After two years of building and growing Blockpliance, I’m excited to announce the next step in my professional journey: I’ve joined LedgerLink.ai as Vice President of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
From Professor to Founder
Two years ago, I made what felt like a momentous decision at the time, stepping away from my role as a Computer Science professor at Westmont College to fully commit to Blockpliance, the startup I co-founded with Guillermo Fernandes. Looking back, that leap of faith has led to an incredible journey developing artificial intelligence-powered blockchain risk analysis tools for international financial institutions.
The transition from academia to entrepreneurship was like drinking from a firehose, but it provided unparalleled opportunities to apply theoretical concepts to real-world challenges. What began as research interests in machine learning and distributed systems evolved into building enterprise-grade solutions that help financial institutions navigate the complex world of cryptocurrency compliance.
Technical Growth and Community Building
These past two years have been transformative for my technical skills and expertise. I’ve immersed myself in using machine learning to model and analyze data stored in graph databases—an approach that’s proven particularly effective for mapping complex transaction networks and identifying risky patterns that might otherwise go undetected.
Our team at Blockpliance built a robust containerized DevOps infrastructure that allowed us to scale and deploy our AI models seamlessly, even as we expanded to serve clients across seven different countries. I’ve also focused extensively on developing algorithms that bridge the gap between digital currencies and real-world data, creating more transparent and traceable financial ecosystems.
I also had a lot of fun learning a whole bunch of new tools, like Grafana, Prometheus, and Loki for operations monitoring, Neo4J for large graph databases, a bunch of AWS and IBM tools for deploying to the cloud, docker, Django, and more.
Perhaps the most rewarding aspect of this journey has been the community we’ve built. Talented interns like Luke Montgomery, Adam Vekony, Joy Patterson, and Shobhit Mendiratta brought invaluable insights and expertise that propelled our progress. Some tremendous support from IBM, State Street, and our investors opened so many doors. Their contributions went far beyond code—they helped shape our vision and culture in ways I’ll always be grateful for.
The Evolution of Blockpliance
As the compliance ecosystem continued to rapidly evolve, our team recognized that the next strategic move for Blockpliance was to integrate our systems with various partners who could help scale our impact. After careful consideration, we decided to partner with several organizations that aligned with different aspects of our technology and vision.
I’m particularly excited that LedgerLink.ai has acquired me along with our core technology stack. This transition ensures that our mission of using artificial intelligence to analyze cryptocurrency transactions will continue and expand, now with the additional resources and reach of an established player in the space.
Looking Forward: My Role at LedgerLink
In my new role as VP of AI and Machine Learning at LedgerLink.ai, I’ll be leading initiatives to expand our capabilities in the rapidly evolving space of digitized real-world assets. The financial sector is at a fascinating inflection point, with traditional institutions increasingly looking to participate in blockchain-based systems and tokenized assets, but not having many on ramps to do it responsibly.
I’m particularly excited about crafting next-generation strategies for major financial institution partners who want to move into this fast-paced ecosystem. My goal is to help these organizations leverage the power of artificial intelligence to make this transition securely, efficiently, and profitably while maintaining regulatory compliance.
One aspect of my professional identity that remains unchanged is my commitment to academic ties. I plan to maintain strong connections with the academic community, especially with UC Irvine’s Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences and mentors like Bill Tomlinson. These relationships will ensure I remain at the cutting edge of technological innovation as I help drive the future of finance.
Gratitude and New Beginnings
As I reflect on this transition, I’m overwhelmed with gratitude for everyone who supported Guillermo and me as we built and stewarded Blockpliance. From our early believers to our clients who trusted a young company with critical compliance functions, each person played a role in making this journey possible.
I’m now looking forward to this next chapter working with the accomplished team at LedgerLink.ai. The intersection of artificial intelligence, blockchain technology, and traditional finance is a great place to work, and I’m excited to continue exploring this frontier with a new team and expanded resources.
Stay tuned for updates on our work in AI, machine learning, blockchain analytics, and the digitization of real-world assets. The future of finance is being written now, and I’m thrilled to be part of that story.
