Caroline Malcolm is one of the world’s most influential voices on blockchain and digital assets, and their impact on international public policy. As a senior leader working at the intersection of technology and financial systems, Ms Malcolm has spent the past decade at the forefront of global policy-making on tech, finance and tax issues. She was the founding Head of the OECD’s Global Blockchain Policy Centre, which became the hub for the OECD’s work relating to distributed ledger technologies and a trusted reference point for policymakers across the globe working to understand this new frontier. In her new role at Head of International Public Policy and Research at blockchain data platform Chainalysis, Ms Malcolm continues to shape the way governments and industry engage with this emerging technology, leveraging data analytics to educate regulators on the future of the sector.
Ms Malcolm started her career as a lawyer specialising in international tax, completing a Bachelor of Law and a Bachelor of Arts at UTS, followed by a Masters of International Tax Law at the University of Sydney. She spent the first years of her career working in tax law in Australia, before moving to Paris in 2010 and into the world of international tax policy at the OECD. She has now been working for over a decade at the global level with governments, international organisations, and more recently in industry, to identify and implement policy responses with a tangible impact.
Ms Malcolm has always brought a lens of innovation and entrepreneurship to her work in public policy. In 2012, she was the founding lead of the OECD’s Tax Inspectors Without Borders initiative, to enhance tax audit quality in developing countries. TIWB has grown from an initial five pilots to today more than 80 active or completed programmes in almost 50 jurisdictions, supported through a partnership she fostered with the UN Development Programme, and a consortium of development agency and private foundation donors.
Ms Malcolm’s leadership in shaping international policy settings surrounding digital assets has been recognised on the global stage. In 2020, Ms Malcolm was named one of the Young Global Leaders by the World Economic Forum, and this year she became the inaugural Co-Chair of the Digital Asset Task Force of the Global Coalition to Fight Financial Crime. Despite her significant industry commitments, she has also invested heavily in the development of the next generation of policy leaders. She is a guest lecturer at Paris-Est Créteil and Paris-Dauphine universities as part of a number of leading tax and finance courses, and is a passionate mentor for young women entering the profession.
