Rico is Principal and Head of Platform with Sapphire Sport where he sources investment opportunities across the web3, DeFi, gaming and consumer software landscape. Rico is particularly passionate about virtual worlds and decentralized technology. He oversees Sapphire Sport’s unique platform of investors, networks, and communities to help drive tangible results to Sport’s portfolio. Rico is currently a member of the board of directors at POAP and a board observer at Flowhaven.

Rico’s experience in the technology industry spans multiple functional areas. He began his career working at start-ups in the renewable energy industry and more recently held positions at Cisco and SAP. Throughout his career at SAP, he served in roles such as corporate development, sales strategy in APJ (Singapore), and corporate strategy for the Office of the CEO at Ariba. Rico’s last role at SAP was on the strategic business development team, a small team created by SAP’s North American CEO to help SAP’s largest customers and partners define their digital transformation strategy. Rico has also supported social entrepreneurs in Indonesia and Sri Lanka in developing and starting businesses.

Rico has a bachelor’s in finance and economics and graduated summa cum laude from Bryant University. He has an MBA from The University of Notre Dame Mendoza School of Business where he was a Provost Fellowship Award recipient. Rico has lived and worked in Italy, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Singapore, and Thailand.