Diversity in Digital Currency

Andrew Karolyi is the Charles Field Knight Dean of the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. He is a Professor of Finance and International Business as well as holder of the Harold Bierman Jr. Distinguished Professorship in the Johnson Graduate School of Management. Dr. Karolyi is also a Professor of Economics in Cornell’s College of Arts and Sciences.

A scholar in the area of investment management, with a specialization in the study of international financial markets, Dr. Karolyi has published extensively in journals in finance and economics, including the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, and Review of Financial Studies. He has also published several books and monographs, and his research is featured in print and electronic media such as the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Economist, Time, New York Times, Washington Post, Forbes, BusinessWeek, and CNBC. Dr. Karolyi recently completed a four-year term as executive editor of the Review of Financial Studies, one of the top-tier journals in finance. He has also served as an associate editor for a variety of journals, including the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Empirical Finance, Journal of Banking and Finance, Review of Finance, and the Pacific Basin Finance Journal.

Dr. Karolyi is a recipient of the Michael Jensen Prize for Corporate Finance and Organizations (2017), the Fama/DFA Prize for Capital Markets and Asset Pricing (2005), the William F. Sharpe Award for Scholarship in Finance (2001), the Journal of Empirical Finance’s Biennial Best Paper Prize (2006), and Johnson School’s Prize for Excellence in Research (2010). Dr. Karolyi leads various executive education programs in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia, and he is actively involved in consulting with corporations, banks, investment firms, stock exchanges, and law firms. He is president-elect/program chair of the Western Finance Association, has served as a director of the American Finance Association, and is past chairperson of the board of trustees and past president of the Financial Management Association International. Dr. Karolyi received his B.A. (Honors) in Economics from McGill University and worked at the Bank of Canada for several years in its research department. He subsequently earned his MBA and Ph.D. degrees in Finance at the Graduate School of Business of the University of Chicago.

Dante Disparte has over two decades of experience as an entrepreneur, business leader, and global risk expert. Prior to joining Circle, a leading financial services firm building treasury and payments infrastructure for the internet, Mr. Disparte served as a founding executive of the Diem Association, leading public policy, communications, membership, and social impact. He was founder and CEO of Risk Cooperative, a strategic risk advisory and insurance brokerage based in Washington. Mr. Disparte serves as an appointee on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) National Advisory Council, the United States’ federal emergency response agency. He is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Digital Currency Governance Consortium, helping drive global standards and regulatory harmonization for digital currencies.

A graduate of Harvard Business School, Mr. Disparte holds an M.Sc. in Risk Management from NYU Stern School of Business and a B.A. in International and Intercultural Studies from Goucher College. He is the co-author of “Global Risk Agility and Decision Making” (Macmillan, 2016) and was recognized as one of the 40 leaders under 40 by the Washington Business Journal. He is also a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Mr. Disparte’s views on risk, economic competitiveness, and security issues are regularly featured in leading media and publications, such as Harvard Business Review, BBC, Forbes, and Diplomatic Courier, where he serves on the editorial advisory board.

Susan Joseph is Executive Director of Fintech at Cornell, an initiative of the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. Ms. Joseph is a J.D./MBA; the founder/CEO of HealthTrends.ai; an NSF grant awardee focusing on public health informatics using blockchain; and principal at Susan Joseph LLC, consulting for the mining industry in climate, digitization, and blockchain. She is Executive Director of Diversity in Blockchain, a 501(c)(3) entity providing education and resources to support diversity and inclusion in the blockchain space.

For the past several years, Ms. Joseph has been consulting and advising in law, blockchain, and fintech in the areas of digital assets, cryptocurrencies, insurance, enterprise distributed ledgers, ESG (climate and diversity), identity and privacy, and other issues across financial services, insurance, and supply chain. She has worked for and represented insurance consortia, including RiskStream and B3i North America, and she created and ran Blockchain Working Groups for Global Insurers.The first Executive Director of ID2020, Ms. Joseph is a part of the World Economic Forum Expert Network and runs the womeninfintech network on LinkedIn.