Outstanding Social Entrepreneurship Award
Cleve Mesidor is Executive Director of Blockchain Foundation, a 501c3 nonprofit leading an industry-wide education campaign. Cleve is also a Forbes Contributor and a Mayoral appointee to the DC Innovation and Technology Inclusion Council. Previously, she was a Public Policy Advisor to Blockchain Association.
A web3 expert working in crypto for over six year, she has been profiled on CNBC, ABC, NPR, PBS, NY Times, Washington Post, Politico, TIME. She was featured in the PBS Documentary, “CRYPTO DECODED”, as well as, the Coinbase documentary, “COIN: A Founder’s Story.” Cleve is a respected industry leader and regularly headlines national tech conferences, including Money20/20, SXSW, CES, and others. On the global stage, she has spoken at Web3 and DeFi forums in Abu Dhabi, Toronto, Amsterdam, Bahamas, Haiti.
A Washington insider, she served in the Obama Administration and as a senior staffer in Congress. As an Obama Presidential Appointee, she was Director of Public Affairs for the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration, where she advanced White House economic programs and national public-private partnerships to foster innovation and entrepreneurship. Her acumen in policy stems from her tenure on Capitol Hill as Communications Director for U.S. Representatives Betty McCollum and Barbara Lee, coordinating with Congressional leadership to launch major legislative initiatives.
Cleve is author of “THE CLEVOLUTION: My Quest for Justice in Politics & Crypto.” Additionally, she has published articles in the Boston Globe, CoinDesk, Forbes, and other media outlets. She earned a Master of Arts degree from Howard University and started her career in broadcasting at CNN’s Washington Bureau.