Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Lightspark
Led the Finance, AI and Data Science, Business Development and Sales, Corporate Development, and Strategic Partnerships teams.
Ventures & advisory
Operator record
Scope-first: what was built, at what scale — from Libra at Meta and Lightspark to the MIT Cryptoeconomics Lab.
Expert witness — selected engagements. Inquiries: inquiries@catalini.com.
Built
Ventures & things built
Co-Creator and Chief Economist, Libra / Diem (Meta)
Co-created Libra (later Diem); Chief Economist of the Diem Association and Head Economist of Meta’s FinTech division. Engaged regulators worldwide, including the Federal Reserve Board, U.S. Treasury, SEC, OCC, CFTC, ECB, Bank of England, FINMA, BaFin, and the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
Founder and Research Scientist, MIT Cryptoeconomics Lab
Founded the lab; research on the economics of AI and AGI, digital assets, stablecoins, blockchain, and cryptocurrencies. As MIT professor, designed the 2014 MIT Digital Currency Research Study, which gave every MIT undergraduate access to Bitcoin.
Boards
Board service
Independent Board Member, Hivemind Capital
Independent board member.
Advisory
Advisory
Advisor, The Better Money Company
Advisor.
Advisor to the CEO, Lightspark
Ongoing advisory to the CEO, following four years as Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer.
Advisor, Skyfire
Advisor on payments infrastructure for AI agents.
Advisor, Polarity
Advisor.
Advisor, Coinbase
Advisory Board, Coinbase Institute.
Advisor, Chainlink
Advisor.
Associate, Creative Destruction Lab
Associate; previously Strategic Advisory Board member (2013–2018) and Associate Director (2012–2013).
Advisor, Algorand
Economic and protocol advisory.
Advisor, Delphia
Advisor.
Public service
Public service
Member, Technology Advisory Committee, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission
Appointed to the CFTC’s Technology Advisory Committee in 2023.
Member, CBDC Engagement Forum, Bank of England
Served on the Bank of England’s CBDC Engagement Forum.
Faculty Research Fellow, National Bureau of Economic Research
Faculty Research Fellow, Productivity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship Program.