National Council - Melanie Shapiro

Melanie Shapiro, Ph.D., is a serial tech entrepreneur and the co-founder of Token, a Rochester-based startup focused on wearable biometric authentication products. Token helps businesses combat cybersecurity threats by providing passwordless, biometric, multi-factor authentication through a wearable smart ring. The company recently received a significant investment and is poised for growth in the years to come. Dr. Shapiro led Token as CEO through the end of 2021 and remains an owner of the company.

Currently, Dr. Shapiro serves on the board of directors of Code to Inspire, a nonprofit organization committed to empowering and inspiring entrepreneurship among Afghan women by teaching them to code. She is also a crisis counselor with Crisis Text Line, a nonprofit organization providing free, 24/7 support to people in crisis across the US via text messaging.

Earlier in her entrepreneurial career, Dr. Shapiro co-founded Digsby, a messaging platform for managing online social identities that was acquired in 2011. She holds both a BFA in interior design and an MBA from RIT, as well as a Ph.D. in consumer behavior from Henley Business School at the University of Reading (England).