Ijeoma Okoli is a finance and regulatory lawyer with extensive experience advising financial services firms and corporate clients globally on capital raisings and general finance and regulatory matters.
Ijeoma is a co-founder of The Digital Economy Initiative, an independent think-tank focused on US and UK digital assets policy, a strategic advisory consultant to startups and investors in the digital assets and artificial intelligence sectors, and a Board member of the London Museum. She previously was Digital Currency Risk Management Lead and an Executive Director at JPMorgan where she co-designed the financial services group’s first-ever global digital currency risk management and governance framework. She also sat on a select committee which reviewed new digital assets related business proposals for the financial services group. She also previously advised JPMorgan’s Europe, Middle East and Africa Chief Investment Office, Corporate Treasury, Investment Bank and Asset Management divisions on various matters including investments, capital raisings, restructuring funding lines and regulatory and compliance matters, and was a Board member of Aldermanbury Investments Limited, a JPMorgan subsidiary. She has also advised on the issuance of billions of dollars’ worth of equity, debt and hybrid instruments in private transactions and public offerings listed on US and European stock exchanges.
Ijeoma was a subject matter expert invited by the UK Financial Conduct Authority to its first ever Crypto Sprint to propose approaches to digital assets regulation, and she has provided input to UK and US authorities on digital assets legal and regulatory proposals. Ijeoma was named Investment Woman of the Year at the 2020 Woman in Investment Awards, won the Outstanding Contribution of the Year Award at the 2021 Women in Finance Awards and was appointed to the President’s Council of Cornell Women in 2024. She is an Adjunct Professor at St. John’s University School of Law.
Ijeoma holds a B.A. and M.P.A. from New York University and a J.D. from Cornell University. As an M-RCBG Senior Fellow, Ijeoma will explore the potential for crypto to advance US foreign economic policy. Her faculty sponsor is Howell E. Jackson, James S. Reid, Jr., Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.