Biography

David is EY Americas Assurance Blockchain Strategy Leader. 

He is a partner in Ernst & Young LLP’s Financial Services Organization (FSO) audit practice in San Francisco, where he began by serving asset management clients such as hedge funds, private equity and venture capital firms. Over the last seven years, David has focused on audit and compliance procedures as they relate to funds, exchanges, custodians, miners/validators, issuers and other ecosystem participants in the digital asset industry. 

David now leads the Digital Asset Research Center, an EY team dedicated to supporting Assurance, Tax and Consulting engagements. As resources with specialized knowledge, this team leverages a technical understanding of fungible and non-fungible tokens, as well as the underlying distributed ledger technologies to service the blockchain and digital asset ecosystem. 

David works with clients holding and transacting in digital assets to carry out financial statement audits, internal audits, audit readiness, AUPs, transactions, SOC reporting, forensic and related services. 

David regularly works with regulators in jurisdictions across the globe and key industry groups to share knowledge and develop leading practices concerning accounting treatment, auditing strategies and valuation of digital assets. 

David researches issues and changes impacting digital asset protocols and their potential effects to clients’ businesses and works with relevant EY teams to understand potential regulatory impacts. 

Before working in industry, he received his PhD from the University of California, Davis, in Philosophy with a focus in Cognitive Science, teaching courses such as Minds, Brains and Computers. David also taught for Santa Clara University and the University of San Francisco, where he received his bachelor’s in Accounting.  

David is a certified public accountant licensed in the state of California.