Alex Shevchenko is a Ukrainian technology and product expert, best known as a co-founder of Aurora, an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) built on the NEAR Protocol. He has over a decade of experience in the information technology sector, with a specialization in blockchain infrastructure and high-performance computing (HPC) that began in 2015. His career includes key roles at the blockchain technology company Bitfury and the NEAR Protocol, which culminated in the creation of Aurora. ^{[1] [2]}

Education

Alex Shevchenko completed graduate studies at Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), earning a Master of Science in Applied Physics and Mathematics (2006–2012) and later a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Applied Physics and Mathematics (2012–2015). ^{[2] [3]}

Career

Shevchenko's early career included a role as a Technical Coordinator at Applied Parallel Computing from September 2011 to May 2014.

His career in blockchain technology began in December 2015 when he joined Bitfury, a European blockchain technology firm. At Bitfury, Shevchenko served as the Head of the Exonum Project until March 2018. In this capacity, he was instrumental in the development of Exonum, one of the first Layer-1 enterprise blockchain platforms. Following this role, he transitioned to become the CEO Business Assistant at Bitfury from March 2018 to March 2020. In this position, he reported directly to the company's CEO and was responsible for driving operations and partnerships across Bitfury's portfolio of emerging technology products.

After a brief period as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at SonoCoin from June to September 2020, Shevchenko joined the product team at NEAR Protocol. While at NEAR, he recognized the protocol’s high performance and potential for Web3 scalability. He theorized that NEAR's capabilities could onboard millions of new users to Web3 if it were made accessible to the large and established developer community of Ethereum. This insight led to the conception and subsequent creation of Aurora.

Shevchenko co-founded Aurora.dev and led the organization as CEO of Aurora Labs, the entity behind the protocol. In late 2025, Aurora announced a leadership transition in which Shevchenko moved from the CEO position to a strategic advisor role. This shift was designed to allow him to concentrate on protocol-level work and interoperability, while a new growth-focused executive was appointed to the CEO role.

In addition to his work with Aurora, Shevchenko is the CEO of Defuse Labs, an organization focused on a project named NEAR Intents. ^{[1] [3]}​