MFA Digital Investing 2023 - Speakers

Michael is responsible for coordinating the build out of the Firm’s digital asset infrastructure and collaborating closely with all relevant groups across the company. Michael joins us from Meraki Global Advisors, where he was most recently COO for the company, leading the buildout of infrastructure for crypto outsourced trading, and was previously Head of Strategy. Prior to Meraki, he was the Operating Partner and Head of Trading with Thunderbird Partners in London. Michael started his career in various trading and investment roles at Ziff Brothers, Jabre Capital Partners, and GLG Partners.

Kristin is a digital asset expert who brings over 20 years of experience in capital markets on the buy- side and sell-side. Prior to founding CrossTower Kristin was the Chief Legal Officer of a digital asset technology company, MD of an algorithmic trading platform at Guggenheim, and Special Counsel at Schulte Roth & Zabel, where she founded the Structured Products and Derivatives division. Kristin started her career at the SEC and CFTC. She also founded the Digital Asset Regulatory Legal Alliance (DARLA) and Woman in Derivatives (WIND). Kristin earned her JD and MBA from Northeastern University.

Anatoly is an investment professional with 27 years of experience in investment management and private equity. Prior to co-founding Nickel Digital in 2019, Anatoly was with investment management divisions of Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan in London dealing with asset allocation and portfolio construction.

Anatoly earned an MA degree in International Business from the University of National and World Economy in Sofia, Bulgaria and an Executive MBA degree from the University of Oxford in 2009.

He returned to Oxford in 2018 to be among the first cohort of global investment professionals to graduate from Oxford Blockchain Strategy Programme, which ultimately led to cofounding of Nickel Digital.

Nickel Digital is a London-based, regulated crypto hedge fund, running a suite of market-neutral and multi-manager strategies, providing efficient and secure access to digital asset markets for institutional investors.

Over the years, Nickel’s risk-adjusted performance has been recognised by a few industry awards, including EuroHedge 2020 Emerging Manager award, HFM 2021 European Quant Performance award, HedgeWeek’s 2022 European Digital Assets awards, and PAN Finance 2022 award.

John D’Agostino is Senior Advisor to Coinbase Institutional and serves on the board of directors of several of the world’s largest digital asset funds. John has a long background at the intersection of finance and technology. Shortly after graduating from HBS, and as head of strategy for the New York Mercantile Exchange, he helped transition the floor to electronic trading and led the effort to develop the first Middle East energy derivatives exchange in partnership with the Dubai Government. This work, and John’s role, was chronicled as the subject of two NY Times best-selling books, Rigged by local Boston author Ben Mezrich, and The Start Up Of You by LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman. John received a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Harvard Business School and studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford University. He lectures in Fintech at INSEAD, MIT and Columbia universities. In 2019, John was named Chair of the United Kingdom’s US Asset Management Working Group by Her Majesty’s Government.

Steve joined Albourne Partners (Canada) Ltd as an Operational Due Diligence Analyst in 2014 to focus on the credit and fixed income sector before expanding into private markets ODD. Steven has played an important role in developing Albourne’s outlook on operational risk pertaining to digital assets and cryptocurrency sector. Steven joined Albourne from RBC Capital Markets where he worked in Corporate Treasury and Product Control and previously worked for Citco Fund Services in pricing and fund accounting. Steven holds a Bachelor of Administrative and Commercial Studies degree from Western University and has earned both the CFA and FRM designations.

Christopher B. Davis. Chris Davis is a Managing Director and the Deputy General Counsel of Tudor Investment Corporation. Mr. Davis provides legal advice and support on a wide range of subjects, including transactional, regulatory, technological and corporate governance matters. Prior to joining Tudor in April 2012, Mr. Davis was an associate at Linklaters LLP in New York and London (2008-2012). Mr. Davis is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and the University of Texas School of Law.

From derivatives products to cryptocurrencies, Dan Davis helps clients navigate ever-changing regulatory requirements. Drawing on his years of experience as General Counsel at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Dan understands how financial services agencies operate. As an experienced complex civil litigation attorney, Dan can defend clients in any forum.

Clients trust Dan’s experience to help mitigate risks in the face of investigations and enforcement actions and to assess rules issued by financial agencies. From futures commission merchants to swap dealers to derivatives clearing organizations, he is well-positioned to advise on potential enforcement priorities, staff relief and exemptive orders, and submit comments on proposed financial agency rules. Dan has particular experience in handling fraud-related allegations under the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and can help clients develop compliance practices for meeting regulatory requirements. He also has successfully challenged rulemakings by financial agencies, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) first rulemaking under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act regarding proxy access and the SEC’s attempt to regulate fixed indexed annuities.

Gary DeWaal brings substantial experience from both industry and government to his practice counseling clients on exchange-traded derivatives and cryptoassets. He advises a worldwide client base on transactional and regulatory matters relating to those and other complex financial products. Gary’s clients benefit from his deep well of contacts and practical knowledge from his prior work with the world’s largest exchange-traded derivatives broker and, before that, as a senior trial attorney with the Division of Enforcement at the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

Gary understands the urgency that drives the financial industry. His business background also gives him a unique understanding of his clients’ products. This allows him to provide fast and practical responses to clients, often consulting directly with business executives as opposed to legal staff.

Tracy Fong is an alternative investment professional with over 24 years of experience across startups, public technology companies, investment banking, alternatives endowment management, fixed income and foreign exchange, and strategic equities management. She has a passion for global, complex and emergent investment opportunities, e.g. international startup investments in 2004, emerging markets debt in 2008, healthcare structured investments in 2015, SaaS revenue-based loans and marketplace lending in 2016, technology company SPACs in 2017, and crypto assets in ~2014-2017.

With ~23 years of experience across Web 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0, Ms. Tracy Fong is a Partner and Private Markets Investment Due Diligence Analyst at Albourne Partners, a leading investment consulting firm that advises on over $650bn of alternative assets to over 300 institutional clients. She leads the Firm’s global Venture Capital coverage (including crypto/blockchain) and previously served as the co-chair of the Private Markets Investment Committee. Ms. Fong was previously a Managing Director at SVB Capital’s $4bn+ VC fund-of-funds and direct VC fund. Ms. Fong also spent four years at the Harvard University endowment, Harvard Management Company, where she was Vice President of Alternative Assets and worked on HMC’s $20bn+ alternatives portfolio construction, investment manager selection, and direct natural resources transactions (including timber and agriculture). Her Venture Capital experience included allocations to prominent access-constrained firms and strategic transactions resulting from the IPOs of numerous portfolio companies. Prior to business school, she also worked at Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) on the Corporate Finance and Treasury Team during the Web 2.0 era, where her group managed Yahoo!’s $4bn+ fixed income portfolio; worked on structured transactions; and helped manage 30 acquisitions, including the landmark joint venture with Alibaba (NYSE: BABA). Ms. Fong has also worked in Investment Banking at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. During the first technology boom, Ms. Fong began her career at two startup companies, Webvan Group (NASDAQ: WBVN) and Varsitybooks.com. Webvan, a Sequoia and Benchmark-backed company, was one of the first online grocery delivery services, was called by CNET one of the most well-known companies of the dot-com / Web 1.0 era.

Ms. Fong received a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley (honors recognition) and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. In her spare time, Ms. Fong enjoys adventurous international travel (~60 countries), immersive art projects, listening to podcasts, and scuba diving.

Commissioner Johnson was sworn in as a CFTC Commissioner on March 30, 2022, after being nominated by President Joseph Biden in September 2021, and unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate. Commissioner Johnson is a nationally recognized expert on financial markets risk management law and policy with specialization in the regulation of complex financial products including the origination, distribution, and secondary market trading, clearing, and settlement of securities and derivatives. She is an internationally recognized expert on financial markets regulation and corporate governance, compliance, and risk management. Her recent work examines the implications of emerging innovative technologies including distributed digital ledger technologies that enable the creation of digital assets and intermediaries and artificial intelligence technologies that target commercial and consumer financial transactions, transfers, and assessments.

In April of 2021, she testified at a hearing before the United States House of Representatives Financial Services Committee Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions entitled Banking Innovation or Regulatory Evasion? Exploring Trends in Financial Institution Charters. The single-panel hearing discussed policy considerations with respect to banking charters and explored disintermediation in legacy financial markets such as banking and the provision of clearing and custody services. In July of 2019, she testified before the United States House of Representatives Financial Services Committee Task Force on Financial Technology and the Task Force on Artificial Intelligence entitled Examining the Use of Alternative Data exploring the implications of integrating artificial intelligence in financial technology (fintech) platforms.

Prior to joining the Commission, she held endowed professorships at Emory University and Tulane University Law Schools and visiting professorships at prestigious law schools around the nation. She taught courses in the regulation of securities and derivatives markets, financial institutions, including courses on fintech, the development of blockchain technologies and artificial intelligence, as well as corporations and ethical leadership. She is an elected member of the American Law Institute, an American Bar Foundation Fellow, and Chair of the Securities Regulation Section and the Executive Committee of the Business Associations and Financial Institutions and Consumer Financial Services Sections of the Association of American Law Schools.

Prior to entering the academy, Commissioner Johnson served as Vice President and Assistant General Counsel in the Treasury Services Division of one of the largest financial institutions in the world supporting private funds cash management services, a corporate associate at Simpson, Thacher, and Bartlett LLP’s New York and London offices where she represented issuers and underwriters in domestic and international debt and equity offerings, lenders and borrowers in banking and credit matters, and private equity firms and publicly-traded companies in mergers and acquisitions. Before attending law school, Commissioner Johnson served as an analyst in the Asset Management Division of a storied financial institution. She clerked for a federal judge who previously served on the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey.

Commissioner Johnson has a B.S. with honors from Georgetown University Edmund Walsh School of Foreign Service and a J.D. from The University of Michigan Law School where she served as a senior editor on the Michigan Law Review and received the Clara Belfield and Henry Bates International Research Fellowship.

Kelly Koscuiszka advises private funds on regulatory and compliance matters, particularly the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, and works closely with clients undergoing SEC examinations. She also advises clients on environmental, social and governance (ESG), regulatory risks associated with alternative data and other innovative research strategies, privacy and data security and the regulatory challenges presented by new technologies. She leads training sessions for clients, including on topics such as alternative data, insider trading, ESG, the new marketing rule and best practices for electronic communications and technology usage. When necessary, she represents clients in regulatory investigations and enforcement actions by the SEC, DOJ and FINRA as well as in complex civil litigation matters. Kelly is admitted to the Bar in New York and has Court Admissions in the US Supreme Court; the US District Court of New Jersey; the US District Courts in Eastern and Southern Districts of New York.

Kelly received her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and her B.A. from Rutgers University.

Steve Kurz is Partner and Global Head of Asset Management at Galaxy. A member of Galaxy’s founding team, Steve launched and oversees its industry-leading asset management business. Before joining the firm, he Co-founded Outer Realm, an enterprise focused immersive software company (sold in 2022). Previously, he was a Principal and Head of Business Development at River Birch Capital, where he led global capital formation efforts. Prior to that, he was a Vice President at Fortress Investment Group, where he held strategy, product specialist, and capital formation roles in New York and Singapore. He started his career as a Capital Markets Analyst in the Fixed Income Division of Lehman Brothers. He holds a B.A. in Economics from Cornell University. He also serves as a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Omid Malekan is the Explainer-in-Chief of blockchain technology. He’s the author of Re-Architecting Trust: The Curse of History and the Crypto Cure for Money, Markets, and Platforms as well as The Story of the Blockchain: A Beginner’s Guide to the Technology That Nobody Understands.
He is an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School where he lectures on blockchain and crypto.
An eight-year veteran of the crypto industry, his writing has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Harvard Business Review, Forbes, and his own blog on Medium.com.
Malekan advises individuals and corporations on the intersection of the old and new.
Learn more at www.omidmalekan.com

Joe joined Cambridge Associates in 2006 and brings 24 years of investment and alternatives investment experience to his clients.

Joe is a Partner, specializing in building alternative asset and crypto-blockchain allocations.  He began working with clients in crypto-blockchain in 2017.

Joe leads the firm’s manager research in crypto-blockchain and contributes to firm research on alternative assets more broadly.

He also serves as the Head of the firm’s San Francisco and Menlo Park offices.

EDUCATION

MBA, Darden School of Business, University of Virginia

MA, Yale University

BA, University of Southern California

Ms. Molnar joined Fairfax County Retirement Systems in 2013 and currently serves as Chief Investment Officer of the Fairfax County Police Officers Retirement System, a $1.8 billion plan. Her responsibilities include all aspects of portfolio management and oversight, including strategic and tactical asset and risk allocation, selection and supervision of external investment managers and risk management. From 2001 until 2012, Ms. Molnar was Vice President, Senior Research Analyst at AIG Investments’ Hedge Fund Solutions Group – both in London and New York. At AIG Investments, Ms. Molnar was responsible for due diligence procedures and research including: sourcing new managers, monitoring current hedge funds, analyzing portfolio risk and performance, making new investment recommendations to an investment committee as well as hedge fund asset allocation recommendations for portfolio construction. She was additionally responsible for portfolio reviews and overall asset allocation recommendations for external client portfolios. Previously, she was Vice President, Market Research Analyst at Citigroup Investments’ Alternative Investment Strategies group. Prior investment management experience includes positions at Paribas Asset Management as well as Trevor Stewart Burton & Jacobsen. Additionally, Ms. Molnar spent one year in Warsaw, Poland launching the first retail mutual funds available to the Polish market as well as two years in Frankfurt, Germany as an intern with J.P. Morgan. Ms. Molnar received a B.S. in Business Administration/Finance from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a CFA charterholder.

Peter has over 20 years of experience in alternative investments & fintech. Peter also has 5+ years’ experience in the digital asset space, advising & consulting to digital asset managers on best practices from alternative investments, bridging operational gaps. His experience and qualifications include:

Co-Founder and Head of Due Diligence at ClearVest, and is a member of their Investment Committee. ClearVest is an online investment platform which streamlines access to alternative investments, for family offices and independent wealth managers.

Co-Founder and Strategist/Investments Director at Cadena. Client-aligned digital asset investment advice and consulting for high net worth, family office & multi-family offices, and wealth managers.

Event Driven & L/S Equity Strategy Head at ACAM Advisors LLC, where he was responsible for monitoring, evaluating and approving managers in those strategies. He also served as a member of ACAM’s Investment and Research Committees.

Senior Analyst at Weston Capital’s incubator platform, responsible for sourcing and evaluating hedge fund managers for seed investment.

Prior roles while at Weston included serving as a Research Analyst for the fund of hedge funds, responsible for sourcing, investment and operational due diligence, and ongoing monitoring of hedge fund investments.

Advisor to Fairfield University’ s Entrepreneurial/StartUp program.

Masters of Science, Investment Management, from the Questrom School of Business at Boston University, graduating Magna Cum Laude, 2013. Community Contributor Award as voted by Cohort.

Bachelor of Science, Finance from the Dolan School of Business at Fairfield University, 2000

Chris Perkins, Managing Partner and President
Christopher serves as Managing Partner and President of Coinfund. In this capacity, Chris works
to deliver enterprise scale by bridging the gap between crypto-currency native investing and
traditional finance.
Prior to joining Coinfund, Chris served as Global Co-Head of Futures, Clearing and Foreign
Exchange Prime Brokerage (FXPB) businesses at Citi. In this capacity, he was responsible for
delivering leading listed derivative electronic and voice execution, comprehensive central clearing
and #1 ranked OTC Clearing and FXPB services to top institutional clients.
During his tenure, Citi was widely recognized as the global leader in this space, clearing hundreds
of trillions of dollars notional, and safeguarding approximately $40 billion in client assets.
Appointed as the Global Head of FXPB in 2018, he worked closely with numerous global
regulators to architect and execute a comprehensive restructuring and integration plan across
multiple geographies.
Prior to joining Citi in 2008, Chris served as the U.S. Head of Derivatives Intermediation at
Lehman Brothers managing a portfolio of over $100 billion in notional across credit and interest
rate derivatives. An Iraq war veteran, Chris served in the U.S. Marine Corps for nine years
achieving the rank of Captain. Chris is the co-founder of Veterans on Wall Street
(www.veteransonwallstreet.com) a national initiative focused on veterans employment and
empowerment. Mr. Perkins has a Bachelor of Science Degree from the U.S. Naval Academy, with
distinction, and a Master of Arts Degree in National Security Studies from Georgetown University.
Joined: Sept 2021
Email: Chris@coinfund.io
Press Release:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-12/crypto-firm-coinfund-hires-citi-s-perkins
-as-managing-partner

Michelle Perry is Head of ODD at Galaxy Vision Hill, the multi-manager fund of funds business division of Galaxy Fund Management. Michelle joined Galaxy Vision Hill from Aksia, a global research and advisory consultant, where she was a Director of ODD, and the ESG Officer. Prior to joining Aksia in 2014, Michelle was the Head of ODD for Santander. Before joining Santander in 2007, Michelle held various roles with Deloitte, including Audit Manager. Michelle graduated with honors from the University of Cape Town with a BS in Finance and a Postgraduate Diploma in Accounting. She is a Chartered Accountant (South Africa).

Brian has long stood out as an innovative thinker in crypto and DeFi and was one of the earliest leaders in Washington to recognize the value of crypto.

Brian initially joined a16z crypto as a senior advisor. In December 2022, he moved to the full-time role leading its policy team. Prior to joining a16z, he was nominated by both Presidents Obama and Trump to serve as commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and, in August 2017, was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. He also led the agency’s Technology Advisory Committee, which hosted the most comprehensive set of public crypto-related policy discussions and briefings of any federal financial regulator. During his service, the CFTC oversaw the listing of the first U.S.-regulated Bitcoin and Ether futures contracts on derivatives exchanges and the rapid expansion of DeFi. All the while, he was a champion for tailored, risk-calibrated regulation.

Before his appointment to the CFTC, Brian was the Founder and Managing Principal of Saeculum Capital Management, LLC, where he developed and implemented Saeculum’s long-term, momentum-based investment process for both traditional discretionary accounts and a managed-futures, commodity pool hedge fund.

Brian began his career on Capitol Hill, where he worked for 6.5 years and served as senior policy aid to a Member of Congress. He received his B.S. from Duke University and M.B.A. from Georgetown University.

Ethan is a recognized leader in the representation of broker-dealers in regulatory, enforcement, and compliance matters related to federal and state securities laws and regulations, and the rules of self-regulatory organizations such as the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). He also spearheads an emerging practice representing regulated financial technology companies, including mobile-first brokerage platforms, robo-advisers and cryptocurrency focused businesses.

The regulatory portion of Ethan’s work focuses on advising broker-dealers on formation issues, including guiding them through obtaining FINRA membership and the state registration process. He also advises clients on how to obtain FINRA approval of continuing membership applications for changes of ownership and for material changes to their businesses.

Ethan counsels broker-dealers on compliance with Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulations and related FINRA rules, including:

• Net capital and customer protection rules
• Trading and reporting rules
• Foreign broker-dealer/cross-border requirements
• Books and records requirements
• ATS formation and operation
• Rules relating to advertising and sales materials
• Margin rules
• Finder issues and related fee payment/splitting issues

Ethan also guides clients through SEC and FINRA examinations, and helps them develop and update written supervisory procedures and compliance manuals. Financial institutions benefit from his advice on compliance with anti-money laundering regulations and related issues.

Ethan regularly counsels clients on whether they require broker-dealer registration, and assists them in obtaining interpretive guidance and no-action relief from the SEC, FINRA, and the states. He co-authored the “M&A Broker No-Action Letter” granted by the SEC, which permits M&A brokers to receive transaction-based compensation without registering as broker-dealers.

On the enforcement side of his practice, Ethan advises clients on a range of proceedings with the SEC, FINRA, and state regulatory authorities, and he regularly prepares and defends witnesses in:

• FINRA on-the-record interviews
• SEC testimony connected with investigations relating to allegations of fraud, failures to supervise, and sales practice violations
• Form U4 disclosure issues and potential MC-400 applications
• Trading and reporting issues

Chris leads the team’s research process across the digital assets ecosystem and he is responsible for Forest Road Digital Fund’s portfolio construction, manager selection, and due diligence. Chris brings 18 years of experience as a fund allocator, bridging his institutional expertise to this nascent asset class. Chris has a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MComm in Finance from the University of New South Wales. He also has CFA, CAIA, and CPA credentials.

Ross Tan is CEO and co-founder of Syncretic Capital, a new cyclical multi-strategy hedge fund focused on digital asset markets. Prior to launching Syncretic Capital, Ross was at Bridgewater Associates for ~4.5 years where he had roles as both a Senior Management Associate and Investment Associate, and worked across the Core Management, Investment Research and Client Services departments. Alongside his co-founder Dina Tsarapkina, he helped originate and lead Bridgewater’s research on the crypto and digital assets space from late 2020, and has been a personal advisor to various crypto-native projects and venture capital investors since 2017. Prior to his time at Bridgewater, he spent several years as an entrepreneur in the hospitality and education spaces across China and Australia, and was a member of the inaugural cohort of the Schwarzman Scholars Program (2017). He holds a Bachelor of Laws (Hons, 1st) and Bachelor of Asian Studies (Hons, 1st) from Australian National University, and a Master of Management Science (Global Affairs) from Tsinghua University.

Copper.coSabrina Wilson is the Chief Operating Officer of Copper.co.

Prior to joining Copper in March 2022, Sabrina was the Global co-Head of the Listed Derivatives, OTC Clearing and Foreign Exchange Prime Brokerage business at Citi. Sabrina has over 20 years’experience in Financial Services and Global Markets having held a variety of senior roles in New York, London and Singapore for JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank.

Sabrina received a Masters and Post-Graduate in Economics and Finance at the University of Paris – Assas Sorbonne. In 2017, she was voted amongst the top 100 most influential women in Finance (Europe) by Financial News

Milton R. Underwood Chair and Professor of Law, Associate Dean & Robert Belton Director of Diversity, Equity & Community Faculty Co-Director, LL.M. Program, Vanderbilt University Law School