Sheila Warren - WAGMI Women of the Week
Sheila Warren - CEO of The Crypto Council
The Crypto Council is the premier industry alliance committed to unlocking the promise of the technology. Sheila is the CEO and was appointed in February 2022.
Q. What inspired you to work in this industry? I spent quite a bit of time in my career working with civic tech and working with society organizations and their thinking about technology. And I also spent a lot of time thinking with philanthropists about how to move money across borders. In a previous role I built a product for this called NGO Source that exists today. Separately, I was the general counsel of a civil society organization called Tech Soup, and we had a lot of data on activists and other people that would not want that information getting out. As GDPR in Europe became a thing, we got very concerned about how to protect this data appropriately. The funny thing is, a friend of mine suggested that we put that data on the blockchain – which I knew nothing about. So my entry was via data and preservation of the anonymity of an individual within a digital system. That is what I was really compelled by.
I've done a lot of work on bias, protective rights, work with ACLU, etc. And so to me, all of these important things converge and connect in crypto. I see crypto as this generation’s best chance of addressing inequity in current systems, whether that's technical systems or financial systems and providing a more equal playing field for people who are not, you know, pre wealthy – crypto is our best shot. It's for people that don't have access to some of these systems or have access with the assets are not meaningful. That's the reason why I'm so passionate about it and why I have dedicated my career to it, going on six years now.
Q. What is a piece of advice you would like to give to others that are just starting out? My advice would be: join the industry. Come on in. The water's fine. Don't be scared by what you might hear about toxicity, because there are plenty of people in this space who are not like that at all. It is not the dominant modality of this industry. Secondly, I would say, you know, this is a global industry. So there are all kinds of jobs available. There are certainly developer engineering jobs, and I always love seeing women go to technical positions. But, there's also business development, marketing, product management, program management, policy, legal – you name it there is a possibility.
Every day I learn something new. Don’t be afraid of that. There was a point in time, maybe ten years ago when it was possible somebody could understand everything – now it is not possible. So you do have to come in with the knowledge that there is a very steep learning curve no matter who you are and be prepared to ask questions and get your hands dirty. But it is the most exciting space I’ve ever worked in and I’ve worked in some really exciting spaces. I have been very fortunate. I am thankful everyday that I found this industry, honestly, because of that conversation with a friend many years ago about privacy and data concerns.
Q. Fav influencer that we should follow? The Crypto Council on twitter and the Money Reimagined podcast on CoinDesk.
Q. Anything else happening with your own project that our community should know about? The Crypto Council is working hard to help policymakers and business leaders deliver on the promise of this innovative technology. We have published all of our Comment Letters to government leaders to help dive down into the main topics and promote a more inclusive regulatory system. Check them out on our website.
