David L. Shrier is an American futurist, author and entrepreneur. Shrier also co-edits the MIT Connection Science imprint of MIT Press and is the author of various industry reference books in the fields of
financial technology,
digital identity,
data governance and
financial innovation.
Shrier is the cofounder & Managing Director of Esme Learning, an
artificial intelligence-enabled digital learning company derived from
MIT research and spun out of MIT Media Lab.
He currently serves as Professor of Practice in
Artificial Intelligence and Innovation with
Imperial College London.
Career
Shrier has led a number of private equity and venture capital-backed companies as CEO, CFO or COO.
He has helped established organizations to develop and build new revenue streams, having developed growth opportunities with C-suite executives for
Dun & Bradstreet
The Dun & Bradstreet Corporation is an American company that provides commercial data, analytics, and insights for businesses. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, the company offers a wide range of products and services for risk and financia ...
, Wolters Kluwer,
Ernst & Young,
GE,
The Walt Disney Company,
AOL
AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo (2017� ...
Verizon, and
Starwood, as well as private equity and venture capital funds. Shrier's professional interests includes managing a global consultancy firm Visionary Future, and serving as a non-executive director to
blockchain
A blockchain is a type of distributed ledger technology (DLT) that consists of growing lists of records, called ''blocks'', that are securely linked together using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a ...
infrastructure provider Copper.co and senior advisor to fintech company Kyriba.
He was also Vice Chairman of Endor.
Learning Innovation
Shrier created the MIT online fintech course “Future Commerce” that educated thousands of students in over 120 countries, adapting his successful on-campus MIT graduate course of the same name (itself the first graduate fintech course in North America).
In 2017, he re-created his online programme at
University of Oxford's Saïd Business School (SBS) under the name Oxford Fintech, and added a second programme Oxford Blockchain Strategy.
The Dean of
SBS teaches one of the modules in Oxford Fintech. David also co-founded and is Chairman of Riff Learning, an MIT spinout company that is applying
artificial intelligence to reshape collaboration. David is on the advisory board of WorldQuant University, a program offering a totally-free, accredited, online master's degree in financial engineering.
Government & Regulatory work

Shrier has collaborated with regulators and policymakers in the US, UK, EU, and through the
OECD its member countries, to help shape emerging policy on disruptive technologies. He is presently a member of the FinTech Industry Committee for
FINRA
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is a private American corporation that acts as a self-regulatory organization (SRO) that regulates member brokerage firms and exchange markets. FINRA is the successor to the National Associati ...
, the U.S. securities industry's self-regulatory body, a senior advisor to the UK Government’s
HM Revenue and Customs, and the Fintech Trade & Investment Steering Board for the UK Government's Department of International Trade. David also advises the
European Parliament,
European Commission, and
OECD on
digital identity, AML/KYC,
blockchain
A blockchain is a type of distributed ledger technology (DLT) that consists of growing lists of records, called ''blocks'', that are securely linked together using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a ...
, and
AI. He previously advised the European Commission on commercializing innovation with a focus on digital technology, and the Government of Dubai on blockchain and digital identity.
Academia
Shrier has dual academic appointment as Professor of Practice (Artificial Intelligence and Innovation) with
Imperial College Business School,
Imperial College London, and Associate Fellow with the
Said Business School,
University of Oxford. He was previously a Lecturer at the MIT Media Lab; and Fellow with the Payne Institute at the Colorado School of Mines. Shrier has written for numerous publications including
Forbes,
CNBC,
Newsweek, and
The Asian Banker. He also co-edits the MIT Connection Science imprint of
MIT Press and is the author of various industry reference books:
Books
*''Frontiers of Financial Technology, New Solutions for Cybersecurity'' (with
Alex Pentland) (2016)
*''Trust::Data: A New Framework for Identity and Data Sharing'' (2016)
*''New Solutions for Cybersecurity (MIT Connection Science and Engineering)'' (2018)
*''Basic Blockchain: What It Is and How It Will Transform the Way We Work and Live'' (2020)
*''Augmenting Your Career: How to Win at Work In the Age of AI'' (2021)
References
External links
MIT Home Page and link to MIT Human Dynamics research groupBooks PublishedDistilled Analytics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shrier, David
Living people
American computer scientists
Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty
MIT Media Lab people
Year of birth missing (living people)