David Shrier
President, Chief Executive Officer and Director
David L. Shrier has served as ADEX’s President, Chief Executive Officer and as a member of its board of directors since October 2020. Mr. Shrier is currently the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Esme Learning Solutions, Inc., an artificial intelligence-enabled adult digital education provider that partners with top universities to transform student outcomes, a role he has held since forming the company with Ms. Elizabeth Porter, ADEX’s Chief Technology Officer and Secretary, in February 2019. Mr. Shrier also serves as a board member of Esme Learning. Adit is a significant investor in Esme Learning. He has been a non-executive director of crypto infrastructure company Copper Technologies (UK) Ltd since November 2020, chairman and director of Fiorino D’Oro Ltd. since December 2020, and strategic advisor to Particle Ink and to Dandelion Science since December 2021. Mr. Shrier was co-founder of Riff Analytics, an artificial intelligence collaboration software company (where Adit is also an investor) that was acquired by Esme Learning in November 2021, and served as its chairman of the board of directors from its inception in June 2017 until July 2020. Mr. Shrier holds a part-time appointment as a Professor of Practice in the Department of Management & Innovation at Imperial College London Business School which he began in December 2020, where (among other initiatives) he leads the Institutional Digital Assets Project, providing insight into crypto and blockchain use cases and technologies. From August 2017 to July 2021, Mr. Shrier held a part-time appointment as Associate Fellow with Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, where he created and launched the Oxford Fintech and Oxford Blockchain Strategy Programmes online, as well as Oxford Fintech Lab. Between February 2013 and November 2020, Mr. Shrier held a variety of instructional and administrative roles at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, including New Ventures Officer, Managing Director, Connection Science & Engineering and most recently, Lecturer, Media Arts & Sciences. Previously, Mr. Shrier has held a variety of management roles in privately funded companies including, most recently, Distilled Identity, where he served as Chief Executive Officer from June 2017 to May 2020. Since September 2017, Mr. Shrier has served as a member of FINRA’s fintech advisory Committee. Mr. Shrier is a senior advisor to the UK government’s Revenue & Customs department (HMRC) since December 2019 as well as UK Department for International Trade’s fintech steering board since March 2018. Since October 2020, Mr. Shrier has also been an advisor to the European Parliament’s Science & Technology Committee, which is chaired by Eva Kaili. Mr. Shrier is also on the advisory board for WorldQuant University, which offers a totally free online master’s degree in financial engineering, where he has served since April 2016. Mr. Shrier is well qualified to serve as a director due to his extensive experience managing technology companies, his experience in crypto and blockchain, and his contacts and relationships.
John D’Agostino
Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer
John J. D’Agostino has served as ADEX’s Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer since October 2020. Mr. D’Agostino was the US Managing Director at Waystone Governance from May 2015 through September 2021. From May 2017 to December 2021, Mr. D’Agostino served as a director of Midpoint Holdings Ltd., a UK-headquartered payments institution specializing in cross-border payments and foreign exchange. A graduate of Williams College, Mr. D’Agostino received a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Harvard Business School in 2002 and has studied Economics at Oxford University. In 2021, Mr. D’Agostino was named Fellow of the AIF Institute Financial Innovation Center of Excellence. Also in 2021, Mr. D’Agostino founded the AIMA Digital Asset Working Group. In 2019, Mr. D’Agostino was named Chair of the UK Consulate’s Financial Services Working Group. Mr. D’Agostino holds the following securities/commodities licenses: SIE (Securities Industry Essentials Examination), Series 3 (National Commodity Futures Examination), Series 7 (General Securities Representative), 24 (General Securities Principal), Series 63 (Uniform Securities Agent State Law Examination), and Series 66 (Uniform Combined State Law Examination).
Elizabeth Porter
Chief Technology Officer and Secretary
Elizabeth B. Porter has served as ADEX’s Chief Technology Officer and Secretary since October 2020. Throughout her career, Ms. Porter has led multiple product and engineering teams to deliver high value, customer-focused educational technology products in product design, business strategy and operational roles. Ms. Porter held executive roles directing product development teams at Extension Engine (from May 2016 to December 2018), an edtech consultancy that specializes in the development of highly customized online courses and programs, and University of Texas at Austin (from May 2018 to December 2019). Ms. Porter has been the managing partner of Geeklight, LLC, an edtech consulting business, since May 2016. She has also served as Chief Executive Officer, co-founder and board member of Riff Analytics, a conversation analytics company that works primarily with educational institutions and providers delivering platform software and custom data analytics reporting, since September 2017. Ms. Porter has also headed the course development and delivery teams at Esme Learning in her capacity as Managing Director, board member and co-founder since February 2019. Ms. Porter’s engagements in higher education include roles as researcher and lecturer at the MIT Media Lab since September 2016 and Boston University Questrom School of Business since July 2016. Ms. Porter graduated from Cornell University, where she received her B.A. in English Literature and M.A. in Mathematics Teacher Education.