Un-chained: Experiments and Learnings in Crypto at UNICEF

Christopher Fabian (@hichrisfabian) is a technologist who co-founded UNICEF's Innovation Unit in 2006. He currently leads UNICEF Ventures. Together with Sunita Grote, Chris led the launch of the $17M UNICEF Venture Fund in 2015, creating the first fund of its kind in the United Nations. The Fund uses a venture capital approach to invest in startups working on frontier technology like virtual reality, machine learning, and blockchain technology that can have a positive impact on humanity.The Ventures team also makes larger secondary investments in platforms like UNICEF's drone testing corridors in Malawi and Vanuatua, as well as the Magic Box, an open source analytics platform that combines data and engineering skills from companies like Amadeus, IBM, Google, Redhat, and Telefonica to produce insights that help the organization make better real-time decisions. Previously, Chris's teams have built solutions for problems facing low infrastructure environments including award-winning work on RapidPro, an SMS-based information system with more than 4.5M active users in 50 countries.Chris teaches at NYU, Tsinghua University, IIT Delhi, and Singularity University and is an invited speaker at major technology companies, national government, and United Nations senior leadership fora exploring how to create fairness in a world of rapid technological change. He holds fellowships from the Tribeca Disruptor Foundation and Edmund Hillary Fellowship, both focusing on investments in a more equitable global future. In 2013 he was recognized as one of TIME Magazine's “100 Most Influential People.”