PROFILE

Joichi "Joi" Ito is a digital architect, venture capitalist, entrepreneur, writer, and scholar focusing on the transformation of society and technology. He works to respond to complex challenges such as our democracy and governance, climate change, and redesigning systems of scholarship and science. He served as director of the MIT Media Lab from 2011 to 2019 where he lead the establishment of the Digital Currency Initiative in 2015. He was the board chair and chief executive of Creative Commons and has served on numerous other boards, including at The New York Times Company, Sony Corporation, The Mozilla Foundation, The Open Source Initiative, ICANN and The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). He served as a Senior Independent Advisor for the Minister for Financial Services of Japan from 2016 to 2019. His recognitions and awards include a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Oxford Internet and a Lifetime Achievement Award from EPIC. He co-host Earthshot – Technology which changes the world. On his podcast Road to Henkaku he regularly features NFTs, and he is currently engaged in a web3 community