About Us

Jian Ma is the Founder and CEO of DarkhorseOne, leading the company’s vision to build next-generation AI-powered enterprise systems for global SMEs. Graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, he brings nearly 25 years of experience in the internet and software industry, including over a decade of entrepreneurial leadership in China, where his previous company reached a valuation exceeding RMB 1 billion. In 2023, he moved to the United Kingdom to establish DarkhorseOne at the dawn of the AI era, with a mission to combine his extensive HR-tech entrepreneurial experience with cutting-edge AI technologies. His ambition is to build an AI-native HR management platform rooted in the UK, serving Europe, and ultimately scalable to SMEs worldwide. With deep expertise in software engineering, system architecture, and product innovation, Jian drives DarkhorseOne’s strategy, technology roadmap, and global market development, ensuring the company’s solutions remain both innovative and commercially grounded.

“AI becomes transformative only when technology, product and real business needs converge.”

Anthony Narlock is a senior software engineer with more than seventeen years of experience building production-grade web applications for technology-driven startups. His work spans both the front-end—using React, TypeScript, and Relay (GraphQL)—and the back-end, where he specializes in Python-based systems and AWS-hosted infrastructure. He is also a prolific open-source contributor, maintaining a suite of developer-tooling projects such as tmuxp, libtmux, and unihan-etl, and participating in over a hundred community repositories. His engineering approach emphasizes clarity, reproducibility, and long-term maintainability, reflecting a philosophy that values collective progress over lone-hero development. Based in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, he works fully remotely and focuses on delivering dependable, well-designed software systems while continually advancing the open-source ecosystem.

“Rather than the lone hero, I put communal progress first.”

Jackson Tian, widely known in the tech community as “Puling,” is one of China’s most influential frontend engineers and a leading evangelist for Node.js. Formerly a senior engineer at Alibaba’s Data Platform and a long-standing contributor to the Chinese open-source ecosystem, he has shaped modern frontend architecture, Node.js engineering practice, and high-performance web systems at scale. He is the author of the acclaimed book “Deep Dive into Node.js,” recognised as the most authoritative Chinese-language reference on Node.js internals and engineering methodology. Jackson has led architecture teams, contributed to major Node.js modules, and organised foundational community events including CNode, NodeParty, and JSConf China. As the Chief Technical Advisor at DarkhorseOne, he provides critical direction across the company’s AI-native HRIS architecture and engineering governance, and has played an essential role in guiding DarkhorseOne’s GraphQL research and technical development, offering both strategic insight and hands-on technical support. His leadership helps ensure the platform achieves global-class scalability, reliability and technical excellence.

“Technology matters most when it drives meaningful, real-world progress.”

Leo Liu is the Founder of ONE TREE HILL LIMITED, a New Zealand-based technology company specialising in payments, digital and cross-border solutions. As Technical Advisor to DarkhorseOne, Leo brings deep expertise in large-scale data processing and data security, providing strategic direction and technical support for the company’s innovation agenda. He also contributed valuable insight during the development of DarkhorseOne’s core patent technology, helping shape architecture, governance and scalability considerations. With his strong track record in fintech infrastructure and global digital services, Leo plays a vital role in ensuring DarkhorseOne’s platform is robust, secure and ready for international SME deployment.

“Scalable innovation demands both solid architecture and uncompromising security.”

Owns the mission pipeline across NATO allies, pairing customer intelligence with measurable adoption goals.

“Markets move when you align mission urgency with procurement certainty.”

Dr. Jack Chen is the Chief Commercial Advisor at DarkhorseOne, bringing over twenty years of leadership in multinational enterprises, cross-border investment, and large-scale commercial operations. Educated at The University of Hong Kong with executive training from King’s College, Oxford, he combines strong academic foundations with extensive experience driving corporate strategy, market expansion, and partnership development across Asia and the Middle East. He has held CEO-level and senior executive roles, leading multi-country business units, negotiating major partnerships, and guiding organisations through commercial transformation. At DarkhorseOne, Jack shapes the company’s commercial roadmap, advising on global positioning, enterprise partnerships, and business model optimisation. His strategic judgement helps convert innovation into sustainable growth and competitive advantage.

“Strategic growth happens when industry expertise, disciplined execution, and global vision align.”

Jack Zhu is the Legal Advisory Partner at DarkhorseOne, specialising in intellectual property and technology-driven commercial transactions. With over twenty years of legal experience across China and international markets, he holds a Master of Laws in International Business and Trade from the University of International Business & Economics and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical & Communications Engineering from Nanjing University of Posts & Telecommunications. Jack has led patent prosecution, litigation and licensing matters for leading global and Chinese clients, advised major cross-border collaborations and helped technology companies turn innovation into strategic assets. At DarkhorseOne, his role is to ensure the company’s platform technologies and service offerings are protected, compliant and positioned for maximum commercial leverage in global markets.

“Protecting innovation is not just about patents—it’s about creating a commercial runway for strategic growth.”