F. Daniel Siciliano, a U.S. born first generation Mexican-American, is a successful serial entrepreneur, corporate executive, venture capitalist, and an independent director on the board of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco. He recently co-founded and is CEO of Nikkl, Inc. Alongside his entrepreneurial career, he was a Stanford faculty member (Stanford Law Professor of the Practice and Associate Dean) for more than a decade and is a recognized expert in corporate strategy and governance, capital financial markets, technological disruption (including fintech, insurtech, AI and cybersecurity), and executive compensation.

From 2000 to 2015, Siciliano was co-founder, CEO and ultimately Executive Chairman of LawLogix Group, Inc. – a global software technology company named 9 consecutive times to the Inc. 500/5000, several times ranked as one of the Top 100 fastest growing private software companies in the US, and named to the US Hispanic Business 500 (largest) and Hispanic Business 100 (fastest growing) lists for 2010 and 2011. In 2012 he sold a majority stake of the company to PNC Riverarch Capital, continued as Executive Chairman, and led the sale of the company to Hyland Software/Thoma Bravo in 2015. Total aggregate returns to all parties were in the nine-figures and represented a 144X (14,400%) return to the earliest investors.

Siciliano is a co-founder, board member, and Chairman of the Silicon Valley Directors’ Exchange (SVDX), Chairman of the national non-partisan American Immigration Council, past-President of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Council #1057, recipient of both the Arizona Outstanding Hispanic Leader and Martin Luther King, Jr. Leadership Awards, and an active member of the Latino Corporate Directors’ Association and board member and audit committee chair of the Latino Corporate Directors’ Education Foundation.

As of 2014, Siciliano emerged as a successful early-stage technology investor operating both independently and in partnership with Matt Robinson and, ultimately, alongside and in partnership with Heroic Ventures. Siciliano’s successful investments have included Airbnb, Elevian, Scaylr, Vista Point Advisors, and Totum Labs.

In 2017, Siciliano founded Optemy, a strategy consulting group that trains and advises boards and executives on topics of disruption/change management, the impact of autonomous (AI/ML/robotic) systems and innovations, related executive compensation and multi-generational talent management strategies, corporate compliance, and technological competitiveness and security. At Optemy, he leads a group of affiliated experts and academics who serve clients in 10 countries across four continents. Individually and through Optemy, he has served as a strategy consultant and trainer to the executive teams and board of directors of more than a dozen Fortune 1000 companies. Clients include Google/Alphabet, Microsoft, Fedex, Disney, Entergy, Tesla, OCBC, Temasek/HCLI, KPMG, and Applied Materials.

Siciliano is qualified as an audit committee financial expert under NYSE Manual Section 303A.07(a) and serves on the board of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco (FHLBSF, with total assets ranging between $80 and $180 billion). He served as chair of the board through the end of 2021 before stepping down to dedicate his full attention to Nikkl, Inc. Siciliano became chair of the Council of Federal Home Loan Banks as of 2023. The eleven banks that make up the system have total assets in excess of $1.5 Trillion and through their consolidated Office of Finance serve as one of the largest liquidity providers and debt issuers in the world. FHLBSF is subject to SEC public company filing requirements and is structured as a federally regulated private bank mutual cooperative owned by both publicly traded and private banking and financial institutions.

Siciliano is a Fellow at Stanford Law School (CodeX), Emeritus Co-Director of Stanford’s Directors’ College, prior Co-Chair of the We Robot Conference on AI/Robotics, Law, and Policy, and is the immediate past faculty director of the Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University. Along with Professors Joe Grundfest, Larry Kramer, Dave Larcker and Rob Daines, he co-founded the Rock Center in 2006 and, as a Professor of the Practice and Associate Dean at Stanford Law School, led the Center until 2017.

His teaching has included Corporate Finance, Banking, Corporate Governance, and Venture Capital. He has served as faculty director for dozens of custom executive education programs in more than 20 countries including extended engagements and involvement with Fortune 1000 executive teams and board members throughout the world. His work has included expert testimony in front of both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives and for 2009, 2010, and 2011, alongside leading academics and business leaders such as Ben Bernanke, Paul Krugman, and Carl Icahn, Siciliano was named to the “Directorship 100” – a list of the most influential people in corporate governance.

In 2021, his research at Stanford and applied capital market work through the FHLB provided the inspiration for the creation and launch of Nikkl, Inc – a company that leverages several different technologies to provide capital and liquidity optimization to unicorn companies and their employees while simultaneously enabling better investor access to unicorn company returns with substantial downside protection.