James Hursthouse is a Vancouver-based entrepreneur and strategist with more than 25 years in games, interactive entertainment, and emerging technology. He leads Greenstone Initiatives, a boutique advisory and venture studio that helps scale-ups and innovators at the intersection of interactive, Web3, and AI.
Over his career, James has launched and led studios and publishing ventures across Japan, Korea, the UK, and North America, developing and operating online worlds, virtual economies, and branded experiences - including Iron Maiden: Legacy of the Beast, the first time a major artist toured a video game not an album. His work has ranged from early MMOs and cloud gaming platforms to blockchain-powered digital-asset networks and AI-driven creative production pipelines.
A lifelong technologist-wannabe, James traces his curiosity about intelligence and computation back to his Philosophy degree in the late 1980s, which focused on the Computational Model of the Mind and involved making Turing Machines out of wood. That early fascination continues to guide his exploration of how human creativity, artificial intelligence, and decentralized systems converge - and how they can be aligned to build more ethical, scalable, and sustainable technology ecosystems.
Current key projects include: Appreciation Engine (privacy-first data and engagement infrastructure), YOM (decentralized GPU and cloud gaming network), Cachet (real-world asset tokenization platform for hospitality and culture), and Soul Kitchen (AI-supercharged games studio and IP revival initiative).