Dr. Elad Granot
Dr. Granot is the dean of the Dauch College of Business and Economics at Ashland University. He is an academic intrapreneur and leader, with a record of reimagining, setting the course, and turning around higher education in public and private universities in urban, suburban, and rural universities.
With over 25 years of leadership experience in military, business and academic organizations, as well as serving on multiple boards, Elad is a leading expert on Blockchain Technology, has advised numerous tech startups and is the founder and managing member of a VC fund.
Kenneth Clarke
Kenneth Clarke is JumpStart’s Director of Strategic Innovation Initiatives. In this role he is responsible for driving community-based initiatives which are focused on impacting Northeast Ohio’s innovation economy.
One of these civic initiatives is the Cleveland Innovation project, funded by JumpStart, the Cleveland Foundation, Fund for Our Economic Future and TeamNEO. Another is the Blockland initiative, where JumpStart played a founding role and where Ken served as the first full-time Blockland Project Manager. A third initiative involves surveying Northeast Ohio’s high-tech ecosystem.
Prior to JumpStart, Ken served as President and CEO of the Pritzker Military Museum & Library. He has also served as Associate Vice President of Fund Development & Marketing at Safer Foundation, and as Midwest Region Director of Major Gifts for The Ohio State University.
Ken holds a bachelor’s from Taylor University and a master’s from Miami University.
James Trocmé
James Trocmé has over 22 years global experience in the retail banking and payments arena, both as a solution provider and channel operations and strategy owner.
For over 32 years he has been interpreting technology and innovation into business terms, business strategy and conversely, helping make sense of and reconciling objectives.
Blockchain is such a disruptive technology with many application domains besides cryptocurrency and payments and gravitating to other areas of risk management and compliance and supply chain management among others.
Frank Amato
Frank is an experienced angel investor and entrepreneur in the distributed ledger and blockchain space. Leveraging his experience in the financial services industry as a trader, Frank helps startups navigate regulatory scenarios and other complex assumption paths. His interest developed following a purchase of Bitcoin as part of the 2014 US Marshals auction of Silk Road coins. Frank is an original member of Blockchain Capitals angellist syndicate, the co-founder of Block5, an early stage investment and advisory firm and a General Partner in Grasshopper Capital, a FinTech focused seed through series B venture fund.
Frank serves as a Fintech advisor to the LBMA (London Bullion Metals Association). Prior to forming Block5, Frank spent 17 years in JP Morgan’s commodity trading group. He successfully built JPM’s Platinum Group Metals business in London and then served as a Senior Metals derivatives trader for Asia based in Singapore.