Joichi "Joi" Ito has been recognized for his work as an activist, entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and advocate of emergent democracy, privacy, and internet freedom. As Media Lab Director, he is currently exploring how radical new approaches to science and technology can transform society in substantial and positive ways. Follow @Joi on Twitter.

Professor Rivest is an Institute Professor at MIT. He joined MIT in 1974 as a faculty member in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He is a member of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), a member of the lab's Theory of Computation Group and a founder of its Cryptography and Information Security Group. He is a co-author (with Cormen, Leiserson, and Stein) of the text, Introduction to Algorithms. He is also a founder of RSA Data Security, now named RSA Security (the security division of EMC), Versign, and Peppercoin. Professor Rivest has research interests in cryptography, computer and network security, electronic voting, and algorithms.

Simon Johnson is an economist and faculty advisor to the DCI from the MIT Sloan School. Prior to MIT, Simon served as the chief economist of the International Monetary Fund.

Gary is a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management and senior advisor to the director of the MIT Media Lab, where he advises both the Digital Currency Initiative and the Ethics and Governance of AI project. Gary served as chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (2009-2014), leading the Obama administration's post-crisis reform efforts of the $400 trillion market in over-the-counter derivatives, or swaps. In recognition, he was a recipient of the 2014 Tamar Frankel Fiduciary Prize. He currently is chairman of the Maryland Financial Consumer Protection Commission. Gary earned his undergraduate degree in economics in 1978 and his MBA from the Wharton School in 1979.

Christian is a professor of Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is one of the principal investigators of the MIT Digital Currencies Research Study, which gave access to all MIT undergraduate students to Bitcoin in the Fall of 2014.

Michael J. Casey is a Senior Advisor at DCI. A former Wall Street Journal writer and accomplished author, Michael has written several critically acclaimed books including The Age of Cryptocurrency and The Unfair Trade. Follow @mikejcasey on Twitter.