Monique Jeanne Morrow

Being recognized as Forbes top 50 Women globally in Tech, Monique’s greatest success has been in infusing a big-picture perspective that helps engineers and business leaders understand how existing and future technologies align with the needs of business, government, non-profits, and society-focused organizations.

As a technologist working at a global telecommunications firm, it was very clear for me early on that digital currency, the internet of value and blockchain would be game changing for our society. The 2008 financial crisis challenged our trust in traditional financial institutions therein positing the question of what could be an alternative overall. There was no doubt that programmable value was intriguing. Further, the notion of distributed and transparent ledger interactions would challenge the “business as usual” modus operandi. So, yes, I had been following the development of digital currency and blockchain from its inception.

The Swiss Blockchain community has always been vibrant and entering it in full swing was most insightful for me. The cross – industry discussions of what could be possible with blockchain only fueled my interest further. I wanted to understand what I did not really know. It was during this time that a UNIC alum, Tey El-Rjula pointed me to the MSc Digital Currencies and Blockchain Technologies program which had offered a cost-free MOOC, “Introduction to Digital Currencies. “ After that first course, I formally matriculated into the MSc program, I was hooked!

During my journey, I was impressed with the level of diversity in participants from all over the world, whether CEOs, physicians, lawyers, people across our society, we were all equals in our path towards achieving this coveted degree. The professors, instructors and staff were not only helpful but also challenged us to think and act prescriptively beyond the artificial boundaries we had set for ourselves. Some of these class projects certainly had business potential and still do – in fact I have been working with my fellow graduates in assessing new opportunities which are very applicable in thinking beyond a COVID-19 world. How cool is that!

The MSc in Digital Currency and Blockchain Technologies has been pivotal for me stepping in my new role as Senior Distinguished Architect, Emerging Technologies at Syniverse where blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies are one of the company’s big bets.

Looking forward, I do believe that asset tokenization will be mainstream and that identity and blockchain will be very pivotal especially Self Sovereign Identity of SSI.

So, living in a blockchain world is beyond hype – it is a reality!