Yorke E Rhodes III

Yorke is Director of Digital Transformation, Blockchain at Microsoft in the Cloud Hardware Supply Chain group. He focuses on supply chain strategy and transformation using blockchain as a pillar of change. He rejoined Microsoft in 2014 after watching Satya Nadella and envisioning the coming pivot. In 2015 he began his blockchain journey and Co-founded Blockchain at Microsoft. His startup DNA keeps him close to the open source blockchain community, leveraging many open source and commercial blockchain partners in his work. Blockchain is not the only innovation wave that Yorke has ridden. Early in his career he shunned mainframes for the PC, shunned dBase for more advanced databases and moved into client server databases as they emerged. On his first Microsoft tour he advanced client server email with Microsoft Exchange. His next wave led him through a journey of wireless internet startups and roles leading wireless at Goldman Sachs and IBM. He hopped on the digital marketing wave early, helping start the Zeta Interactive journey and spent several years in ecommerce mobile and web work before rejoining Microsoft. In addition to teaching at NYU, Yorke holds a BS in Computer Science from NYU's Courant Institute of Mathematics.