Alex Tapscott '08
Alex is also the founder and CEO of Northwest Passage Ventures, an advisory firm in the blockchain industry. Alex currently sits on Advisory Board to Elections Canada, the independent, non-partisan agency responsible for conducting federal elections and referendums, is a Member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Futures Council on Blockchain and is a co-founder of CAMH Engage at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Canada’s premier mental health hospital and research facility. Alex is a graduate of Amherst College (cum laude, ‘08) and is a CFA Charterholder. He lives in Toronto with his wife Amy Welsman.
Current Home:
Toronto
Place of Birth:
Toronto
Education:
BA (Cum Laude), LJST, Amherst College
CFA Charterholder
Why did you choose to come to Amherst?
For a Canadian kid, Amherst College is not exactly an obvious choice. In fact until my senior year, I had never even heard of it and neither had any of my teachers (except for one, but he thought it was a vocational college in Amherst, NY near Buffalo).
Most of my fellow classmates chose to attend one of the top Canadian universities (McGill, Queens, etc) but I wanted to do something different. As luck would have it, there was one person at my high school, a wise guidance counselor, who knew about a few small liberal arts colleges in the Northeast and encouraged me to apply to Amherst, his favorite. Looking for an edge (and thinking it was a long shot) I sent the Amherst football team a highlight reel. They took an interest, and invited me down to visit the campus, where I instantly fell in love with the place. I was accepted and the rest is history!
Most memorable or most influential class at Amherst:
Most memorable would be LJST-56, Representing and Judging the Holocaust, taught by Lawrence Douglas.
Most influential would be LJST-4, Law and Political Emergency, taught by the late Nasser Hussain, who was also my thesis advisor.
Most memorable or most influential professor:
I had some extraordinary professors, but Lawrence Douglas and Nasser Hussain in the LJST department have to top the list. Their preferred method of teaching was to engage students in challenging and stimulating discussions and debates. To this day, they are some of my most cherished memories from my time at the College.
Research Interests:
The impact of emerging technology on business, government and society; financial technology (fintech); history; governance of decentralized resources like the Internet and blockchain.
Awards and Prizes:
#1 Globe and Mail non-fiction book; #1 Toronto Star non-fiction book; Member of Global Futures Council on Blockchain, World Economic Forum; Richtopia -100 most influential people in fintech (#8)
Favorite Book:
Tough question! I have probably read The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe five times. I’m sure other books have had a bigger impact on my own writing style and my research interests, but none compare to the pure adrenaline and pleasure of one of the great true adventure stories of our time.
Favorite Author:
My favorite genres are biography and history. Two authors, Niall Ferguson and Ron Chernow, stand out.
Tips for aspiring writers?
Many authors will tell you about the importance of writing a lot, honing your craft, staying focused and seeing projects through to the end. To be sure these are all important, but I think what matters most when you’re writing a book is that your partner and your family support you 100%. I made the fairly insane decision to cut short a successful career in investment banking at the ripe old age of 29 to write a book. I did so at the urging of my wife, Amy, who supported me and encouraged me all along the way.
Tell us a bit about your path to becoming an author:
My path to becoming an author was unconventional and circuitous, to say the least. While I had always enjoyed writing and did so for pleasure often- blogging, writing articles and speeches- it was never a career for me. Then something unexpected happened.
The book, Blockchain Revolution, came from the meeting of two minds and two life trajectories. My co-author and father, Don Tapscott, was running a research project at the University of Toronto investigating new networked models of global problem solving, while I was working 80 hours a week in investment banking. With my deep background in financial services, I was recruited to joined the program to lead a research project on the governance of digital currencies, culminating in a white paper titled A Bitcoin Governance Network. The more we dug into these issues, the more we concluded that this could be the next big thing. From there, we launched a succession of other projects looking at how this technology might revolutionize financial services, government and democracy, media, and the corporation to name a few.
As luck would have it, Don’s publisher of some of his previous books, Penguin Randomhouse, caught wind of the work we were doing, offered us a book deal and told us to get going!
Taking the leap to write this book felt like jumping off a cliff and building the airplane on the way down. I wasn’t sure I could make it. Fortunately I had a seasoned co-pilot and co-author. Above all else, it was our great collaboration that made Blockchain Revolution possible.
Blockchain Revolution explains the rise of the second generation of the internet, an internet of value, that promises to rewire the economic power grid, transform the old order of human affairs for the better, and create prosperity in the world.
We think we’ve written a good book but there’s also no denying we’ve hit the zeitgeist here. People everywhere, in business, government, civil society and academia, are trying to understand what this profound new technology means for them. We make the case that this technology can be a force for good, if we will it.