Oliver Linch will join ASI Senior Fellows to promote the UK’s thinking in Fintech, AI and Emerging Technologies

The Adam Smith Institute, one of the world’s leading domestic policy think tanks, has launched a new Policy Unit to build on its leading work on the technologies of the future. 

Former financial regulatory lawyer and Bittrex Global CEO Oliver Linch will be leading the ASI’s new policy division as a Senior Consultant. He brings a wealth of experience and expertise, having advised major investment banks, exchanges and leading institutions on regulatory matters across the UK, EMEA and North America. 

He is a strong advocate of exploring the overlap between traditional finance and fintech — especially digital assets — and the way that they can work together to bring the lessons of substantive and comprehensive regulation into these exciting new sectors.

Oliver will be working alongside existing ASI Senior Fellows, digital policy and strategy  consultant Dominique Lanzaksi, senior technology lawyer Preston J. Byrne, and US hedge fund co-founder Vuk Vukovic.

The ASI’s previous work in the fintech, artificial intelligence and emerging technologies policy space has included making the case for gene editing; an optimistic outlook on the future of AI and employment; a system of property rights on the moon, and the UK’s regulation of cryptocurrency.

James Lawson, Chairman of the Adam Smith Institute, said: 

“The Adam Smith Institute has long been at the forefront of research into future markets and new technologies, including in health, transport, finance, and the very way we work - and how it can make our everyday lives better. 

This new policy unit, with its combined decades of experience, will build on our existing body of research, promoting a positive and evidence-led approach in order to help the UK’s finance industry, public services, and private sector become more innovative, dynamic and effective. 

I’m delighted to welcome Oliver Linch to the team as our Senior Consultant, whose phenomenal expertise will be of great value as he leads this important work.”

Commenting on his appointment, Oliver Linch, Senior Consultant to the Adam Smith Institute, added: 

“Having long been called upon by colleagues, peers, and the media regarding matters of legal and regulatory policy across the fintech and emerging technologies space, I am delighted to be putting my expertise into practice at the ASI. Together, we aim to transform the way that the UK government thinks about some of the most innovative technologies currently at our disposal — everything from crypto to artificial intelligence. The UK currently stands at the forefront of the emerging technology landscape and, in this role, I hope to shape what the legislation around these innovations looks like.”

 -ENDS- 

For further comment on this release, or for expert comment from members of our Future Markets Policy Unit, please contact emily@adamsmith.org | 0758 477 8207.

Oliver Linch began his legal career with a leading global law firm, after which he became Chief Executive Officer and General Counsel of Bittrex Global, the global cryptocurrency exchange. He has over a decade of experience as a financial regulatory lawyer, having advised major investment banks, exchanges, and leading institutions on regulatory matters across the UK, EMEA, and North America. As part of one of the world’s top-ranking law firms, he specialised in various areas of financial regulatory advisory work, such as financial market infrastructure, payment services, and special economic zone and legislative drafting.

Dominique Lazanski is a digital policy and strategy freelance consultant, and has spent many years working in the Internet industry with many of those years working in Silicon Valley. She holds degrees from Cornell University and the London School of Economics and PHD from the University of Bath. She is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pittsburgh. 

Preston J Byrne is a dual-qualified US and English Lawyer, partner with the digital commerce group in the Washington D.C. office of an international law firm and an adjunct professor of law at Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University. Preston writes on a range of subjects including housing and planning law, the security state, freedom of expression and cryptocurrency. He was the lead author of ‘Burning Down the House,’ the ASI’s policy paper opposing the Help to Buy mortgage subsidy programme, and is the author of ‘Sense and Sensitivity: Restoring Free Speech in the United Kingdom,’ a proposal for the repeal of numerous censorial law in the United Kingdom.

Vuk Vukovic is the Chief Investment Officer and co-founder of Oraclum Capital, a U.S. hedge fund. He was previously a lecturer at the Department of Economics, Zagreb School of Economics and Management. He holds a PHD in Political Economy from the University of Oxford, a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a BA in economics from the University of Zagreb, from which he graduated Magna Cum Laude. He authored the ASI report ‘Unburdening Enterprise: Reducing Regulation for Small and Medium Businesses.’