As the CTO & Co-founder of nextAuth, Roel is responsible for providing the strategic direction of the company by outlining its long-term vision, designing a state-of-the-art architecture and implementing innovative solutions to transform the security landscape. He has vast knowledge and expertise in various domains of cryptography, such as cryptographic protocols, key management, authentication, and blockchain technology. His creative contributions have resulted in the company obtaining a groundbreaking patent for true MFA.

Prior to founding nextAuth, he has been involved in numerous projects on identity, payments, automotive, and even outer space security to create innovative solutions that are much sought-after in the industry.

In 2012, he obtained a PhD in applied cryptography from KU Leuven (Belgium) at the renowed COSIC research group under the supervision of Prof. Bart Preneel. As a PhD researcher, he spent 6 months as a visiting reseacher in the cryptography research group of Aarhus University (Denmark) that is headed by Prof. Ivan Damgård.

In 2007, Roel obtained his master in Electrical Engeering from KU Leuven (Belgium).