Digital Dollar Project Appoints Jennifer Brooks Lassiter as Executive Director

WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The Digital Dollar Project (DDP), a non-profit organization to advance the exploration of a U.S. Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), today announced the appointment of Jennifer Brooks Lassiter, a recognized leader and prominent regulatory and finance expert, as Executive Director and member of its Board of Directors. Lassiter will work closely with the DDP Board and its Advisory Group to explore the challenges and opportunities of a U.S. CBDC through a deliberative process, including pilots, stakeholder meetings, roundtable discussions, and open forums.

Jennifer is an experienced leader who can uniquely bring together policymakers, technologists, industry, consumer advocacy groups, and thought leaders to identify and achieve shared outcomes addressing complex challenges. Lassiter is a trailblazer who reshaped regulatory processes to recognize the nature of emerging technologies and their business and societal applications. Before joining the DDP, Lassiter served as a founding member of the Innovation Lab at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) working to spur public-private collaboration through the execution of tech sprints, and prior to that was a senior leader in the Innovation and Technology Offices at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

“With nearly two decades of experience in technology, financial services, and regulation, Jennifer brings to the Digital Dollar Project her extensive professional network, experience as a respected advisor, and stellar reputation as an action-oriented thought leader,” said Digital Dollar Project Co-founder J. Christopher Giancarlo, former Chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. “As an advocate for innovation, her insights and expertise will be invaluable as we work together to analyze how CBDC can transition the dollar to be a more effective, inclusive, and smarter currency in an increasingly digital global economy.”

DDP Board Director David Treat, a senior managing director at Accenture, who leads its Blockchain and Multi-Party Systems practice globally said, “Jennifer brings a wealth of technical, regulatory and business expertise to further strengthen DDP’s leadership team. I welcome her to our leadership team, where her contributions will play a key role as the DDP investigates how the adoption of a U.S. CBDC can build a more diverse and efficient financial ecosystem that boosts financial inclusion, helps small businesses get paid faster, and can clear large transactions in global financial markets more efficiently and with less risk.”

“Jennifer is a dynamic, creative, and thoughtful fintech and policy leader who always places the most important stakeholder first – and that is the American public,” said Digital Dollar Project Co-founder, Daniel Gorfine, former Chief Innovation Officer of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. “Her reputation and skill-set position her to bring key stakeholders together in order to catalyze real-world testing and analysis of a future digital dollar.”

“I am very grateful to the DDP Board of Directors for their confidence in me,” said Lassiter. “I look forward to collaborating with the entire DDP stakeholder community on the potential advantages of a U.S. CBDC. Research and pilots are key to understanding how a digital dollar will help make our financial systems more inclusive while also opening the door to public and private sector innovations.”

Prior to her work at the FDIC, as a director of regulatory technology efforts at the CFPB Lassiter stood up the first U.S. financial regulator Tech Sprint Program employing public-private partnerships to understand the application of emerging technologies, identify areas of regulatory uncertainty, and solve complex problems. Earlier at the CFPB, as Senior Advisor to the Chief Data Officer, she elevated the use of data governance, policy, and analytics to the executive level. She also built and scaled an award-winning design-centric technology team that changed how technology and data shaped the face of regulation including collaboration with the United States Digital Service to create the first iteration of the U.S. Web Design System and participation in the drafting of the first Federal Source Code policy.

Moving forward, the DDP will publicly announce pilots that have been developed with our pilot partners and for which Accenture is providing the first phase of funding. The pilots will run several months and share the findings and insights with the public in order to inform the future implementation of a digital dollar.

Furthermore, the Digital Dollar Project recently published a Privacy Principles document intended to express first principles that the Digital Dollar Project believes are important to the success and adoption of a U.S. CBDC. In the spirit of the Project’s mission, we look forward to robust debate and discussion around this critical issue for the development of a digital dollar.

The DDP is open to participants from all relevant sectors, including commercial institutions, the innovation community, non-profit organizations, and universities that want to lead or participate in pilots. To express interest, please email Join@Digitaldollarproject.org.

About the Digital Dollar Project

A non-profit organization, the Digital Dollar Project was created to encourage research and public discussion on the potential advantages and challenges of a CBDC — or a “digital dollar.” The Project will identify options for a CBDC solution to help enhance monetary policy effectiveness and financial stability; provide needed scalability, security and privacy in retail, wholesale and international payments; and integrate with existing financial infrastructures, including U.S. Federal Reserve-related projects. Read the Digital Dollar Project white paper “Exploring a Digital Dollar.” Visit https://digitaldollarproject.org.

About Accenture

Accenture is a global professional services company with leading capabilities in digital, cloud and security. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries, we offer Strategy and Consulting, Interactive, Technology and Operations services—all powered by the world’s largest network of Advanced Technology and Intelligent Operations centers. Our 624,000 people deliver on the promise of technology and human ingenuity every day, serving clients in more than 120 countries. We embrace the power of change to create value and shared success for our clients, people, shareholders, partners and communities. Visit us at www.accenture.com.