
Ric Edelman
Founder
Digital Assets Council for Financial Professionals
Moderator
Fredric Mark "Ric" Edelman is an American investor and author. He is the founder of Edelman Financial Services, the author of several personal finance books, and the host of a weekly personal finance talk radio show called The Ric Edelman Show.
Ric holds the CBDA designation - Certified in Blockchain and Digital Assets. He is a #1 New York Times bestselling author of 10 books on personal finance. He was ranked three times as the nation’s #1 Independent Financial Advisor by Barron’s and founded the nation’s largest financial planning firm, now serving 1.3 million clients and managing $300 billion in AUM. Edelman is in both Research Magazine’s and Barron’s Financial Advisor Halls of Fame, and recipient of IARFC’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Investment Advisor, RIABiz and InvestmentNews all named him one of the most influential people in the investment management profession. He is the #1 New York Times best-selling author of 10 books on personal finance with more than one million copies in print in seven languages.

Brian Foster
Head of Wholesale
Coinbase
Brian Foster is Global Head of Wholesale at Coinbase, where he is responsible for the firm’s client business spanning banks, brokerages, exchanges, financial technology firms, ETF and ETP issuers, and other institutional market participants. In his tenure at Coinbase, Brian has led many of the firm’s foundational commercial deals, including its partnership with BlackRock, and served as a member of the Coinbase Ventures investment committee, where he led principal investments in crypto companies in the trading, security, and infrastructure categories.
Prior to joining Coinbase, Brian held strategy and product roles at Curv, a crypto security company (acquired by PayPal), and was a VC at Founder Collective and Marker LLC, where he focused primarily on crypto, cybersecurity, and enterprise software investing. He previously worked in marketing and sales at BuysideFX, an FX trading software company, and began his career as the founder of an online travel agency.
Brian holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from Middlebury College.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianfoster379/

Matt Sigel
Head of Digital Assets
VanEck
As Head of Digital Assets Research and Portfolio Manager for the VanEck Smart Contract Leaders Fund, Mr. Sigel helps guide VanEck’s digital assets strategy and sits on the investment committee of several of the firm’s private funds. He produces frequent research on Bitcoin, smart contract platforms, and emerging markets adoption of digital asset. Prior to VanEck, Mr. Sigel worked as a research analyst and portfolio strategist at CLSA, an analyst and portfolio manager at AllianceBernstein (where he covered technology and other sectors under Cathie Wood), and a journalist at Bloomberg, CNBC and NHK Japan Broadcasting, where he covered finance. Mr. Sigel is a CFA Charterholder and has a BA from Harvard University.
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https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-sigel-recovering-cfa-77a97/
Will Peck
Head of Digital Assets
Wisdom Tree
Will Peck serves as Head of Digital Assets. In this role, he oversees WisdomTree’s digital asset, crypto and blockchain initiatives. These initiatives include crypto asset management products, tokenization and WisdomTree’s digital wallet offering, WisdomTree Prime. Previously, he served as Head of Strategy and Emerging Technologies for WisdomTree. Prior to WisdomTree, he worked in investment banking for Bank of America Merrill Lynch covering a range of financial services companies. Will serves on the Board of Directors of Securrency, Inc., a technology company focused on blockchain-based financial services infrastructure. He graduated cum laude from Harvard University.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/williambradleypeck/

Cynthia Lo Bessette
Head of Digital Assets
Fidelity
Cynthia Lo Bessette is head of Fidelity’s Digital Asset Management division. Fidelity Investments is a leading provider
of investment management, retirement planning, portfolio guidance, brokerage, benefits outsourcing, and other
financial products and services to institutions, financial intermediaries, and individuals.
In her role as head of Fidelity Digital Asset Management, Ms. Lo Bessette is responsible for leading the teams
responsible for the management and development of the investment framework and infrastructure for crypto research,
asset tokenization, digital asset/crypto trading, and settlement. In addition, she leads the teams responsible for the
development and implementation of new investment capabilities and investment products and solutions, business
development, and digital asset education.
Previously, Ms. Lo Bessette was head of Asset Management and Digital Assets Legal. As head of Asset Management
Legal, she led a team providing legal and regulatory guidance and support across Asset Management and served as
chief legal officer for Fidelity’s various investment advisers. In her role as head of the Digital Assets Legal group, she
built a team providing legal and regulatory guidance and support to the Fidelity Digital Assets business and
blockchain-related technology research and development in the Fidelity Center for Applied Technology.
Prior to joining Fidelity in August 2019, Ms. Lo Bessette was Executive Vice President and General Counsel of
OppenheimerFunds, where she oversaw the legal, compliance, and internal audit functions. She was also a director
of OFI International, Ltd, the UK affiliate of OppenheimerFunds, and OppenheimerFunds ICAV, a family of UCITS
offered globally.
Ms. Lo Bessette has extensive experience working with asset management firms investing globally across asset
classes and serving a worldwide investor base, including retail and institutional investors. She has broad experience
advising global asset managers on strategic transactions and on start-up and establishment of new businesses in
global markets, investment product development and distribution, and portfolio management matters involving US and
foreign regulations and local market practices. She has been in the financial industry since 1995.
Ms. Lo Bessette received her law degree from the Fordham University School of Law and received her undergraduate
degree, with honors, in east Asian studies and economics from the University of Michigan.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cynthia-lo-bessette-1818395/
Joe Marenda
Head of Digital Asset Investing
Cambridge Associates (virtual)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-marenda/