Biography

Sarah Hammer is Executive Director at the Wharton School. She leads strategic initiatives across Wharton Finance and is Founder and CEO of Wharton Cypher Accelerator. Hammer is also Adjunct Professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Affiliated Scholar at the Penn Program on Regulation. In these roles, she works closely with domestic and international financial regulators.
Previously, Hammer was Managing Director of the Center for Innovation in Finance and Senior Director of the Alternative Investments Program at Wharton. Working with 2023 Nobel Prize winner Dr. Drew Weissman, Hammer led the launch of Penn’s first digital asset, unique 3D intellectual property memorializing the invention of the mRNA technology.
Hammer is Co-Chair of the International Expert Consortium on AI. She is Co-Editor of the forthcoming Oxford University Press Handbook of the Foundations and Regulation of Generative
AI. She is also Academic Director of the Penn Law Executive Education Program on AI. She regularly publishes and speaks about AI.
Hammer is a member of the Bretton Woods Committee and an advisor at the World Economic Forum, the Dubai International Finance Centre, and the Digital Dollar Project. Hammer served two terms over five years as a board member of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the UN specialized agency for ICT and telecommunications infrastructure, services, and access, including satellite, broadband, and internet.
Hammer was Acting Secretary of the Department of Banking and Securities for Pennsylvania and led the Department through the banking crisis of March 2023. The Department regulates and supervises ~290,000 bank and non-bank financial entities, totaling $3.5 trillion in AUM.
Hammer was also Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions at US Treasury. In this role, she led the Office of Financial Institutions Policy, the Federal Insurance Office (including the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program), and the Office of Critical Infrastructure Protection and Compliance Policy (cybersecurity).
At US Treasury, Hammer led the cross-functional team conducting a comprehensive report on the financial regulatory framework. Hammer also served on the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) board and was principal staff to the Treasury Secretary for the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC).
Hammer has held leadership positions throughout financial services in general management, portfolio management, trading, marketing, research, and analytics at the Vanguard Group,
PIMCO, JP Morgan Chase, BlackRock, and Tudor Investments. Her legal experience includes assignments in both federal court and state supreme court.
Hammer earned a JD from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, an MBA from the Wharton School, and a Master of Studies from Oxford University. Awards and honors include the American Law Institute, a Harry S. Truman Scholar, the American Inn of Court, 50 Women to Watch by the Corporate Counsel Business Journal (2024), Pennsylvania City & State AAPI Power 100 (2023), TIME Best Crypto Course (2022), and Special Recognition from the Secretary General of the ITU at the UN.