Team | HashKey

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HashKey Team

HashKey’s leadership team brings together the trusted track record of decades of institutional investment experience in regulated markets with an unrelenting passion for fintech innovation.

Team Member

Dr Xiao Feng

Chairman

As Chairman of the Board, Dr. Xiao oversees and leads the Group’s activities and strategic direction. He is also currently Vice Chairman and Executive Director of China Wanxiang Holding, and Chairman and CEO of Wanxiang Blockchain. With more than 25 years of experience in the securities and asset management industry, he was previously Co-Founder and Vice Chairman of Bosera Asset Management, one of the largest asset management companies in Mainland China.

Michel Lee

Executive President

Michel leads the Group’s activities and has spearheaded the growth of HashKey across Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo and other locations since its inception. With more than 25 years of international investment banking experience, he brings deep expertise in capital-raising, new product developments and M&A transactions to the digital asset management business. Having worked in London, Tokyo, Beijing and Hong Kong, he joined HashKey Group from UBS, where he was Head of APAC Capital Markets, Head of China Investment Banking and a Board Director of UBS Securities. At UBS he pioneered numerous new derivatives and alternative investment products and business models.

Michel holds an MSc in Computer Science from Imperial College London.

Colin Zhong

CEO of Hash Blockchain Limited

Colin brings nearly 25 years’ experience in trading and financial markets. Prior to joining HashKey Group, he was Head of Global Markets at State Street Bank, and before that APAC Head of Trading in Fixed Income and FX at UBS as well as Deutsche Bank.

Gerry Ifill

Head of HashKey XPert

Gerry has over 15 years of experience in financial services. He recently served as Managing Director at UBS, focusing on institutional sales of fixed income, currencies and commodities. He also worked in Canada at the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions for 6 years, and at Bank of America Merrill Lynch for 5 years, based in Hong Kong and Tokyo. He is a graduate of London Business School and McGill University.

Deng Chao

Managing Director of HashKey Capital

As one of the earliest investors in blockchain and cryptocurrencies in Asia, Deng Chao (DC) has over a decade’s experience in FinTech asset management. Having previously served as a Senior Manager at Bosera Asset Management, China Wanxiang Holding and DataYes, he is also an early founding member of Wanxiang Blockchain Labs. DC holds a Master’s Degree from the University of Hong Kong.

Leo Li

Head of HashQuark, Staking-as-a-Service Business

Leo has more than 12 years of experience in blockchain technology, FinTech and cloud computing. A holder of several patents for distributed computing, Leo founded China’s first innovative blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS) platform. He is also Head of financial cloud and intelligent investment research at DataYes.

TF Cheng

Head of HashKey Singapore

TF brings over two decades of experience in global investment markets. Previously Managing Director and Head of Greater China at BNP Paribas Management, TF is also an angel investor in FinTech, BioTech and consumer tech.

He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in economics and political economy from the University of California, Berkeley.

Andy Dan

Head of HashKey Japan

Andy was previously Product Director at Wanxiang Blockchain. With more than seven years’ experience in the blockchain industry, he started his career as a Software Engineer at SONY Group in Tokyo. Andy has a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science from Jilin University.

Anna Liu

Legal

Anna joined HashKey Group in 2018. She was a Senior Legal Counsel at Tencent, and prior to that worked at Skadden, a leading U.S. based international law firm. With a focus on financial innovation, FinTech and internet sectors, Anna has over 10 years of experience in private equity and investment funds, cross-border investment and M&A, Hong Kong and Overseas Capital Markets.

Anna holds a PRC BAR qualification and a LLM degree from the University of San Francisco.

Ben El-Baz

Ecosystems, Exchange

Ben leads HashKey Group’s strategic partnerships, blockchain applications and asset tokenisation projects, and post-investment management of a US-based tokenised securities firm. Ben is also an Advisor to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and Bank for International Settlements’ projects on tokenised financial products. With over 13 years of experience in Silicon Valley, Mainland China and Hong Kong, he started his career as a derivatives trader, then as a China cross-borders corporate finance analyst, before moving into technology product management and business development, serving Big Tech clients like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon.

Ben is a graduate of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he earned his Master’s degree in Management and currently leads the university’s largest working group on blockchain applications.

Byron Wong

Compliance

Byron oversees all regulatory compliance functions of HashKey Group and its subsidiaries. With nearly two decades’ experience in compliance, he has held Head of Comliance and other senior roles at various asset managers, including Ping An of China Asset Management (Hong Kong), China Re Asset Management (Hong Kong) and GF Asset Management.

Byron holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Professional Accounting from the City University of Hong Kong and a Bachelor’s Degree from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Clara Kwan

Human Resources

Clara joined HashKey Group in 2020 from Value Partners Group, where she was Managing Director of Human Resources. Prior that she was Executive Director of Human Resources at JPMorgan Chase for nearly a decade.

Clara holds an MBA from the University of London and a Bachelor’s Degree from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

David Hui

Information Technology

David has more than 20 years of financial/ banking technology experience in the investment banking and technology sectors. Over the years, he has worked with vendors and system integrators on product integration projects across the US, Japan, Hong Kong and Mainland China. Prior to HashKey, he was the Chief Information Officer at AML/ KYC start-up Aereve, and before that the Shanghai Head of Operations and Compliance Technology at Morgan Stanley.

David holds a BSEE double major in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

David Leahy

Exchange

s Chief Operating Officer, David Leahy will be responsible for overseeing the core operations for the Group’s Exchange Business, as well as developing longer-term growth strategies for the Group.

David joins from J.P. Morgan in Hong Kong, where he was most recently Managing Director and Head of the Financial Sponsors Group for Asia (Private Bank) having previously been the Head of Prime Finance Distribution for Asia at the investment bank. David has further served in various senior financing roles in alternative investments at Credit Suisse and has worked in Hong Kong, Sydney and London, leading the build-out and growth of several business lines. He graduated from the University College Cork with a bachelor’s degree in Law and qualified as a Barrister-at-Law at the Kings Inns, Ireland.

Jaline Han

Marketing & Client Strategy

Jaline is responsible for building and developing all facets of HashKey Group’s marketing and client strategy initiatives. Prior to HashKey, she spent more than two decades in the traditional finance space, holding senior roles in investment banking, capital markets, sales and trading, private equity, investment management at J.P. Morgan, Credit Suisse, Merrill Lynch, Deustche Bank, and the Royal Bank of Scotland among others.

As an active investor and participant in the blockchain community since early 2020, Jaline is a firm proponent of how blockchain technology can revolutionise industries and the way companies conduct business. Jaline has a Bachelor of Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Nejteh Demirian

Client Product Solutions,
Exchange & Brokerage

Nejteh has over 10 years of experience in investment management and technoloy. Prior to HashKey, he was a Portfolio Manager and founding member of Hong Kong family office Fountainhead Partners, managing multi-asset portfolios across various asset classes. He is also a Co-Founder of an incubator building SaaS and digital asset projects.

He holds a double degree, triple major in Engineering, Finance and Economics from the University of Sydney.

Zhang Wu

Finance

Wu has nearly three decades’ experience in corporate finance and accounting, where he served at numerous publicly listed companies, financial institutions and real estate entities in Hong Kong and Mainland China.

Wu is a graduate of York University in Canada and Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing. He is also a member of the Hong Kong Institute of Chartered Professional Accountants (CPA) and the Certified Management Accountants (CMA) of Canada.

Senior Advisors to the Board

James H. Boettcher

Senior Advisor to the Board

James is a Founding Partner of Focus Ventures in 1997, and mainly leads Focus’ business development efforts for its US portfolio companies in Asia. He was also Co-Founder and Managing Director of investment banking boutique Amsterdam Pacific Corporation (APC).

With decades of experience and a successful track record in expansion-stage investing, James was recently highlighted in the upper quartile of the AlwaysOn VC 100 List, and ranked #37 on Forbes magazine list of the Top 100 Most Powerful Venture Capitalists in 2011. He is also a Senior Advisor to Wanxiang Group.

Aaron Low

Senior Advisor to the Board

Aaron is CEO of investment platform firm LUMIQ, and Principal at Lumen Advisors, a global asset management advisory firm. He previously was Head of Portfolio Management at PIMCO, managing global and emerging market bonds and overseeing its investment strategies in Asia.

Aaron is also an Adjunct Professor of Finance at the National University of Singapore and China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), among other educational institutions. He graduated with a PhD in Financial Economics from UCLA Anderson School of Management.

WK Chim

Senior Advisor to the Board

WK Chim joins HashKey Group as Senior Advisor to the Board, focusing on providing independent assessment and advice on the risk frameworks and policies matters across the Group.

WK has more than 30 years of international banking experience and specialises in risk management and internal control, with a particular emphasis on credit risk, market risk, corporate governance and capital management. He currently serves as Independent Non-Executive Director of OCBC Wing Hang Bank and chairs the Bank’s Risk Management Committee. WK’s other previous board experiences included serving as Independent Non-Executive Director for Standard Chartered Bank (China) and for HDR Global Trading Ltd (owner and operator of the BitMEX trading platform). He was the Chief Credit Officer at Bank of China’s Beijing head office from 2007 to 2015.

Dr Xiao Feng

Chairman