New York, Feb. 16, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Grayscale Investments®, the world’s largest digital currency asset manager, today announced the official appointment of three new C-suite hires: Hugh Ross as Chief Operating Officer, Benjamin Melnicki as Chief Compliance Officer, and Angela Romano Kuo as Chief People Officer.
This announcement follows closely from the appointment of long-time Managing Director Michael Sonnenshein to CEO in January, and reflects the exponential growth of the firm from a $2B in AUM asset manager in Q1 of 2020 to AUM of over $37B currently. In anticipation of the ongoing growth in investor demand for the firm’s popular digital currency trust products, the firm is focused on aggressively expanding its ranks at all levels and across all functions, including sales, marketing, compliance, engineering, finance, and operations.
“I could not be more excited to announce the addition of Hugh, Ben, and Angela to the Grayscale leadership team,” said Sonnenshein. “All three of them display the unique combination of qualities we most value at Grayscale: ambition, integrity, and professionalism in all that they do. They also bring incredible, market-leading experience from their respective fields that we will begin leveraging immediately.”
Ross joins from Horizon Kinetics LLC, a NYC-based investment manager where he spent 12 years as COO and led the firm’s crypto-asset initiatives including a series of crypto-asset private investment funds and two operating companies dedicated to cryptocurrency mining. Prior to that he was a Vice President at Goldman Sachs where he served as COO of the long-only investment manager research team then-known as Global Manager Strategies (GMS), within Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM), part of the firm’s Investment Management Division. Ross holds a BBA from Emory University and a JD from New York Law School.
Melnicki joins from Ripple Labs, Inc. where he most recently served as its Americas Head of Regulatory Affairs and Regulatory Counsel responsible for advising the business and product teams on the regulatory implications of existing and prospective business activity. Prior to Ripple, he served as Global Regulatory Counsel to Blockchain.com and as CCO and Regulatory Counsel for Noble Bank International. He has also held senior roles at Bank of America Corporation and Cantor Fitzgerald. Melnicki holds a BBA from the University of Delaware and a JD from New York Law School.
Kuo is a seasoned executive with experience building and scaling the People function at several high-growth companies including DevaCurl, VTS, FanDuel, SecondMarket, and TheLadders. Over the span of her 20+ year career, she has helped lead organizations through rapid expansion while focusing on making those organizations amazing places for both career and personal development. She is skilled in coaching, building and nurturing relationships, building teams, and creating environments that drive employee engagement and support professional growth. Kuo holds a BBA and MBA from Ohio Dominican University.
Last year, Grayscale doubled its headcount, and a key focus under Sonnenshein’s CEO leadership is to heavily invest in people, alongside technology and the brand. Open positions at Grayscale Investments for interested candidates can be found here: https://boards.greenhouse.io/grayscaleinvestments
About Grayscale Investments®
Grayscale Investments is the world’s largest digital currency asset manager, with more than $37.8B in assets under management as of February 12, 2021. Through its family of investment products, Grayscale provides access and exposure to the digital currency asset class in the form of a traditional security without the challenges of buying, storing, and safekeeping digital currencies directly. With a proven track record and unrivaled experience, Grayscale’s products operate within existing regulatory frameworks, creating secure and compliant exposure for investors. For more information, please visit www.grayscale.co and follow @Grayscale.