Thomas Neil

Education
I grew up across the USA. I went to high school in the unique and diverse city of Shaker Heights, Ohio near Cleveland and then left to attend an international boarding school in New Mexico at the United World College. Afterwards, I studied at Grinnell College in Iowa. I majored in Political Science with coursework in Arabic, German, and Statistics, graduating Phi Beta Kappa.
Early career
I started out at the Morningstar Development Program, gaining exposure to the investment industry. I transitioned into a technical solutions role at an AI startup in Chicago, Narrative Science. Working with a range of partners from startups to Fortune 100 financial institutions, I developed and deployed Natural Language Generation systems. I still felt the urge to build and move Above the API.

On the side
While in Chicago, I founded an events/activations company called the Mobocratic Republic aka the Mob Rep. Starting from elaborate pop-up cook-outs, we grew to throwing 30-600 person cultural events with brands like Cresco Labs, Moet-Hennessy and Lululemon. It was an unforgettable series of experiences to organize, with bonds that last to this day.
Berlin
I followed my growing passion towards fintech and coding to a bootcamp in Berlin, where my grandmother was from and a city I had been drawn to due to its progressive and open stance. I gave myself 6-12 months to immerse fully in coding and make a transition to being a full-time web developer.
Dev life
I've held a couple different roles as a Full-stack dev first working for BCG Platinion Design & Engineering team and then moving to Klarna. At Klarna, I was the second dev on the team that built our first live banking product, the Savings Account.