The Bitfury Group, a “full-service” bitcoin and blockchain technology firm, has appointed two experienced financial market professionals ,in order to provide guidance regarding its business strategy and growth.

New Board Members

Antoine Dresch, the founder of Korelya Capital, a venture capital fund firm with €200 million in assets under management, will join Bitfury’s board of directors. Notably, Korelya led an $80 million investment round for Bitfury earlier this month.

Annette Nazareth, an American attorney and former commissioner at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has also joined Bitfury’s advisory board. Commenting on the value and expertise the newly appointed board members will bring to the company, Valery Vavilov, the co-founder and CEO at Bitfury, said:  

Antoine’s years of experience in investment banking and mergers and acquisitions will be valuable assets as Bitfury continues to grow. Annette will serve in a different capacity; as a trusted advisor, she will help guide and support Bitfury by offering her comprehensive knowledge on financial markets and regulation.

Bitfury's Co-Founder & CEO

Before launching Korelya Capital, Dresch served as managing director at Morgan Stanley, a New York-based multinational investment bank with over $850 billion in assets under management. He was also the vice president at Goldman Sachs and managing director at UBS (during the late 1990s and 2000s).

Experienced Attorney To Offer Legal Expertise

Meanwhile, Nazareth is currently partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell, a New York-based international law firm. She is also the head of the firm’s Washington, DC office where she oversees its trading and markets-related legal services (that are managed by Davis Polk & Wardell’s financial institutions group).

As a board member at Bitfury, Nazareth will manage the company’s growth by providing legal expertise related to regulatory compliance requirements as they apply to the world’s financial markets.

In an official statement, Bitfury noted: 

[Nazareth] is an experienced financial markets regulator and recognized authority on regulatory issues. As SEC commissioner, she worked on numerous groundbreaking initiatives, including execution quality disclosure rules, implementation of equities decimal pricing, short sale reforms, corporate debt transparency rules and modernization of the national market system.

Bitfury's Management Team

Nazareth To Speak At Bitfury’s Blockchain Summit In Morocco

Kathleen Collins, Bitfury’s communications associate, told Coindesk that Nazareth was introduced to Bitfury’s senior management team by Tomicah Tillemann, who is also a member of the company’s advisory board.

Expressing enthusiasm regarding Nazareth joining Bitfury, Collins remarked:

We were lucky enough to have Annette attend and speak at our annual Blockchain Summit in Morocco this past summer, where she joined other regulatory and legislative experts to discuss how institutions can be re-imagined to take advantage of new technologies.

Kathleen Collins