Wanyi Dai Li 戴李婉嫕

About Me

• I am a mechanism designer turned product leader. Currently, I lead the Special Mechanisms Group (SMG) and the Infura product group at Consensys, where I own Consensys's MEV strategy on Ethereum.
• My work sits at the intersection of mechanism design, economics, and product — from theory to launch. I have designed staking mechanisms at Chainlink, developed cryptoeconomic strategy at Meta, shipped R&D products at Lightspark, and built optimization programs for carbon credit markets.
• I earned a PhD at Stanford University in the Department of Management Science & Engineering, where I was trained in operations research and mechanism design. My dissertation, co-advised by Itai Ashlagi and Irene Lo, focused on optimal contract design for environmental sustainability.
• I care deeply about cognitive surrender — how we can use AI without giving up our own thinking. I'm particularly interested in AI safety issues around incentive alignment, mechanism design, privacy, and the deconcentration of economic and political power.
• I offer personal development coaching and professional coaching on product execution. See more here.
• Outside work, I enjoy partner dancing (tango, fusion, west coast swing), jiu-jitsu, pottery, sewing, and spending time in nature. I also DJ at fusion partner dance socials.

Timeline

• 2021 – Present
  Boston, MA → San Francisco, CA
• 2016 – 2021
  Stanford University, CA — PhD, Management Science & Engineering

  Defended dissertation in April 2021. Thesis committee: Itai Ashlagi, Irene Lo, John Weyant, Ramesh Johari, Alex Teytelboym, and Jim Leape.

• 2012 – 2016
  Wellesley College, MA — BA, Physics (major); Computer Science (minor), magna cum laude
• 2010 – 2012
  United World College (UWC) Mahindra College, Pune, India
• 2008 – 2010
  Suzhou High School, Suzhou, China
• Before 2008
  Xuzhou (徐州), China

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