TEAM

MIKE LEVITT

Co-Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Mike Levitt is the co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Core Scientific, Inc. He also serves as the CEO of Kayne Anderson Capital, an alternative investment management firm. Mike has been an active investor in the Technology, Media, and Telecom (TMT) industries for almost three decades.

From 2016 – 2012, Mike served as a vice chairman and partner with Apollo Global Management, LP (Apollo). Prior to that, Mike was the founder, chairman and CEO of Stone Tower Capital LLC (Stone Tower), a $17 billion alterative investment firm that he sold to Apollo in 2012. Before founding Stone Tower, Mike was a partner with the private equity firm Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst Incorporated, where he invested in TMT and consumer businesses.

Earlier in his career, Mike served as the co-head of investment banking division of Smith Barney Inc. Mike began his career at Morgan Stanley & Co.

Mike has a B.B.A. and J. D. from the University of Michigan, and serves on the University’s Investment Advisory Board. He is also a member of the Visiting Committee of the Ross School of Business and Trustee of the Law School’s Cook Trust. Over the years, Mike has worked with numerous philanthropic organizations, including the Make-A-Wish Foundations of America and New York, and the New York Police and Fire Widows’ and Children’s Benefit Fund.

MICHAEL TRZUPEK

Chief Financial Officer

Michael has over 29 years’ experience in Finance and Engineering which provides a unique blend of business, technology and financial expertise. Michael’s extensive skills span global supply chain operations, product development, procurement, IT, mergers and acquisitions, marketing and sales.

Michael received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois and his MBA from the University of Chicago. He spent five years in several engineering roles at Morton International, a chemical, salt and airbag company which is now part of Dow Chemical. After receiving his MBA, Michael spent 10 years at Intel in progressive roles in Finance which culminated as Senior Controller for the Systems Materials and Manufacturing organization.

Michael joined Microsoft as a Senior Director of Finance in the entertainment and devices organization. He was instrumental in improving cost and efficiencies with the Xbox business. Based on his success, he was promoted to General Manager of Corporate Finance where he had financial responsibility for manufacturing, procurement, information solutions, and supply chain operations for Microsoft hardware and physical products worldwide. Michael’s final role was as General Manager of New Venture Integration where he led a team focused on the acquisition of Nokia by Microsoft.

After spending seven years at Microsoft, Michael joined Providence-St. Joseph’s Health and Services, one of the nation’s largest non-profit healthcare systems. As Group Vice President, Michael oversaw accounting, FP&A, tax, and external reporting and led the financial integration of the acquisition of St. Joseph's.  Michael next stepped in to serve as the interim CFO at Sound Transit, a public transit agency in the midst of a $54B transit expansion.  Most recently, Michael was the CFO for Premera Blue Cross, a non-profit healthcare insurer in the midst of a major technology transformation.

IAN FERREIRA

Chief Product Officer AI

Ian Ferreira has over 21 years’ experience in engineering in large companies and tech start-ups. He has expertise in software, engineering, UI/UX, systems architecture, product development, machine learning/artificial intelligence, and leading successful teams. Ian has a healthy obsession with end user experience, high performance computing and massive parallel systems. He joined Microsoft in 2004 as a Senior Software Design Engineer Lead and received five promotions in ten years. His last role was Group Program Manager. During his tenure he developed the architecture and implementation of Bing Ads, created the world’s first real-time bidding exchange, successfully launched the Windows 8 Ads-in-Apps, and launched the largest cloud deployment at the time.

Ian left Microsoft to join a tech start-up, Context Relevance. He and his engineering team focused on a machine learning platform based on early versions of Apache Spark, automated parts of the data science pipeline, and became deeply involved with predictive analytics. Most recently, Ian was the Executive Vice President at WideOrbit, the world’s leading premium advertising management company. While at WideOrbit, Ian and his team launched an innovative programmatic advertising media exchange.

Ian graduated from the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa with a bachelor’s degree in Electronic Engineering.

ASHU SWAMI

Chief Product Officer, Blockchain

Ashu Swami has over 19 years of experience in engineering and blockchain technologies in large companies and tech start-ups, and is an expert in hardware, storage and networking. He has rich expertise in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space, including designing innovative FinTech products such as security tokens and stable coins. Prior to joining Core Scientific, Ashu was CEO of Apifiny Prime, a crypto prime brokerage that is a regulated broker-dealer and money transmitter across the United States, European Union and Singapore, providing execution, margin/lending and custody services. Ashu has lead product and R&D teams to create blockchain based payments, crypto exchange aggregators, centralized exchanges, and crypto agency execution platforms. He has blockchain patents pending and has experience in roles overseeing the conceptualization, building and sale of mining chips. Ashu has developed predictive models for ensuring digital asset mining ROI, and has run three man-less 500+ rig mining data centers, creating electrical networking and hardware inventions in IoT and robotics for full data center automation. 

Early in his career, Ashu spent 4 years as an Engineer at Intel, and 6 years at Morgan Stanley. Ashu has a Computer Science degree from IIT and an MBA from Duke University Fuqua School of Business. He was on the RCT Project team at MIT in 2009, which went on to win the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics.

JEFF TAYLOR

Chief Information Officer

Jeff Taylor joined Core Scientific from People Connect, where he served as Director of Site Reliability and Dev Ops. Jeff started his career with Amazon and spent 14 years, expanding the fulfillment center network, operating and engineering upon the global retail sites and designing and launching many Amazon Web Services. He joined AWS as employee #20 and helped to grow the organization to several thousand. Jeff received many honors at Amazon, including the Amazon Inventor Award for his work on AWS and S3, as well as the Fire Extinguisher Award, for operational excellence in process and services. After Amazon, Jeff spent four years at CDK Global, leading Strategic Platform Engineering during a divestiture event and migrating mission critical aspect to the cloud. Jeff received his B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Washington.

TODD DUCHENE

General Counsel

Todd DuChene brings over 26 years’ experience as a General Counsel in private and public companies. His expertise spans intellectual property, patents, IPOs, and strategic transactions. Todd was 29 years old when he became VP, General Counsel for Office Max. He was instrumental with the IPO at OfficeMax, which was one of the largest IPOs in retail history. Todd joined Fisher Scientific and helped grow the business from $500M to $6B. Todd worked on 100+ deals while at Fisher Scientific until it merged with Thermo Electron. He served as GC at several other technology companies that ranged from $2B to $12B: Solectron, National Semiconductor, Nuance, and FLIR Systems. 

Todd received his bachelor’s degree in Political Science at The College of Wooster and received his JD from the University of Michigan.

SHARON ORLOPP

Chief Human Resources Officer

Sharon Orlopp has over 36 years’ experience in Fortune 500 companies in operations, human resources, diversity and inclusion. Most recently, Sharon was the Global Chief Diversity Officer and Senior Vice President of Corporate H.R. for Walmart. She spent 12 years at Walmart in senior leadership roles, including Senior Vice President of H.R. at Sam’s Club. Prior to joining Walmart, Sharon was Vice President of H.R. for Sports Authority and she spent 17 years with Foot Locker where she held various leadership positions in operations and human resources.

Sharon is the co-author of a Vietnamese memoir, Standing Up After Saigon: The Triumphant Story of Hope, Determination, and Reinvention. This incredible odyssey follows Thuhang Tran and her challenges with polio, war, poverty, family separation, and immigration to the United States. Sharon believes in the power of story to touch the heart and change behaviors.

A lifelong advocate for inclusion, education and opportunity, Sharon considers it a privilege to serve as a Board member for The Harwood Institute and for the University of Denver’s College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. She has held previous Board positions with Women’s Foodservice Forum, Enactus, Highlands Oncology Group, and the Center for Entrepreneurship at Fayetteville State University.

Sharon graduated magna cum laude from the University of Denver with a BA and received her Master’s Degree in educational technology from the University of Arkansas.

WESTON ADAMS

Chief Construction Officer

Weston Adams has 25 years of experience in infrastructure. Prior to his work with Core Scientific he ran Western States Contracting, Inc., an industry leader in infrastructure in Las Vegas, NV. Weston has built projects in 14 states and has core competencies in process scheduling, value engineering, cost management, and project estimation. Weston has a BS in Accounting and Finance from the University of Nevada Las Vegas.

Weston is an active member of YPO and Tiger 21.

RUSSELL CANN

Chief Customer Success Officer

Russell Cann has 21 years of experience designing, building, and growing large scale technology infrastructure companies. Prior to Core Scientific, Russell grew and developed a blockchain and cryptocurrency mining business as well as several other network infrastructure concerns. Previously he worked for Accenture in the areas of fintech and risk management on projects in Europe and the Americas.

An active Philanthropist, Russell is a Trustee for the National Foundation of the Boy Scouts of America and Alston Wilkes Society. Further he volunteers with Sue Kuhlen Camp for Kids and Lion’s Club. He is an active member of YPO and graduated cum laude from the South Carolina Honors College and the Moore School of Business.

TARAS KULYK

Senior Vice President, Blockchain Business Development

Taras Kulyk, JD, MBA is Core Scientific's Senior Vice President of Blockchain Business Development, bringing extensive experience in digital asset mining, fintech and investment banking. Most recently, Taras led Corporate Development at Horizon Trust Company and served as Chief Operating Officer of Alt 5 Sigma. Preceding those roles, Taras was CEO of Squire Mining (“Squire”), a publicly listed company engaged in operating and developing digital asset mining infrastructure and respective digital asset mining system technology. His role with Squire included managing relationships with key global technology leaders including Samsung and Ennoconn (a subsidiary of Foxconn). Prior to his appointment to Squire, Taras was CEO of a family office’s subsidiary engaged in digital asset mining, where he led the growth of one of the largest crypto mining fleets globally, deploying over US$200 million in capital during his tenure. Post graduate school and before his career began in the digital asset sector, Taras was an investment banker at BMO Capital Markets covering the traditional mining sector, followed by two years with TD Securities in the Communications, Media and Technology team, where his coverage included technology and media companies.
 
Taras is a graduate of Osgoode Hall Law School where he earned a Juris Doctor degree with a focus in Corporate, Tax, and Securities Law, and earned his MBA, with distinction, with a specialization in Finance from the Schulich School of Business. 

Clark has over 35 years experience working in software engineering and software sales in high tech industries. He has a strong background in business development for cloud and hybrid platforms and has led many high performing sales teams.

Prior to joining Core Scientific, Clark was Director, Azure Specialist at Microsoft, where he was the principal lead for Azure Data & AI services focused on helping enterprise customers leverage Microsoft’s Public Cloud. While there, he developed solution designs and value propositions that helped drive client business outcomes. Clark has led successful business development teams at Navigator Management Partners, NobleTek, IBM, Oracle, and others. He has worked with customers across multiple industries on machine learning projects and other advanced analytics efforts. Clark started his career at IBM working as an application programmer.

Clark holds a BSBA in Computer Science from The Ohio State University and holds several professional certifications.

DENIS STERLING

Senior Vice President, Corporate Finance

Denise has over 25 years of experience in senior leadership positions in Finance. She has a strong background in leading corporate finance, including FP&A, finance business partners, accounting, financial reporting, financial systems, and building a strong control environment.

Prior to joining Core Scientific, Denise was at Oportun, Inc. where she was Senior Vice President, Finance and FP&A, and, among her other responsibilities, she helped to take them public. Her experience includes 23 years with Visa, Inc. where she began her career as the Vice President of Global Tax. She held several roles during her tenure, including, Senior Vice President of FP&A, where she was involved in Visa’s initial public offering in 2008, Senior Vice President, Visa Europe Liaison, responsible for managing the relationship with Visa Europe ensuring interoperability for both the brand and technology, and finally, Senior Vice President, Enterprise Risk Management. Prior to joining Visa, Denise worked in public accounting.

Denise holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from San Francisco State University and a master’s degree in tax from Golden Gate University. She is a Certified Public Accountant.

LARRY KOM

Senior Vice President, Technology

Larry Kom, PhD, MPA, CFE is a lead software engineer and manager with over 21 years of full life-cycle development experience. His areas of expertise include security, auditing, forensics, scaling, real-time data, crypto-currency, and high-risk financial systems. Larry is a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) and holds a doctorate in Criminal Justice, focusing on internal controls and digital investigative techniques. He previously served as Chief Information Officer for MGT Capital Investments, Inc. (NYSE: MKT) until 2015, following the sale of his auditing startup in 2013.

JAYDEEP SINGH

Senior Vice President, AI Technology

Jaydeep Singh is Senior Vice President of AI Technology at Core Scientific. He is responsible for leading AI technology strategy, product development, and critical innovations for the company. 

He spent the majority of his career at Microsoft working in Windows/CSS, Developer Tools and Bing product divisions. His technical expertise and engineering prowess earned him two patents along the way. After that, he successfully led the engineering organization for Lighthouse eDiscovery providing technical leadership and due diligence for a successful M&A. Most recently he was at Oracle, building Industries Solutions Framework with native cloud technologies for large enterprise organizations.  

Jaydeep has a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Jawaharlal Nehru engineering college, in India.  

JEFF PRATT

Senior Vice President, Operations and Finance

Jeff Pratt has over 26 years of financial, accounting, and operational experience in the technology industry. Jeff held a variety of roles in his 26 years with Microsoft, including Corporate Accounting, Financial Analysis, and Controller. He has developed and operationalized sales incentive plans for employees from front line to leadership teams in over 100 countries. Jeff built and managed finance and accounting teams in South America. As Controller of an Engineering division at Microsoft, he managed a multibillion-dollar budget with teams spread across Israel, India, and China. Most recently Jeff lead the Enterprise Risk Management practice as part of Microsoft’s Internal Audit team. He was on the advisory board of the COSO Enterprise Risk Management update. Jeff holds CPA and CMA certificates and is a graduate of the University of Kansas.

Peter has over 26 years experience working in Finance in high tech industries. He has a strong background in Corporate Treasury, Corporate Finance, Customer Finance, Cross-Functional Team Leadership, Valuation, Capital Markets, Foreign Exchange, Investments and Portfolio Management.

Prior to joining Core Scientific, Peter was at Boeing Capital Corporation where he was Managing Director of Capital Markets and Outreach and managed the creation, structuring and development of capital markets products and other structures to finance aerospace products. While at Boeing, he led the company’s global financier and investor outreach program to grow liquidity and was a rotating member of the investment committee. Peter also served as Boeing Capital’s Treasurer. Before joining Boeing, Peter spent four years at Juniper Networks and five years at Cisco, where he held roles in Treasury, Corporate Finance, Investor Relations and Capital Markets. He started his career at Bombardier Aerospace working first as an aerospace engineer and then shifted focus to contracts, sales, marketing and strategy.

Peter holds an MBA in Financial Management & Markets from ASU, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Aerospace Engineering from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.

LYNN BURGENER

Chief Tax & Trade Officer

Lynn Burgener joined Core Scientific as Chief Tax & Trade Officer with over 31 years of international and domestic tax expertise. Lynn is responsible for establishing tax strategy, communicating tax objectives, compliance, tax provision, financial statement reporting and related disclosures. Previously, Lynn spent 10 years as the Vice President – Global Tax for Univar, a $9.0B Fortune 500 global chemical distribution company. Lynn and her team of 20+ tax professionals led the global tax function through years of private equity ownership, pre-IPO readiness, global asset securitizations, global debt refinancing, and the Company's 2015 initial public offering.

Prior to joining Univar, Lynn was the Director of North America Tax for Heidelberg Cement AG’s North American operations, and Global Tax Director for Exide Technologies. Early in her career, Lynn worked for KPMG LLP as a Tax Manager.

Lynn received her BS in Accounting from Arizona State University and her Masters in Taxation from Villanova University. She holds an active California CPA license.

AARON MCCREERY

Senior Vice President, Dev Ops

Aaron McCreery spent 17 years at Microsoft in a variety of engineering and operational leadership roles and was instrumental in the development of Product Activation for Office and Windows, as well several other externally facing properties. After Microsoft, Aaron joined IBM, where he helped with both public and private cloud optimization and implementation. Aaron joined Core Scientific from Tumblr, where he served as Senior Director of Site Reliability Engineering. Aaron graduated from Washington State University with a B.A. in Management Information Services.

Betsy Lee

Director, Marketing

Betsy Lee has over 15 years of international and domestic experience creating innovative, result-producing digital strategies. She is relentlessly customer-centric with a penchant for getting things done. Betsy’s superpower is collaborating across many departments and seamlessly marrying strategic planning with implementation tactics. Prior to Core Scientific, Betsy was the Director of Digital Marketing for Jabil, a global manufacturing services and engineering design services company with 100 plants in 28 countries with 170,000 employees. Jabil’s customers are in industries such as life sciences, healthcare, aerospace, technology, computing, and storage. While at Jabil, Betsy designed digital lead generation programs, ABM campaigns, direct mail and email campaigns, and defined the company’s go-to market messaging. Betsy was Jabil’s internal strategic communications guru which included public relations, social media, multimedia, and internal and external communications. Previous to Jabil, Betsy lead digital marketing teams at CA Technologies, now a Broadcom company, where she focused on building software security lead generation marketing programs. She has lived and worked in the US, India and France.

Betsy has a triple major in International Studies, Economics, and French, from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. She speaks English and French, and is learning Korean.