Stephen Leahy

I am a growth-focused Sales and Operating executive with extensive experience in the Digital Assets & FinTech industries. I started my career in Operations, then FX Derivatives for two Institutional Asset Management firms. Post-MBA I joined a start up and spent 15 years building FX Risk Management services and platform companies. I caught the blockchain bug in early 2017 and have been involved in the Digital Assets industry ever since. My broad experience at every operational level of financial services businesses, from operations staff through risk manager, product development, business development, and sr. management has earned me great insight and knowledge into building, launching and growing complex financial technology services. * Joined Circle in Jan 2021 to create and build our Capital Markets vertical within the Business Organization. Our stablecoin (USDC) market cap has gone from $3.8 Billion to $28 Billion in less than 3 years, with 85% of growth from Capital Markets clients and use cases. * Recruited to join a Layer 1 blockchain project (ndau.io) as 3rd employee in Feb 2018. While ultimately unsuccessful, we built & launched a POS blockchain in the Cosmos ecosystem and native token with volatility dampeners and monetary policy rules built into the token. * As COO I successfully turned around a struggling, $30mio/annum currency/OTC derivatives brokerage. Initially responsible for merging two risk management systems and teams, I analyzed operations, rebuilt team, implemented proper risk management, and re-negotiated contracts with liquidity partners to become profitable. Then added responsibilities for Sales & Marketing including a 2m GBP partnership with Manchester City FC. * As Head of Business Development - Americas for oneZero Financial Systems I worked directly with our CEO to target and land strategic partnerships and clients. I also partnered with the company President to create oneZero's Hosted Services business line. Hosted Services quickly became the company's largest source of Revenue, generating over $8m ARR As a Founder I have built three companies; one with venture backing and two bootstrapped: - CMAP was a leader in deconstructing then re-constructing the business model for start-up brokerage firms in the currency/OTC derivatives industry. Sold to oneZero Financial Systems in May 2013 - BackBayFX was a marketing agency that generated over $5 Billion per month in trading volumes. - United Global Markets Group was a CFTC-registered FCM, created in 2006 with backing from Ras al Khaimah-based investment firm, The AA Group