Roman Beck is Professor and Chester B. Slade Endowed Chair of Information Systems at Bentley University, where he directs the Crypto Ledger Lab. He is internationally recognized for pioneering research and policy leadership on blockchain governance. Before joining Bentley, he founded and led the European Blockchain Center at the IT University of Copenhagen, establishing one of Europe’s foremost academic hubs for blockchain and distributed-ledger research. He has co-founded and advises several ventures focused on decentralized cloud computing, payment systems, misinformation prevention, and post-quantum cryptographic protocols. He also serves as Guest Professor at Halmstad University in Sweden and Affiliated Professor at the University of the Faroe Islands. In 2023, he received an honorary doctorate from West University of Timișoara, Romania, recognizing his groundbreaking contributions to blockchain research.
A long-standing AIS member and editorial leader, Dr. Beck has made enduring contributions to the IS field through scholarship, community service, and global policy engagement. His research has appeared in leading journals including Academy of Management Review, MIS Quarterly, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, European Journal of Information Systems, Journal of Strategic Information Systems, and Business & Information Systems Engineering. His work integrates institutional theory, economics, and digital governance to explain how decentralized infrastructures transform coordination, accountability, and value creation across organizations and societies.
Dr. Beck has served the global IS community in multiple leadership roles, including AIS Council Member representing Region 2, ECIS 2025 Honorary Conference Chair (Amman), ICIS 2022 Co-Chair (Copenhagen), and ECIS 2022 Co-Chair (Timișoara). As Senior Editor for JAIS (Policy & Impact), Department Editor for Business & Information Systems Engineering, and Senior Editor for MIS Quarterly Executive, he has advanced the vision of an IS field that bridges scholarly rigor with policy relevance.
His policy and impact work spans international organizations and governments. He served as Convenor of ISO TC 307 Working Group 5 on Blockchain Governance, leading development of the first international blockchain governance standard, and represented Denmark for seven years in the EU Blockchain Partnership. He co-convened the European Ethical Guidelines for Blockchain Systems for the European Commission and has advised OECD, UNECE, national governments, and central banks. In 2025, he co-authored a whitepaper on decentralized identity management for the United Nations. As co-founder of the European Decentralization Institute, he continues to champion ethical value creation in decentralized infrastructures. He is also editor of the forthcoming Elgar Encyclopedia of Cryptocurrencies, Blockchain, and DLT (2026).