Avanti Financial Group today announced appointments to its leadership team. The company, which plans to apply for a bank charter under Wyoming’s special-purpose depository institution law, expects to open its doors by early 2021 and to serve as a compliant bridge between digital assets and the U.S. dollar payments system.
“We have assembled a team of all-stars who have significant experience in regulated financial institutions,” said Caitlin Long, founder and CEO. “We’re building a bridge that doesn’t yet exist between two different financial systems, and this team has top-quality execution skills to do it.”
Members of the team will work along with Avanti’s technology partner, Blockstream. They are:
Bryan Bishop, co-founder, chief technology officer: A Bitcoin Core developer, Mr. Bishop was senior blockchain engineer and custody architect of LedgerX, the first CFTC-regulated options exchange and clearinghouse for digital assets, from 2014-2018. He recently created Bitcoin Vaults, a pre-signed anti-theft recovery and clawback mechanism for bitcoin. He has significant prior software engineering experience and has worked on numerous open-source software projects. Mr. Bishop will also join Avanti’s board of directors.
Britney Reddy, co-founder, chief of banking operations and chief financial officer: Ms. Reddy currently provides executive bank consulting services and has previously held CEO, president, CTO, CCO and COO roles at multiple Wyoming community banks. She is currently finishing an assignment and working part-time for Avanti, after which she has committed to join Avanti full-time. Ms. Reddy holds M.S., B.S. and B.A. degrees from the University of Wyoming.
Zev Shimko, co-founder, chief operating officer: Mr. Shimko will be joining Avanti full-time in April. He is currently a director at Figure, focusing on its enterprise blockchain efforts, and before that he headed corporate development at SALT, a crypto-backed lender. He started his career at Morgan Stanley in global capital markets, where he was promoted as part of its STAR program and where he and Ms. Long worked together. Mr. Shimko holds a B.S. from Northeastern University.
Chuck Thompson, co-founder, chief compliance officer and chief legal officer: Mr. Thompson was CEO of Blockchain Consulting LLC and was chief compliance officer of LedgerX, where he worked with Mr. Bishop. Before that, he was in-house counsel at capital markets firms, including Morgan Stanley, and practiced law at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton and Shearman & Sterling. He holds a J.D. from the University of Illinois and a B.A. from Miami University.