Adam Rusch - Board
What is your experiences within Intersect and Cardano?
Cardano Civics Committee
Member of Constitution Drafting and Ratification Working Group
Cardano Parameters Committee
Head of Governance Parameters Working Group
Intersect MBO Community Advisory Board
Cardano Interim Constitutional Committee
Member of Intersect Constitutional Council
More experiences listed under grants section
Do you have any other Cardano affiliations or possible conflicts of interests, including you as an individual or an enterprise you are associated with?
Founding Core Contributor of ADAO
Co-Founder of Summon Platform
Member of Immutable Research Institute Multi-sig DRep
Are you currently in receipt of or previously received any Intersect or Cardano funding or grant?
Cardano CIP-1694 Workshop Grant
Chicago, June 2023
Cardano DRep Code of Conduct Catalyst Grant
Indianapolis, February 2024
Cardano DRep Pioneer Program Grant
Chicago, June 2024
Intersect Local Face-to-Face Meetup Grant
Chicago, June 2024
Crypto RNC/DNC Catalyst Grant
Milwaukee, July 2024
Chicago, August 2024
Cardano Interim Constitutional Committee Voting Platform Grant
Project Management & Developer Support
Cardano Governance in a Nutshell Educational Materials Grant
Proofreader & Project Support
Immutable Research Institute Catalyst Grants
ADAO/Summon Platform Catalyst Grants
What do you think the MBO’s primary strategic goals and objectives are or should be for the next 3-5 years?
As an organization created by and for the members, Intersect MBO’s strategic goals need to revolve around supporting builders in the Cardano Community who are advancing the cause of the network. These goals can be put into three categories: Governance Support, Infrastructure Support, and Community Support.
Governance Support: Intersect must be a neutral actor in Cardano governance serving as a clearinghouse of information that the community can use for governance decisions. In the same way that the Constitutional Committee is charged with only ruling on the constitutionality of a Governance Action not their personal opinions, Intersect must not take positions on the proposals themselves but instead provide DReps, SPOs, and other CC members with good information, training, and a structure that helps them operate smoothly.
Infrastructure Support: Intersect must provide a forum for Cardano Developers to communicate and collaborate. First and foremost this means the core development teams that have been given contracts according to the direction set by governance actions passed on chain. But it should also be a place for any developer to find resources, connections, and opportunities to build their skills.
Community Support: All members of the Community must feel welcome to make contributions and be part of Intersect. They must be able to help set the direction of the organization and collaborate with their colleagues. Intersect should help with education, networking, marketing, and collaboration.
Can you describe the current composition of the Board and the skills and experience gaps that the organization is looking to fill?
The Governing Board of Intersect is currently composed of a representative of the Intersect MBO general membership, a representative from Emurgo, a representative from Input-Output Global, and a representative from the University of Wyoming Center for Blockchain and Digital Innovation (CBDI), a preeminent academic unit with key industry endowments. The composition of the board calls for an additional seat to be filled from the Intersect MBO general membership.
By joining this board I would bring my years of experience in the Cardano community working with grassroots teams that have developed governance products such as the Summon Platform, along with the industry and policy connections I have made through my advocacy and educational work. I have a research and teaching background in online communities, blockchain networks, and decentralized governance through my job as a faculty member at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, School of Information Sciences.
I also bring my 10+ years of experience as a Board Member and Board Chair of Non-Profit Corporations that hold 501(c)3 designation with the US IRS. In addition to founding the Immutable Research Institute, I helped found the Purdue Review Inc, a non-profit alumni organization to support the student news magazine. I also served as Chairman of the Beta Sigma Psi Educational Foundation, which oversees the endowed funds supporting educational programs for a collegiate fraternity. In a civic role, I serve on the Zoning Board of Appeals and Design Review Board for the City of Urbana, Illinois.
What are the key challenges and opportunities the MBO is currently facing?
The key challenges of Intersect are related to building bridges of collaboration across the Cardano community and the Blockchain industry at large. While we have incredibly successful teams on Cardano with incredible communities they sometimes struggle to have their message reach beyond their own bubbles. If we can draw key members of these communities to become active with Intersect we will be able to create vibrant programs that serve the members of the organization and the entire Cardano network. We will also be able to make connections with other blockchain ecosystems with complementary goals that we can cooperate with.
How does the MBO measure success and performance, both at the Board level and operationally?
Success of Intersect as an MBO must be measured through the relevance of the programs that it implements and completes. Questions that we must ask:
What are the needs of the Cardano community?
Is there a way to address this need through a working group or a program?
How should the working group or the program be structured?
What is the best process for calling together members of a working group or program?
How well is the organization supporting the working groups and programs?
What are the results of the working groups and programs?
Have the results of the programs addressed the needs of the Cardano community?
The ultimate measure of success and performance must be that final question - have the results of the programs addressed the needs of the Cardano community. Each question coming before that helps us to identify what we have done well, where we could do better, and how each actor in the system including general members, professional staff, and members of the Board are performing.
What do you think is the relationship between the Board and the Executive team?
The Executive team, who lead the full-time professional staff of the organization, must have a close working relationship with the Governing Board. Directors on the Board must be able to help set the direction of the organization according to the priorities of the membership and the Cardano community as a whole. Once the direction is set, the Board needs to trust the professional staff to carry out their duties and stay in good communication with the Executive team to ensure they have the resources needed to carry out their work.
What are the key expectations for the Non-Executive Director (NED) role in terms of time commitment, specific responsibilities, and contributions to Board meetings and committees?
While Directors on the Board are not working a full-time job for Intersect they must be able to prioritize the time necessary for significant contributions. Board meetings will take place at least once per month and the Directors should expect to spend a few hours per week reviewing organizational activities and contributing to committee work. Directors must be able to work with both the professional staff of Intersect and general members serving on committees and working groups to ensure they understand the issues of the organization.
What/who do you think are the MBO’s key relationships with external stakeholders, and how does the Board engage with these stakeholders?
Because Intersect is made up of its membership and has been entrusted with core maintainer responsibilities for the Cardano repositories, I will assume that registered members and the companies that contribute to the Cardano stack are the internal stakeholders. The external stakeholders would be institutions that want to interface with Cardano, developers who want to build their own applications on Cardano, and Ada holders who want to operate on Cardano.
Institutional relations will be one of Intersect’s most important roles in the Cardano ecosystem. To this date, IOG, Emurgo, and the Cardano Foundation have each played their part interfacing with Centralized Exchanges, financial organizations, and various governments on behalf of the Cardano community. With these three organizations as members of Intersect, the MBO can serve as a central point for coordination of efforts in outreach and institutional relations.
The Cardano developer ecosystem is in need of support to ensure it has the resources that will help coders with their projects and applications. Grant programs like Project Catalyst, VC programs like the C-Fund and Emurgo’s, need to be supported along with summits, conferences, and hackathons such as the ones put on by Cardano Foundation.
Ada holders need to have a good experience using Cardano as a financial operating system if they are going to continue being active and recruit more community members. Intersect needs to be supportive of research and education for end-users to learn about the systems available to them and of developers to learn the needs of the users so that they can provide innovative solutions.
What do you think is the MBO’s approach to risk management, and what are the top risks that the Board should be aware of?
One of the top priorities of risk management for Intersect is ensuring that the Cardano repositories are appropriately managed. As the core maintainer of these repositories, the MBO must be proactive in empowering good contributors and scaffolding an accountability system that ensures all the teams are working together to commit updates that follow the priorities of Ada holders as expressed through governance actions passed on chain.
The Governing Board of Intersect also has a responsibility to ensure that the charter of the organization is protected so that it may carry out its responsibilities of supporting the Cardano community. This means that the corporation must strictly adhere to the laws of the jurisdiction in which is resides, indemnify directors and employees from legal ramifications so long as they faithfully carry out their duties, and not exceed the responsibilities of Intersect as an organization that supports whatever decisions the Cardano community makes through on-chain governance.
How should the MBO support Board members in their roles, including providing information, training, and resources?
Intersect should provide sufficient resources to Directors on the Governing Board to have robust interaction with the professional staff of Intersect and the general membership of the MBO. This must include establishment of an identity in the Intersect suite of tooling for electronic collaboration, participation in key events that will build relationships within the organization, and a detailed report of what each part of the organization is working on. Directors must also be able to request executive summaries and policy briefs of research materials from the subject matter experts working on behalf of Intersect so that they are able to adequately participate in Board business.
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