Blockchain for Social Impact Coalition Announces 3 New Board Members

New York, NY ​– The ​Blockchain for Social Impact Coalition​, an organization dedicated to advancing implementation of blockchain based initiatives to support the UN sustainable development goals, announced today the appointment of three new members to its board: ​Ibrahim AlHusseini ​of Fullcycle​, Yorke E Rhodes III of ​Microsoft ​and Oksana Davis of the ​Enterprise Ethereum Alliance​.

“We are excited to welcome three new board members who are exceptionally talented and distinguished entrepreneurs. Each brings a different perspective—from deep technical knowledge and standard setting in the Ethereum ecosystem to impact investing and sustainability. BSIC is poised to make further advancement in supporting blockchain solutions and convening key actors who are building these solutions,” said Vanessa Grellet, President of the Board.

“All systems and organisms evolve or perish. Capitalism, as practiced, has many merits as well as critical shortfalls. Technology can help us distill its better parts while retiring the rest. I’m proud to join the Board of Blockchain for Social Impact Coalition and look forward to working with the team to leverage the vast potential of blockchain to build a more inclusive capitalism that enables ordinary people across the globe to tackle the UN’s sustainable development goals,” said ​Ibrahim AlHusseini, ​Managing Partner of FullCycle Energy Fund.

“Early on I realized the potential for blockchain to catalyze transformational societal impact, particularly in adverse conditions affecting humans the world over. Having my hands on technology with such possibilities for systemic change and not doing something with it would be a huge missed opportunity. I’m delighted to bring to bear the breadth of technology knowhow of Microsoft with equal focus on cultural and humanitarian action to the board of BSIC​,” said ​Yorke Rhodes, Cofounder of Blockchain @Microsoft & Principal Program Manager, Azure Blockchain Engineering.

“I am very proud and excited to be part of the board of BSIC. I am very passionate about the technology and what it can do to help our society. It is obvious that blockchain is becoming a more integrated technology, and I am looking forward to bringing my experience of working with standard industry organizations and assisting in standard setting in the Ethereum ecosystem to BSIC and being part of the team who can take it further for the benefit of our community,” said Oksana Davis, Chief Legal Counsel and Corporate Secretary at Enterprise Ethereum Alliance.

About the New Board Members:

Ibrahim AlHusseini ​is the founder and CEO of ​FullCycle​, an investment company that is reversing the effects of climate change by accelerating the deployment of climate-restoring technologies.
AlHusseini – a renowned entrepreneur, investor and environmentalist – has started and sold numerous businesses and raised half a billion dollars of capital to back dozens of companies. He was also an early investor in Tesla Motors, Bloom Energy, Aspiration Inc., Thrive Market, and CleanChoice Energy, among others. AlHusseini made his initial fortune from his college dorm room, after starting a nutraceutical distribution company and selling the business in 1997. Raised in Saudi Arabia by parents who are Palestinian refugees, AlHusseini moved to the U.S. for college in the early 1990s. He sits on the board of more than half a dozen organizations that focus on the positive development of our environment and humanity. AlHusseini is also the managing partner of two waste-to-value funds that accelerate the adoption of the world’s leading waste-to-value technology.

Oksana Davis ​serves as Chief Legal Counsel and Corporate Secretary for the​ Enterprise Ethereum Alliance​ where she closely works with its management to assist in further development of Ethereum-based blockchain technology best practices, open standards, and open-source reference architectures to evolve Ethereum into an enterprise-grade technology. Mrs. Davis has over thirteen years’ experience in business, corporate, transactional and commercial law, including working with leading industry trade associations and standards organizations. She received her Specialist’s Diploma with Honors in Jurisprudence from the National Academy of Law of the Ukraine. Mrs. Davis also received an LL.M. degree in Comparative Law, Cum Laude from California Western School of Law.

Yorke E Rhodes III​ is Cofounder of ​Blockchain @Microsoft​ and Principal Program Manager Azure Blockchain Engineering. He is a passionate technologist with broad interests, always drawn to the next shiny object. He earned a BS in Computer Science from NYU’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. He has worked in industry for over 20 years, in enterprises such as Microsoft & IBM and startups in wireless, mobile, digital marketing & ecommerce. At Goldman Sachs Investment Bank he built their first wireless internet ingress and advised bankers in wireless, telecom and media. As a young developer he saw the beginnings of client server databases, obscure languages like ada, lisp & paradox and the birth of the internet. Blockchain piqued his interest in the summer of 2015 with the launch of Ethereum. An Adjunct Professor at NYU, he has taught Digital Marketing, Ecommerce and Intrapreneurship and is currently developing a course on the user centric economy called #OurNextEconomy.

About BSIC:
The Blockchain for Social Impact Coalition (BSIC) is a 501(c)(6) not-for-profit organization that incubates, develops, and collaborates on blockchain products and solutions that can address social and environmental challenges across the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. We aim to inspire, federate, and create bridges between NGO’s, and government agencies, foundations, impact investors, philanthropists and technologists by focusing on the following focus sectors: Financial Inclusion, Supply Chain, Identity & Vulnerable Populations, Energy & Environment, Human Rights, Health and Wellness, Humanitarian Sector, Education.