MEET THE TEAM
The founders of Fifth Era Acquisition Corp I, Matthew C. Le Merle, Alison Davis, and Mitchell Mechigian share deep experience in the Internet, enterprise technology, software, including artificial intelligence, fintech, and blockchain areas, as well as in forming, leading, directing and advising companies.
Our management team and board of directors consist of proven leaders and include category-creating entrepreneurs, having developed and managed businesses with attractive business model attributes such as scalable network-effects, open platforms technologies and robust ecosystems. Our team’s deep transaction experience across multiple sectors as buyers and investors is distinctive, having executed, impacted and operationalized numerous transactions. The depth of our management team’s experience extends to a wide range of specialization, including complex regulatory landscapes that may increase our ability to source attractive target opportunities.
EXECUTIVE TEAM
Matthew C. Le Merle is a Managing Director, and serves as Chair of our board of directors. He and Ms. Davis founded and have managed Fifth Era and Blockchain Coinvestors since inception and have participated in, advised and sourced opportunities in Internet, fintech and blockchain for over 20 years. Mr. Le Merle has served as a Manager of the General Partner and the Investment Manager of Blockchain Coinvestors since its founding and as Managing Partner of Fifth Era, LLC since 2004 and Keiretsu Capital LLC since January 2014. Combined, they are among the most active early-stage venture managers. Mr. Le Merle and Ms. Davis co-wrote the books “The Fifth Era” and “Blockchain Competitive Advantage.”
Mr. Le Merle served as Managing Director and Chairman of Blockchain SPAC from November 2021 until its liquidation in November 2024. His board work has included holding Chairman or Non-Executive Director roles in 15 public and private companies, including chairman of the board of Concept Labs (Formerly Concept Art House), from 2006 to March 2024, chairman (Europe) of Securitize from 2019 to 2021, vice chairman of SFOX, Inc. from 2018 to 2021, advisory board director of Apple Pie Capital since 2013, advisory board director of Bitwise Asset Management since 2018, advisory board director of Hashkey Capital since 2022, advisor at Warburg Pincus LLC from 2019 to 2020, and Chairman of North America Advisory Board at Ningbo Shanshan, Ltd from 2009 to 2019. Prior to these roles, Mr. Le Merle held several roles as a strategy, operations and corporate finance advisor to Fortune 500 CEOs, boards and executive teams with McKinsey & Company, as well as A.T. Kearney and Monitor Group, where he led both firms’ West Coast practices and at Booz & Company where he co-led the global digital practice. Mr. Le Merle also served as a corporate executive of Gap Inc., where he was SVP Strategy and Corporate Development and SVP Gap Global Marketing. Mr. Le Merle received a bachelor’s degree from Oxford University and received his MBA from Stanford University.
Alison Davis is a Managing Director. Ms. Davis and Mr. Le Merle founded and have managed Fifth Era and Blockchain Coinvestors since inception and have participated in, advised and sourced opportunities in Internet, fintech and blockchain for over 20 years. Ms. Davis served as Managing Director of Blockchain SPAC from November 2021 until it commenced its liquidation in November 2024. Ms. Davis has served as a Manager of the General Partner and the Investment Manager of Blockchain Coinvestors since its founding. Additionally, Ms. Davis has served as a Managing Partner of Fifth Era, LLC since 2004 and Keiretsu Capital Blockchain Fund Manager, LLC since 2018. Ms. Davis and Mr. Le Merle co-wrote several books, including “Corporate Innovation in the The Fifth Era” and “Blockchain Competitive Advantage.”
Ms. Davis is currently a board director of Kraken and Pagaya (PGY) and an advisor to Bitwise Asset Management Inc. She is also the Chairman of the Advisory Board for Blockchain Capital, the Chairman of Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center and a director of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) Northern California, and Cambridge in America. Over the last 20 years Alison has served on the boards of 25 public and private companies as Chairman, Audit Committee Chair, Compensation Committee Chair and Technology and Innovation Committee Chair. Previously, Ms. Davis served as a director of City National Bank, Diamond Foods, Dispatch Management Services, Fiserv Inc., First Data Corporation, Janus Henderson Group, LECG, Ooma Inc., Pacaso, Royal Bank of Scotland (now NatWest Group), Silicon Valley Bank, Unisys Corporation and Xoom Corporation. Ms. Davis was previously the Managing Partner of Belvedere Capital Partners LLC, a regulated bank holding company and private equity firm focused on investing in U.S. banks and financial services firms where she worked closely with the Federal Reserve, the OCC, the FDIC and various state banking regulators.
Earlier in her career, Ms. Davis served as the Chief Financial Officer of Barclays Global Investors Corp. (now BlackRock Inc.). She also spent 14 years as a strategy consultant and advisor to Fortune 500 CEOs, boards and executive teams with McKinsey & Company, and as a practice leader with A.T. Kearney where she built and led the global Financial Services Practice. Ms. Davis is also active in the community supporting non-profits and social enterprises as a board director, fundraiser and volunteer. She has been named one of the “Most Influential Women in Business” multiple times by the San Francisco Business Times.
Mitchell Mechigian serves as our Chief Executive Officer and will serve as a director upon the completion of this offering. Mr. Mechigian served as Chief Financial Officer of Blockchain SPAC from December 2021 through its liquidation in November 2024. He has served as a Partner at Blockchain Coinvestors since August 2022 and in various other roles since February 2021. Previously, Mr. Mechigian held various positions at Morgan Stanley from July 2016 through September 2019.
Christopher Linn serves as our Chief Financial Officer and is currently the Chief Financial Officer at Blockchain Coinvestors, a venture capital firm focused on blockchain investments, where Mr. Linn plays a critical role in managing the firm’s financial audits, tax and financial strategy across a broad portfolio of blockchain-focused funds and projects. Mr. Linn brings significant expertise from his prior roles across various finance and venture capital firms. Prior to joining Blockchain Coinvestors in June 2022, Mr. Linn held senior finance positions at prominent firms such as Kranz & Associates from June 2021 to June 2022, Director of Finance at Startgrid, a Software as a Service startup, from November 2017 to June 2021, DAG Ventures from November 2010 to November 2017, and SVB Capital from January 2007 to November 2010. His background also includes Finance Manager at Lucas Venture Group and Vision Capital. He began his career at Ernst & Young as an auditor in the Business Risk Services group. Through these roles he has developed deep expertise in managing accounting, financial operations, fundraising, and investment strategies within the technology and venture capital sectors.
INDEPENDENT DIRECTORS
Gary Cookhorn served as a director of Blockchain SPAC from November 2021 until it commenced its liquidation in November 2024. Mr. Cookhorn is an experienced finance and investment industry professional. His career spans finance, strategy, and operations in both the private and public sector. Mr. Cookhorn is currently a member of Health2047 Capital Partners, a venture capital firm focused on investing in U.S.-based healthcare startups, including those with promising artificial intelligence, data connectivity and other technology-related solutions. He helped to set upHealth2047 Inc., a healthcare focused innovation arm of the American Medical Association. Previously, Mr. Cookhorn was a managing director at Fortress Investment Group (“Fortress”), a highly diversified global investment management firm. At Fortress, Mr. Cookhorn was involved in client-relationship management and several special projects, including helping to establish Pantera Capital, a blockchain-related investment firm. Earlier in his career, Mr. Cookhorn worked as Finance chief at the New York headquarters of UNFPA, a division of the United Nations Development Programme and later headed the World Bank’s Loan Services Group in Washington, D.C., where he was responsible for financial operations and client services relating to the World Bank’s loan portfolio. He helped establish a support center for the bank in Chennai, India. Mr. Cookhorn is an active personal investor. Mr. Cookhorn sits on the advisory board of BizWorld and the boards of Accountability Counsel and the Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center, three non-profit organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Rebecca Macieira-Kaufmann is a seasoned CEO with broad leadership experience in sales, marketing, risk management, operations, and international business. She served as a director of the Blockchain SPAC from November 2021 until it commenced its liquidation in November 2024. She draws on deep expertise in the Fortune 50 financial services industry and has a demonstrated track record of leading highly successful business turnarounds, scaling new businesses, and expanding operations globally. She also brings a strong background in governance through her corporate and non-profit board experiences. Rebecca founded RMK Group, LLC, in 2020 to advise CEOs of start-ups in all phases of growth in the fintech, digital currency, identity management, wealth management, FI marketing software, payment systems and more. She is also the author of the book FitCEO. Prior to founding RMK Group, from 2008 – 2020 Ms. Macieira-Kaufmann was employed by Citigroup (NYSE: C) in various roles, including Head of International Personal Bank U.S (2016 – 2020), President & CEO of Banamex USA (2013 – 2016) and President, Citibank, California and Nevada (2008 – 2013).
Colin Wiel is an AI expert with experience as an inventor and entrepreneur in AI going back 30+ years. He is co-founder and CEO of Qurrent, whose product is a software framework for AI agent development and orchestration. Previous companies include Mynd, a tech enabled platform for investing in single-family rentals, named the fastest growing company in the Bay Area in 2020, and Waypoint Homes which built a technology platform to scale single family rental, raised over $3.5 billion, bought over 17,000 homes, and went public on the NYSE, as well as Wildlife Works Carbon, the global leader in forest conservation through carbon credits. Colin got his start in AI at Boeing in the 1990’s where he invented a new way to control anti-lock brakes for airplanes leveraging AI. Colin has multiple patents in artificial intelligence, has earned a spot on the Goldman Sachs Top 100 Most Innovative Entrepreneurs (2012), and was awarded the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year (2014).