Garrick Hileman

Garrick is best known as an expert on Bitcoin and other currencies. Garrick makes regular appearances in the media including CNBC, BBC, NPR, and Sky News, and he is frequently sought as a speaker. He has written about Bitcoin for Project Syndicate and CoinDesk.

Garrick's other research interests include systemic risk, sovereign debt, financial crises, black markets, financial repression, taxation, regulation, banking, innovation and entrepreneurship. He has been invited to present his research to government agencies, private institutions, and conferences in Asia, the U.S., Europe and Africa. Over the past two years Garrick's teaching at the London School of Economics has focussed on comparative national economic performance.

Garrick is the founder of MacroDigest, which employs a proprietary algorithm and a team of human editors to cluster trending economic news, analysis, and debate. MacroDigest is supported by the Centre for Macroeconomics and has received praise from influential economics bloggers such as Brad DeLong, Tyler Cowen, and others.

Prior to returning to academia Garrick worked for 15+ years in the private sector with both start-ups and established companies such as Bank of America, The Home Depot, IDG, and Allianz. He previously co-founded and led the investment team for a $300 million San Francisco-based tech incubator. He also worked at Montgomery Securities in both equity research and corporate finance, where he executed over $1 billion in M&A and underwriting transactions.

Garrick has served on the boards of directors of both publicly traded and private companies. He has worked or consulted in a wide range of industries, including banking, technology, online media, specialty finance, insurance, business services, retail, non-profit, education, and government.

Garrick’s non-profit activities include serving as a Big City Mountaineers guide for at-risk urban teens on backcountry excursions in the Sierra Nevada. He also was a founding member of the record-setting PolarVision expedition, which raised funds and awareness for sight-related charities.