A founder, a Trust Advisory Board, and the hires the Pre-Seed unlocks.

Dimitri is the founder and chief executive officer of Zion Datum Public Benefit Corporation. The combination of a structured legal career in affordable-housing finance and an earlier operating-side background in startups makes him uniquely suited to the problem Zion is built to solve — a consumer-controlled record, consent, and eligibility infrastructure for the 56 million U.S. households the existing benefits and identity systems were never designed to serve.

Dimitri practiced for six years at Klein Hornig LLP, a Washington, D.C. mission-driven firm specializing nationally in the federal and state tax-credit, finance, and regulatory regimes that underpin affordable housing in the United States. His practice centered on the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program under Internal Revenue Code Section 42, the HUD regulatory framework, and the IRS rules governing tax-exempt organizations. He represented nonprofit developers, community development corporations, public housing authorities, syndicators, and tax-credit investors in the structuring and closing of affordable-housing transactions. Before the firm, he served as a fellow at Bread for the City, a D.C. nonprofit legal clinic, representing tenants in redevelopment efforts and as a policy advocate.

Before law, Dimitri worked for the Ohio state government and in public-interest campaigning, and — directly prior to law school — at a procurement-infrastructure startup focused on rural and underserved communities in the local-infrastructure RFP space. That operating-side experience grounds his approach to Zion’s product, go-to-market, and team-building work in a way a purely legal career could not.

The Ohio State University — BA, 2015
Case Western Reserve University School of Law — JD, 2020
Bar admissions: Ohio · Washington, D.C.

REACH · d.mcdaniel at zion-pbc dot com · contact form · press inquiries via the press kit.