NEW LOCATION!!! JHU Blockchain Affinity - The Current State of Blockchain: A Panel Discussion Sponsored by Tallyx

Join distinguished Johns Hopkins University alumni developers, industry leaders, investors, and entrepreneurs and learn how the Blockchain business models are taking distributed ledger technology and disrupting every imaginable market from shipping to real estate to commerce. Blockchain is responsible for a technological and financial revolution. Using real-life examples, these experts will discuss hot topics such as advertising implications, potential regulations, security concerns, and more. We'll also discuss what the future holds for Blockchain. Light fare and drinks will be served! 

MEET OUR SPONSOR'S CEO
Aditya Menon
Tallyx Founder & CEO

Tallyx Founder and CEO, Aditya Menon, is an industry visionary, speaker, and author on the digital transformation of financial services. He was the keynote speaker for a number of banking conferences, the most recent ones being the Citi Global Banks Conference 2019 in Manila in March and Lisbon in May. Aditya also spoke on decentralization and tokenization at Wells Fargo's Caribbean Banking Conference in Orlando in April of 2019. 

Aditya started his first company at age 26, building the world's first Microsoft Windows-based corporation banking platforms for global trade finance, payments, and custody services in 1989. Now, Aditya has over 30 years of experience in driving innovation, execution, and transformation in the areas of business and technology strategy, digital disruption across consumer and corporate banking, mobile and digital payments, data analytics and dynamic offers, digital identity, API, and open banking. 

Aditya is a former Managing Director and co-founder of Citi Global Digital Strategy, three-time entrepreneur - twice in the trade financial and cash management systems area as the CIO of Yes Bank and Group CIO of mPhasis. He has been a mobile payments evangelist and pioneer as CPO of Obopay, rolling out mobile payments in India, Africa, and the U.S. He co-authored a 2016 report entitled, "Banking at the Tipping Point," showing how fintechs were ready to disrupt the world. He also co-authored the 2017 paper, "Bank of the Future."

Aditya has a B.A. in Economics and Statistics from St. Xavier's College and a Masters in Computer Science from Pace University.

MEET OUR PANELISTS
Alexis Johnson (Engineering '14)
Light Node Media, President
Investor


Alexis has over five years of experience in real estate development and construction management ranging from high-end residential, commercial, and healthcare with a total portfolio of over 2 billion in value. Alexis launched her media company back in 2015 targeting niche industries and communities. Alexis began passively investing in cryptocurrencies in 2017 and, during the spring of 2018, launched the Light Node Media subsidiary, an events and media company which targets the Blockchain community.

In February of 2019, Alexis launched the Johns Hopkins Blockchain FinTech Alumni Network connecting students, professors, and alumni within the Blockchain and FinTech ecosystem. Marketing veteran, investor, and engineer, Alexis' strengths include marketing, business development, sales, and branding. In her spare time, Alexis enjoys mentoring budding entrepreneurs and advising disruptive startups. Alexis graduated with Cum Laude distinction from Loomis Chaffee, an independent boarding school in Windsor, CT and part of Ten Schools Admissions Organization. A recipient of the Little Rock 9 Scholarship, Alexis holds a bachelors in Civil Engineering from Johns Hopkins University's Whiting School of Engineering.

Xan Ditkoff (A&S '12)
Blockstack, Production Partner

As the Production Partner at Blockstack, Xan is on the front lines of decentralized application development. A graduate of Johns Hopkins, and with a background in private equity, investment banking, and the military, Xan is passionate about driving the creation, growth, and expansion of application ecosystems through his role with Blockstack.

David Lighton (A&S '10, SAIS '11)
SendFriend, Founder & CEO

David founded SendFriend when he was a student at the Sloan School of Management at MIT. For his work on SendFriend, he received a MIT Legatum Fellowship, was the winner of the MIT Translational Innovation Award, and was selected as a Yale Global Justice Fellow. Prior to his MBA, David was an analyst in the Office of the Special Envoy to Haiti at the World Bank where he co-authored the National Financial Inclusion Strategy and supported the Haitian Central Bank. He holds BA and MA degrees with Honors from Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in International Relations and International Economics. 

Maggie Sun (Business '14)
Alpha Square Group, Senior Associate

Maggie Sun is a senior associate at Alpha Square Group and has joined the team since it's establishment. For the past four years, Maggie has aided the team's efforts in investment strategy, fund management, compliance, family trust set-up, and tax-related matters. She brings differentiated experience and perspective in scaling technology companies across a range of asset classes spanning alternatives to tech-enabled consumer, healthcare, and fintech businesses.

Previously, Maggie worked on the investment banking team at Citibank, where she was involved in several major M&A transactions in the healthcare space. Prior to working at Citibank, Maggie was an asset management analyst at Zurich Insurance Group in Hong Kong where she was involved in the company's fund investment strategies.

Maggie has a M.S. in Finance from Johns Hopkins Carey Business School and a dual B.S. in Finance and Management from the University of Science and Technology in Sydney, Australia.

Kevin Parulekar (SAIS '10)
Startup Strategy & Technology Advisor

Kevin is an experienced entrepreneur and strategy consultant; He advises early-stage companies on product development, fundraising, and growth strategies.

He is active in New York’s blockchain community; he led the Americas growth strategy for a Berlin-based post-ICO blockchain startup, designing its tokenomics; he is a guest lecturer at the Baruch MBA program; he currently mentors Blockchain startups with the ‘German Accelerator Tech’ and the ‘Columbia-IBM Blockchain Accelerator’. 

His previous roles have been in nascent, high-growth sectors; he led a mobile tech startup in Hong Kong which raised funds in Norway; implemented ‘startup playbook’ high-growth strategies for GE’s businesses on the ground in Mexico, Brazil, Dubai, Turkey and Hungary; he has authored publications on  global private infrastructure investment for the World Bank.

He holds a BA in Entrepreneurship from Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Management, where his senior thesis received a finalist award at the Oxford Global Entrepreneur Challenge. He also holds a MA in International Relations from Johns Hopkins SAIS, after which he conducted post-graduate case research in Bhutan for the JHU Leadership Institute. He also holds a MBA in Finance and Strategy from INSEAD in France.   

Kelvy Ko (Business '16)
Leotank Digital Trading Group

Kelvy Ko is partner of Leotank Digital Trading Group, an institution quality multi-strategy crypto-currency hedge fund focusing on highly scalable trading strategies in the digital asset space. Kelvy previously served as Head of North America for LD Capital, which is one of Asia's earliest and biggest crypto venture capital funds. Kelvy led the investment of CertiK, Celer, Carry Protocol, Perlin, and other projects.