Charles St. Louis is a Canadian developer, architect, and figure in the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector, also known by the alias "csl" ^[1]. He is noted for his contributions to protocol governance at MakerDAO, his leadership as CEO of the fixed-rate yield protocol Delv (formerly Element Finance), and his role as a DeFi Protocol Specialist at the Ethereum Foundation ^[2].

Education

Charles St. Louis earned a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Queen’s University, with academic focus spanning information theory, number theory, actuarial science, game theory, economics, and computer/data science. During their time at Queen’s, they participated in the Queen’s Rugby Football Club and were involved with the Queen’s Startup Summit, the Queen’s Venture Capital Club, and the Queen’s Economic Investment Council. They also completed the Harvard Business School Online HBX CORe Certificate (Honours), a 120–150 hour program covering business fundamentals through Business Analytics, Economics for Managers, and Financial Accounting. ^[4]

Career

Charles St. Louis is a DeFi and blockchain infrastructure specialist who has held senior leadership and governance roles across the Ethereum ecosystem.

Ethereum Foundation

Since December 2025, St. Louis has served as a DeFi Protocol Specialist at the Ethereum Foundation, working on the App Relations team as one of its inaugural DeFi leads. Appointed as part of the foundation's first formal strategy to support the DeFi ecosystem, his role involves co-leading initiatives focused on projects that align with "defipunk" principles: open-source, secure, permissionless, private, and self-custodial.

DELV (formerly Element Finance)

St. Louis was the CEO of the fixed-rate yield protocol DELV (formerly Element Finance) from April 2023 to September 2025, after serving as its COO since January 2021.

MakerDAO

Between March 2019 and September 2021, he held several key roles at MakerDAO (now Sky), including Technical Consultant for Multi-Collateral Dai (MCD), Decentralized Governance Architect, and Governance Support & MIP Editor, where he was the first mandated actor elected by MKR holders.

Early Career and Ecosystem Contributions

His early career includes work with the Ethereum Cat Herders from 2018 to 2021, a position as Developer Experience & Integrations Lead at Polymath where he contributed to the ERC-1400 standard, co-founding concepts for blockchain-based patient identity solutions, and participating in RBC's Amplify Program focused on Blockchain Implementation. ^{[2] [3] [1]}​

Activities and Speaking Engagements

He also served as a self-employed investor and advisor from July 2020 through the present, backing and supporting early-stage teams across DeFi, stablecoins, privacy, blockchain infrastructure, and consumer crypto, and working with founders on product strategy, governance design, go-to-market execution, team building, and fundraising. He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and events, including appearances at ETHDenver, Devcon, Devconnect, ETHCC, and the Digital Asset Summit, and has been a guest on podcasts such as Bankless and The Defiant. ^{[2] [3]}​