Brian Forde
Blockchain and digital currency have moved from curiosity to board-level question, and most executives still cannot separate the credible use cases from the noise. Regulators are writing rules in real time, and early decisions about custody, tokenisation, and settlement will shape cost structures for a decade. Leaders need a translator who has sat on both sides of the table, inside government and inside the research lab.
Brian Forde helps boards and executive teams make defensible decisions about blockchain, digital currency, and the regulatory environment that surrounds them, drawing on his work leading the MIT Digital Currency Initiative and advising the Obama White House on emerging technology.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Brian Forde
- He briefed President Obama on bitcoin in 2014 and shaped the early federal posture on digital currency, so buyers get someone who understands how US policy actually gets made, not a commentator guessing at it.
- He built the MIT Media Lab’s Digital Currency Initiative from the ground up, convening cryptographers, economists, and distributed systems researchers. Few speakers can explain the engineering and the regulatory stakes in the same sentence.
- He teaches the MIT Sloan blockchain curriculum alongside Christian Catalini and Simon Johnson, which keeps his material connected to current research rather than recycled decks.
- He has operated, not just advised: he co-founded a telecoms company that served a quarter of a million Nicaraguans, and now runs Numero, a campaign finance technology firm. He speaks about adoption from the perspective of someone who has shipped.
- He ran for US Congress on a crypto-funded campaign that drew legal and political attacks in real time. On questions of public trust, optics, and compliance, he brings direct scar tissue.
Biography highlights
- Co-founder and former Director, Digital Currency Initiative, MIT Media Lab.
- Senior Lecturer, MIT Sloan School of Management, teaching blockchain technologies.
- Former Senior Advisor for Mobile and Data Innovation, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
- Young Global Leader, World Economic Forum; contributor to the WEF agenda.
- Co-founder and CEO of Numero; co-founder and former CEO of Llamadas, S.A. in Nicaragua.
- 2018 Democratic candidate for US Congress in California’s 45th District; raised a record sum in cryptocurrency donations.
Biography
Most boards hear about blockchain from a vendor or a lobbyist. Brian Forde is one of the few people who has been the White House official writing the early rules, the MIT researcher auditing the code, and the founder trying to raise money inside the regulatory grey zone. He briefed President Obama on bitcoin in 2014, when the federal government was still deciding whether to treat it as currency, commodity, or threat.
At the MIT Media Lab he co-founded and led the Digital Currency Initiative, assembling cryptographers, economists, and distributed systems researchers to study how digital currencies could work at scale. The initiative seeded research that now underpins how central banks, custodians, and exchanges think about settlement risk. He now teaches the subject at MIT Sloan alongside Christian Catalini and Simon Johnson.
His operator record matters as much as the policy work. He co-founded Llamadas, S.A., a low-cost internet phone company that served more than a quarter of a million Nicaraguans after his Peace Corps service. He currently runs Numero, building campaign finance software for political campaigns. In 2018 he ran for US Congress in California’s 45th District and accepted cryptocurrency donations, raising more in crypto than any previous American candidate and attracting a political attack campaign that tested how the mainstream handles digital-asset politics.
The value he brings to a room is that combination. Audiences get engineering precision, Washington insight, and founder scar tissue from a single speaker who can answer the question most keynotes dodge: what does a serious organisation actually do on Monday morning.
Key speaking topics
- Blockchain adoption in regulated industries
- Digital currency and central bank policy
- Bitcoin and the future of payments
- Emerging technology and public policy
- Government regulation of digital assets
- Innovation inside large institutions
Ideal for
- Boards and executive committees at banks, asset managers, and payments firms weighing digital asset strategy.
- Chief technology officers, chief innovation officers, and heads of strategy assessing blockchain pilots.
- Chief compliance officers and general counsel preparing for evolving digital asset regulation.
- Government and public sector leaders building digital infrastructure and data policy.
Audience outcomes
- A clear map of where blockchain is genuinely useful in financial services, healthcare, government, and supply chain, and where it is not.
- A working understanding of how US and global digital asset regulation is being shaped, and what that means for near-term decisions.
- Practical framing for how to evaluate and resource a blockchain or tokenisation pilot without over-committing.
- Perspective on the political and reputational dimensions of digital asset adoption, informed by direct campaign experience.
- Sharper questions to take back to internal technology, legal, and risk teams.
Talks
A foundational session for executives who need to understand the technology, the economics, and the policy context in the same hour.
Key takeaways:
- How blockchain works at a level a board member can explain to a colleague.
- Where digital currencies already move real value, and where claims exceed reality.
- How regulation is evolving and what to watch next.
A session on how policymakers are thinking about digital assets, drawn from Forde’s time advising the White House and his work with regulators since.
Key takeaways:
- The fault lines in US and international digital asset rulemaking.
- What compliance, legal, and strategy teams should be preparing for now.
- How firms can engage constructively with regulators rather than reactively.