Sandra Ro

Sandra is a proponent of ‘human-centric tech’.  She left a career in investment banking and currency markets to focus on emerging technologies for sustainability, access, and resiliency, particularly in financial systems. She is an early investor in, and an advocate of digital assets. Sandra currently serves as the CEO of the Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC), a Swiss-based non-profit as well as an angel investor in emerging technologies, Board member, advisor, keynote speaker and co-founder of several start-ups, non-profits, and key blockchain industry networks.

She is currently a Board Director of Global Digital Finance (UK), NYS Senate appointee on the New York State Digital Currency Task Force, Fintech Advisory Council member, Astana International Financial Center (AIFC Kazakhstan), Board Treasurer of BitGive Foundation, member of EU Public Funds and New Green Economy Consortia, Advisory Council member of: Open Impact Foundation (Switzerland), Filecoin Foundation, and Open Transparency Initiative (Denmark), member of World Economic Forum’s Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) Working Group, US Department of State Speakers Bureau, amongst others.

Whilst at CME Group, she founded and led Digitisation, developed the CME CF Bitcoin pricing indices, followed by the CME Bitcoin Futures.  Ro was a founding member of Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA Board), Post Trade Distributed Ledger (PTDL) Group, Linux Foundation, Hyperledger, and GBBC Board. Previously, she was a derivatives banker at Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank, based in London.

She holds an M.B.A. from London Business School, studied Computer Science at Columbia University, School of Continuing Studies, and earned a double B.A. degree from Yale University. She is one of the first to file cryptocurrency patents with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) related to derivatives and index products.