Dr. Peter Cotton is the Chief Technology Officer for Global Strategic Minerals Corporation. He is a quantitative finance practitioner, entrepreneur, active open-source contributor and the author of Microprediction: Building an Open AI Network, a forward-looking book that anticipates the rise of decentralized artificial intelligence and prediction markets.

His theoretical work in finance includes the mathematical unification of hierarchical and optimization-based approaches to portfolio construction—bridging two traditionally separate branches of portfolio theory. On the practical side, he has led data science teams at buy-side firms managing over $10 billion in AUM (on two separate occasions) and held senior roles at major sell-side institutions. Peter pioneered the application of control theory to over-the-counter trading while at JPMorgan and earlier led CDO pricing efforts at Morgan Stanley.

He is a serial entrepreneur, having co-founded several companies—including Benchmark Solutions, whose technology was integrated into Bloomberg. A dedicated open-source developer, he has created widely-used Python packages for time-series analysis, optimization, and portfolio construction, collectively amassing over one million downloads. He holds a doctorate in mathematics from Stanford University.