LinkedIn
John, is one of the few smartest humble people I know. He'll give you the time to understand all your ideas, then provide you with constructive, practical, yet honest feedback that's so useful you'll wish you had paid for it. Thanks, John.
Independent specialist · Wavect Expert Network
John Wolpert
30+ years of enterprise product leadership. Flywheel founder, ex-IBM Watson and Hyperledger, Baseline Protocol co-founder, Wiley author. Brought in when a Wavect build needs CPO-grade product judgment on open standards, AI agents, or multi-party software.
Why we vouch for them
- Chief Product Officer, Valuable, Inc. (since Jul 2024). Built the family-valuables app from a personal prototype to a funded company picked up by a CEO friend
- Founder & CPO, TacitPath (since Dec 2022). Multi-party R&D, alliance and partner coordination under information-security, regulatory, and confidentiality constraints
- Author, The Two But Rule: Turn Negative Thinking Into Positive Solutions (Wiley, 2024). Momentum Thinking applied to team problem solving and innovation
- Group Executive, Enterprise Mainnet Products & Technology, ConsenSys / Emerging Tech Commercialization Lab (2017–2022). Co-founded the open standards body Baseline Protocol, defining ZK synchronization for SAP and Microsoft Dynamics 365 systems of record
- Global Product Executive, IBM (2013–2017). Led the IBM Watson Ecosystem; co-founded the Hyperledger Fabric business unit and Hyperledger.org. Moved enterprise blockchain from obscurity to the #1 global offering in 18 months
- Founder & CEO, Flywheel (2008–2011). Pioneered the ride-hailing taxi-meets-app model; consolidated 90% of San Francisco taxis before acquisition
- Program Director, IBM Extreme Blue Lab (1997–2004). One of IBM's most prolific patent labs. Previously ran IBM alphaWorks, one of the first open-innovation sites
- Executive Director, IXC Australia (2004–2007). Founded the corporate, university and government life-science research consortium representing IBM, Johnson & Johnson Research and others
- USPTO Patent Inventor. US 20190034402, Cognitive Mediator for Generating Blockchain Smart Contracts (2019)
- Speaker before the European Union and the Australian Parliament. Harvard Business Review contributor on Open Innovation
- Education: MBA, Georgetown McDonough School of Business · BA Humanities (with Honours), UC Berkeley · prior coursework at Carnegie Mellon
In their own line of work
John started in advertising in Berkeley in 1989, then moved into enterprise software at Kaplan, helping build Delta-K and Kaplan’s computer-based testing and learning system. From there he ran IBM’s alphaWorks team, one of the very first sites to put research code directly in the hands of developers, then took over the Austin Extreme Blue Lab, IBM’s incubator for talent, technology and business innovation. Extreme Blue became one of the most prolific patent producers in the company and trained hundreds of IBM’s best engineers under John’s program.
In 2004 he moved to Sydney to found IXC Australia, a corporate, university and government life-science research consortium that pioneered the use of trusted intermediaries to let firms collaborate without leaking sensitive information. Four years later he spun Flywheel out of a Best Buy innovation programme. Flywheel was the original taxi-meets-app product, raised significant angel and venture capital, pivoted twice to find a repeatable business model, and consolidated 90% of San Francisco taxis before being acquired.
John returned to IBM as a Global Product Executive in 2013, running the IBM Watson Ecosystem and assembling a community of AI startups across B2B, B2C, supply chain, healthcare and education. He co-founded IBM’s Hyperledger Fabric business unit, which became a new IBM division in 2016, and co-founded Hyperledger.org, one of the fastest growing open source communities in the history of the Linux Foundation. From 2017 to 2022 he ran enterprise mainnet products and technology at ConsenSys, where he co-founded the Baseline Protocol open standards body. Baseline defined a method for synchronising SAP and Microsoft Dynamics 365 systems of record using zero knowledge proofs.
Since 2022 John has run TacitPath, his consulting practice for multi-party R&D, alliance coordination, and confidential collaboration. In July 2024 he became Chief Product Officer at Valuable, Inc., a family-valuables management app he prototyped himself before a CEO friend picked it up and funded it. In January 2024 Wiley published his first book, The Two But Rule: Turn Negative Thinking Into Positive Solutions, and he now keynotes, moderates and runs workshops through Teamraderie on applying Momentum Thinking to team problem solving. When Wavect brings John in, this is what we are renting: a senior product head who has shipped at IBM, founded at Flywheel, co-founded Hyperledger and Baseline, and writes for a living.
Where John Wolpert plugs into a Wavect engagement
Wavect builds the product. When a build crosses into a domain that exceeds our own bench, we bring in the specialist who already lives there. This is the brief for this one.
CPO-grade product judgment for AI agents and enterprise software
From the IBM Watson Ecosystem to Valuable, John has been responsible for product roadmaps where the word 'AI' on a deck has to become a shippable spec. When a Wavect build needs a senior product head to sense-check what is real in six weeks versus what is a six-quarter research bet, this is the seat he has held at IBM, ConsenSys, and now Valuable.
Open standards and interoperability across legally separate entities
Hyperledger Fabric, Hyperledger.org, the Baseline Protocol, IXC Australia. John has built the legal and technical scaffolding that lets companies share what they need to share and protect what they need to protect. When a Wavect build runs across two or more organisations and the data boundary is the hard part of the spec, John has done this five times.
Translating research into shippable enterprise product
Extreme Blue and alphaWorks were IBM's bridge from research to product. The Baseline Protocol turned a ZK research paper into something SAP and Microsoft Dynamics 365 can speak. When the engineering team can read the literature but cannot tell the founder whether it ships or it is a paper, John reads both sides and gives a real answer.
Author-grade storytelling for the exec room
Wiley book, HBR contributor, EU and Australian Parliament keynote speaker. When a Wavect build needs a narrative the board, the regulator, or the customer's CEO can actually retain, John writes for a living. The Two But Rule (Momentum Thinking) is the framework he applies inside founder workshops to break avoidance patterns and ship through inertia.
Peer-reviewed work
Indexed academic publications. Full list on Google Scholar.
- 2019Patent · USPTO
Cognitive Mediator for Generating Blockchain Smart Contracts
Read paper - 2024Book
The Two But Rule: Turn Negative Thinking Into Positive Solutions
Read paper - 2003 onwardEditorial
Selected work on Open Innovation
Read paper
On stage, in their own words
Public keynotes, workshops, and webinars delivered independently. Conference links and recordings where available.
- Feb 2024Podcast and video interview
The Chris Voss Show. On overcoming negativity
- Feb 2024Podcast and video interview
Joseph Jaffe Is Not Famous. Overcoming negativity
In the press, on the mic
Third-party podcasts, broadcasts, and print features. Selected and edited by the outlet, not Wavect.
What others say about working with them
These quotes were left on third-party platforms or shared during reference calls. Wavect did not solicit, edit, or pay for any of them.
LinkedIn
I have had the great pleasure to work with John side by side at the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, at OASIS on the Baseline Protocol which he originated, and within ConsenSys on the next right use case for Enterprises. John has not only a wealth of experience and knowledge about technology in general and Blockchain in particular, but he gets Blockchain both from a technology and business but most importantly from a mindset point of view. Hence his amazing and steadfast support for public Blockchains, not only for individuals but also enterprises, no matter what mostly spurious arguments are thrown at him. In addition, he is an amazing storyteller who can wrap you and transport you to the right place, and make you feel what he intends to convey. He is also a wonderfully warm-hearted and empathetic individual, whom I have always looked up to and consulted with for guidance. I am looking forward to our continued collaboration across the Blockchain ecosystem to drive Blockchain mass adoption.
LinkedIn
Search on John Wolpert and you will discover his successful projects featured in the Harvard Business Review. He also has written numerous articles for the HBR, all while creating and leading various business ventures throughout his twenty year career. John is an expansive dreamer, innovator, collaborator, in software technology and of the potential of humans as individuals and teams. He is driven to make these dreams reality and openly shares his dreams within the community to prove and adjust his theories as he receives responses. He has demonstrated his ability to think about product advancements several releases at a time across multiple business dimensions. He has successfully used this strategic agility in large corporations as well as early-stage startups. When faced with technical challenges or business constraints, John has known intuitively when to call on his broad network of resources to overcome the challenges. John cares deeply about serving customers through innovation and technology, rewarding his employees fairly, and leading from the front to achieve his objective.
LinkedIn
John is unique in his point of view on Innovation, which is grounded in real-world operator roles ranging from Innovation Leader at IBM to SV start-up company CEO. This experience, coupled with his adaptability and courage, position him perfectly to tackle what's possible.
LinkedIn
John is one of the most innovative and substantial entrepreneurs I've had the pleasure of knowing and working with over the years. John has developed and led highly successful and meaningful initiatives, businesses and ventures at organizations large and small, public and private, inside the Valley and out. He is a very talented natural leader who really cares about the people and projects he works with. As a result, he has a deeply loyal following around the globe, which includes me. He is someone you want on your team, leading your team, building your team, advising your team. If he's free to hook up with your effort, do not walk to him, run like hell and hope you get him before someone else does.
LinkedIn
John invented a superb highly innovative business model to enable companies to talk to each other without disclosing their inventions and their intentions directly to each other, through a set of trusted intermediaries. This was a brilliant idea and John executed this pioneering scheme extremely well as the Executive Director of IXC Intermediate Services under the auspices of the Australian Industry Group. I was the CEO of a biotech startup in Melbourne, Australia (Acrux) and we were, I believe, the first company to sign on John's company's services. He personally acted for some time as our trusted intermediary, so I had the benefit of getting to know him both at the strategic level as well as on hands-on execution. He was really good fun to work with, and everyone at Acrux liked him a lot. John provided much stimulation for our internal activities as well as for reaching out to other companies. In a very short time, he actually got so familiar with our technology that he made an invention for Acrux. It was part of the deal that the invention was assigned to us. There were many other intangible benefits from him and his company, and I bet other Australian companies would have a lot of good things to say about John.
LinkedIn
I worked with John on a software project that was technically large, and conceptually vast in scale. It needed John's maturity, experience and intellect to steer an international team towards a fully formed execution. He works his processes like a carpenter works wood, and it's a true pleasure to collaborate with.
LinkedIn
John was a valuable member of our team, not only because he was exceptional at his core responsibilities, but also because he was a catalyst. He would consistently encourage discussion and excite the group to maintain momentum. John is both sensitive to possible team issues and non-toxic in his methods to resolve them. Above all else, John provides the unique blend of technical and business savvy necessary to identify solutions in a rapidly evolving landscape.
LinkedIn
John combines creative thinking, knowledge of technical processes and needs, and superior communications skills, among other talents. He is a great collaborative and brainstorming partner, and I expect he will continue to do breakthrough thinking and implementing.
LinkedIn
John Wolpert is an extremely conscientious, creative and enthusiastic person. He delivers.
LinkedIn
John's energetic and committed efforts toward making open innovation a reality amaze everyone. I recommend him most highly. His pioneering work will definitely pay off for all concerned.
Recent posts
Get to know how John thinks. Recent posts, in their own words.
LinkedIn
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