Hey Wolverines,

Curious about launching your career at the intersection of tech, privacy, or cryptocurrency? Don’t miss your chance to connect with two superstar U-M alumni who are changing the game.

Join us for a live student Q&A where you can ask Michigan Alumni, Ronak Shah and Asheesh Birla, about building products at Apple, the future of crypto, entrepreneurship, and how their journeys began here at Michigan!

Date: Monday, December 1, 2025
Time: 4:00pm - 5:15pm
Location: Robertson Auditorium at the Ross School of Business, 701 Tappan Ave

ALL FACULTY, STAFF AND STUDENTS ARE WELCOME

~~ MEET ASHEESH & RONAK ~~

Asheesh Birla (BS '02), CEO, Evernorth Holdings and expert on cryptocurrency

As Chief Executive Officer, Asheesh leads Evernorth’s overall vision, strategy, and growth. He is an entrepreneur and blockchain executive with over 25 years of experience in Silicon Valley, including board roles at Ripple, MoneyGram, Bitso and other fintech startups. At Ripple, he helped launch its first enterprise crypto product and scale the company from startup to over 1,000 employees. Asheesh holds an M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan. He also guest lectures on entrepreneurship and blockchain.
Evernorth is a new, Ripple-backed digital asset treasury firm that plans to become the largest publicly traded institutional holder of XRP. Evernorth aims to provide investors with a simple, transparent, and regulated equity-based vehicle for exposure to XRP, without the need for managing digital wallets or compliance. It will operate as an active investment vehicle, seeking to increase "XRP per share" through institutional lending, liquidity provisioning, and participation in decentralized finance (DeFi) opportunities.


Ronak Shah (BS '00, MBA '06), Director, Internet Technologies, User Privacy, and Security Product Management at Apple

With over 25 years of experience in consumer technology, Ronak has been a driving force behind groundbreaking products while championing user trust and privacy. Early in his career, Ronak worked at Handspring and Palm, playing a pivotal role in bringing some of the very first smartphones to market, helping to lay the foundation for the mobile revolution. Today, Ronak leads the Internet Technologies, User Privacy, and Security Product Management teams at Apple. His teams are responsible for iconic products like Safari, iMessage, FaceTime, and AirDrop — used by hundreds of millions of people every day. Beyond shaping industry-leading experiences, Ronak drives Apple’s industry-leading privacy and security initiatives, overseeing innovations such as Private Cloud Compute, Stolen Device Protection, App Tracking Transparency, and Advanced Data Protection. A proud Wolverine, Ronak earned a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.