For Ellen Qureshi, leadership is not about being the loudest voice in the room. It is about creating clarity in an industry where uncertainty is often the norm.

As COO and Co-founder of Black Lake, Qureshi has helped build a global business operating at the intersection of blockchain infrastructure, compliance and trust. Having spent much of her career in traditional finance before moving into Web3, she brings an operational discipline that has become one of her defining strengths.

“Growing Black Lake has taught me that leadership is mostly about clarity,” she says. “When you’re operating in a space that’s still fragmented and fast-moving, it’s important for people to know what the standard is and what’s expected of them.”

Rather than seeing leadership through the lens of authority, Qureshi believes credibility is earned through consistency. Good operators recognise good operations regardless of who is leading them, and she has found that empathy combined with precision creates trust far more effectively than simply asserting authority.

Decentralisation

That practical approach carries through much of her thinking about leadership in Web3. Although decentralisation is often promoted as a great equaliser, Qureshi believes the reality is more nuanced. The technology itself creates unprecedented access, but it cannot automatically remove the behaviours and structures that already exist.

“Honestly, it’s both,” she says. “The technology side of things is more open than legacy finance in some ways, but it still can’t rewrite human behaviour on its own.”

Having worked in traditional finance, she recognises that progress takes time. Yet she also believes Web3 presents an opportunity unlike any previous generation has experienced.

“The opportunities are currently limitless, and the barriers to entry are the lowest they have ever been.”

For Qureshi, that matters because emerging industries are still defining their culture. Those who consistently contribute meaningful work today will help establish what leadership looks like tomorrow. Like many women in senior leadership, she has experienced occasions where her expertise has been underestimated. Her response, however, has never been to argue louder.

“My approach has generally been to let my work answer for me.”

Instead of allowing bias to dictate the conversation, she focuses on composure, facts and expertise.

“If someone underestimates you, the best response is to be the person in the room who actually knows how the thing works.”

Over time, knowledge becomes difficult to dismiss. Results become the strongest response to assumptions.

Trust

Trust is another theme that runs consistently throughout Qureshi’s leadership philosophy. While blockchain is frequently described as enabling “trustless” systems, she argues that the goal has never been to eliminate trust entirely. Rather, technology should make trust verifiable.

“In our work, the foundational premise is that you shouldn’t have to take anyone’s word for something, but you should be able to verify it.”

Years spent in compliance and operations have shaped how she approaches leadership. Transparency, accountability and evidence are not simply technical principles; they are management principles too. Leaders should be willing to show their work just as technology should. That ability to bridge different worlds has also become increasingly important as Web3 matures.

Institutional organisations speak the language of governance, controls and risk, while grassroots communities prioritise openness, experimentation and composability. Qureshi believes effective leaders must become translators, able to build credibility with both audiences without losing sight of either.

“The interesting work happens where those meet,” she explains. Women, she believes, are well positioned to help shape both environments by earning the confidence of institutions while remaining connected to the communities driving innovation.

Leadership challenges

As blockchain increasingly converges with artificial intelligence, Qureshi sees an equally important leadership challenge emerging.

Her own concerns around security and data protection helped shape discussions that ultimately contributed to Black Lake’s attestation technology. Looking ahead, she believes diverse perspectives will become essential as AI systems begin making increasingly significant decisions with less human oversight.

“The people setting the rules for those systems must reflect the range of people affected by them.”

For Qureshi, greater female representation is not simply about fairness. Better governance depends on broader perspectives, particularly as technologies become more powerful and their consequences more far-reaching.

Looking back, she credits much of her own development to the people who encouraged curiosity early. Watching her parents build their own businesses taught resilience, while teachers and mentors transformed subjects like finance and accounting into practical, achievable careers. Those experiences reinforced her belief that future leaders need more than visibility; they need sponsorship, accessible role models and opportunities to build confidence long before entering the workforce.

For Qureshi, leadership is ultimately built on substance rather than status. In an industry still writing its own rules, those who combine expertise with integrity, consistency and curiosity will be the ones who shape its future.

Three tips for women entering Web3

• Master something real. Depth of knowledge and expertise remains your greatest competitive advantage.
• Be someone others can rely on. Reputation compounds quickly in Web3, so be dependable and build strong relationships with others.
• Don’t wait until you feel ready. Nobody has all the answers in an emerging industry. Jump in, keep learning and grow through doing.