Microsoft Director Traceability & Cofounder Blockchain & NYU Prof & Cofounder of the NYU  Ethical Tech Lab.

A visionary technologist and strategic leader at the intersection of blockchain innovation, artificial intelligence, and ethical systems design. As Director of Traceability, he drives transformative initiatives that enhance traceability, transparency, and trust across global ecosystems. Yorke’s work spans enterprise architecture, compliance frameworks, and humanitarian tech, with a focus on applying emerging technologies to real-world challenges—from forced labor mitigation to responsible AI deployment. He is also an educator and speaker, shaping the next generation of ethical technologists through hands-on learning and thought leadership.

His career spans multiple innovation waves from humble beginnings at NYU where he was at the forefront of the PC revolution and oversaw the first Computer Science PC Lab. He went on to spend the next years going deep in client server databases and networking before joining Microsoft to help transition the world into client server email. In early 2000 he realized and pursued his next innovation wave beginning an eight year journey in wireless internet technologies, years prior to the launch of the iPhone. Post iPhone launch, he recognized the burgeoning mobile application ecosystem and emergence of digital marketing and mobile commerce.

At the beginning of 2014, all of this work required cloud for global scale based on consumer demand so he sought a role at a cloud company, returning to Microsoft. His work at Microsoft began with helping startups become cloud native companies when he discovered the meaning of blockchain networks and potential applications for humanitarian applications. He helped co-fund ID2020, an NGO focused at the intersection of emerging technologies and refugee identity and credentials, while shifting his focus into the credibly neutral technology of blockchain. On this journey he co-founded Blockchain at Microsoft, drove multiple areas of related work, did the launch of the World Bank Blockchain Bond, and began the award winning Microsoft Cloud blockchain work in the cloud hardware supply chain. It is this work that led him to join the hardware supply team, build and drive his team to production with major chip manufacturers and begin and lead the Traceability work focused on forced labor compliance.

Today, ten years after starting the blockchain work, the finance industry sits at the dawn of its chatGPT moment with blockchain regulatory clarity and a worldwide race to adoption of this technology. Professor Rhodes embraces innovations as they arrive, helps communicate the possibilities and drives evidence based studies and guides the ethical and for-good uses of these emergent technologies. The next wave of his journey embraces AI agents and the intersection with blockchain, compliance, safety, and payments rails.