sector with expertise in a wide range of disciplines including new media, mobile marketing, intellectual property, security, and compliance.

In early 2013 Mr. Crawford joined MARA (Nasdaq:MARA), as Chief Operating Officer, overseeing numerous aspects of the company's operations.

Prior to MARA Mr. Crawford served as Chief Information Officer at Modavox/Augme Technologies focusing on internal product development and infrastructure build out. He also worked extensively in the Intellectual Property division to effectuate monetization through licensing, and enforcement, as well as assisting in reducing to practice the company¹s innovations and positioning the patent portfolio as a competitive differentiator. He is a named inventor on several Internet Technology patents pending with the United States Patent & Trademark Office. Mr. Crawford served on the Board of Directors of Augme Technologies from March 2006 through August 2011.

Prior to Augme Technologies Mr. Crawford was a founding member of Kino Interactive, LLC (Acquired by Surfnet Media Group, AKA Modavox/Augme Technologies (HIPP)), a developer of enhanced communication software and digital media solutions, as well as a founder of Audioeye, Inc (AEYE), a patented voice infrastructure technology enabling web compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Mr. Crawford received his Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Washington State University.

Swick is an experienced investor, startup operator, and management consultant with extensive experience in corporate strategy and cryptocurrency. Prior to joining MARA, he served as a principal at Refinery Ventures, an early stage VC firm, where he was responsible for identifying, analyzing, and recommending business strategies to accelerate the growth of all companies in Refinery’s portfolio. Before Refinery, Swick was the director of strategic finance at Kraken Digital Asset Exchange, where he managed the company’s balance sheet, debt program, investor relations, and all forecasting activities. Prior to Kraken, he founded Swick Capital, a crypto-asset hedge fund, worked at Pritzker Group Venture Capital in Chicago, where he evaluated early stage investment opportunities, and was a consultant at Boston Consulting Group, where he consulted for a variety of Fortune 500 clients in industries such as healthcare, consumer goods, information technology, and nonprofits. Swick holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a BS in finance from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

Swami is an experienced chip designer and crypto and DeFi expert, who brings to MARA deep technical, regulatory, and market expertise. Swami joins MARA from Core Scientific, where he served as the chief product officer, leading the company’s foray into DeFi and heading mining hardware and software optimization. Prior to that, he was the CTO of Apifiny, a hybrid CEX and DEX crypto exchange. Previously, Swami headed an SPV of Quadeye Securities, which pioneered and traded mining swaps, operated cloud mining data centers, and served as the chief advisor to Fortune 50 companies, including Intel Corp, on blockchain initiatives. He also founded LocalPad, a peer-to-peer marketplace and payments plugin that provided “ebay-in-a-box” like functionality to large blogs to monetize their user base. Prior to that, Swami was a portfolio manager and led the high frequency market-making business at Morgan Stanley Program Trading to become a top five market maker in US ETFs. Additionally, he spent over four years as a senior component designer and then tech lead in Intel’s Enterprise Platforms Group. Swami holds three patents in blockchain and trading, an MBA from the Fuqua School of Management at Duke University, and a BTech in computer science from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.

Madnani is responsible for MARA’s strategic expansion opportunities in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India, and Asia. He brings to MARA an extensive background in international business development and global joint ventures, with a proven track record in corporate finance, international transactions, and strategy across key sectors such as energy, AI technology, media, hospitality, and retail. His previous roles include Managing Director of Kulczyk Investments SA, where he was responsible for the global energy and infrastructure footprint. In 2022, Madnani co-founded Beacon Media with Dr. Deepak Chopra, a media and entertainment firm that leverages data and technology to innovate content creation and monetization for the Global South. He serves as Chairman of Beacon Media. Madnani is a Babson College alumnus and Trustee, an active member of the Young Presidents Organization since 2003, and a prominent speaker on AI, energy, infrastructure, healthcare, media, Web3, and global investments. He advocates the 1+1=11 "Multiplier Effect," a philosophy where synergistic partnerships create exponential benefits.

Mr. Ellis has over three decades of diverse experience in accounting and finance, spanning from public accounting to leadership roles with large public companies in the manufacturing and ed-tech industries. Before joining MARA, Mr. Ellis served as Chief Accounting Officer for global education technology leaders Open Education and 2U.  Ellis has also held senior finance positions at Newell Brands, a prominent global consumer goods company. During his fourteen-plus years with Newell Brands, Ellis occupied numerous executive finance roles, including seven years as Corporate Controller & Chief Accounting Officer. Additionally, he served as Newell’s Treasurer and held roles in business transformation, financial operations and analysis, and mergers and acquisitions. Ellis began his career at Ernst & Young LLP, where he spent a decade in accounting advisory and assurance roles. A certified public accountant, Ellis received his BBA in Accounting from Loyola University, MD, and his MBA in Finance from Johns Hopkins University.