Leadership
Josiah Hernandez
Founder, CEO, CIO, Global Chairman, President
New York, USA | Cofresi, Dominican Republic
Josiah Hernandez is a FinTech entrepreneur as well as global thought leader and expert on central bank digital currency, bitcoin, and financial market structure; releasing research frequently reviewed by senior leaders at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Bank for International Settlements (BIS), and numerous central banks. His work and expertise has been cited in mainstream publications such as Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Yahoo! Finance, International Business Times, and The Hill. Josiah is a bitcoin early adopter with extensive experience building institutional & retail digital currency liquidity solutions starting in 2013. He currently serves as the global CEO at Satoshi Capital Advisors, an advisory firm that works with central banks, governments, and industry leading corporations on digital transformation, fintech, and growth initiatives. He was previous the business development lead at Coinsetter, an institutional Wall Street based, high frequency trading focused digital currency exchange acquired by Kraken in 2016, and subsequently strategy lead at a large retail bitcoin brokerage firm.
Fun Fact: Josiah outperformed the US hedge fund index with his stock trading when he was just 16 years old.
Tamela Hedstrom
Director, Europe Advisory
Stockholm, Sweden | Dubai, UAE
Tamela Hedström is a Business Developer based in Stockholm, Sweden and with deep experience facilitating business deals and expansion in the Middle East, Latin America, and Europe. She’s worked as a Project Manager for Digital Content Solutions and Growth at numerous large multinational corporations, including McDonalds ($MCD), Subway, Avanza Holdings Bank, and Payer Financial Services AB.
Fun Fact: Tamela is a Grammy-nominated singer.
John Kiff
Director, Head of CBDC/DCM Advisory
Washington, D.C., USA | Ottowa, Canada
John Kiff was a Senior Financial Sector Expert at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from 2005 to 2021. Prior to that, he was at the Bank of Canada for 25 years, where he spent most of his time managing the funding and investment of the government’s foreign exchange reserves, including running its interest rate and currency swap book. At the IMF he was part of the team that produces the semi-annual Global Financial Stability Report covering innovative financial products.
Fun Fact: John owns and operates a farm in Northern Virginia.
Sebastian Urbina
Director, Head of FX Asset Management
San Jose, Costa Rica
Sebastian Urbina is a world leading expert in artificial intelligence and complex machine learning systems. He founded and led Georgia Institute of Technology's Trade, Innovation and Productivity Research Center as well as Genpact’s Forecasting Center of Excellence. He previously headed Genpact’s artificial intelligence and machine learning efforts in supply chain, employing a wide variety of quantitative techniques to solve complicated problems. He holds a Bachelor's and Master’s Degree in Industrial Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, a Master’s Degree in Economics from McGill University, Master’s Degree in Information and Data Science from the University of California, Berkeley, and in-progress Master's Degree in Financial Mathematics from John Hopkins University.
Fun Fact: Sebastian once ran for Vice President in Costa Rica.
Daniel Truque
Director, Asset Management
San Jose, Costa Rica | New York, USA
Daniel Truque is a seasoned executive across research and operations departments with experience scaling large global teams. He is an expert in distributed ledger technology architecture and design, working with the world's largest financial institutions to implement DLT and blockchain technologies. Daniel was previous a portfolio specialist at AQR Capital and Bridgewater Associates, and a former consultant with McKinsey & Co.’s Risk Management Practice.
Fun Fact: Daniel got a Master's Degree in electrical engineering from MIT, then decided he didn't want to be an engineer.
Roberto Gonzalez
Head of Fixed Income Asset Management
New York, USA | Caracas, Venezuela
Roberto Gonzalez is a career long credit strategist and portfolio manager, with extensive expertise and experience in private banking, wealth management, research & credit analysis, and managing proprietary investment portfolios ranging from $100 million to $1.7 billion in assets under management. His started his career as a macro trader at Banco Mercantil in 1993, moving on Banco Santander in 2000 to lead their FX and fixed income trading desk in Venezuela. He subsequently co-founded Ecoanalítica, which went on to become the leading economic consultancy in Venezuela. He has also been a portfolio manager and senior trader at various boutique and bank subsidiary hedge funds throughout Latin America and the United States.
Fun Fact: Roberto and his brother started and sold a cattle breeding business in Venezuela before he immigrated to the US.
Virgilio Lizardo
Head of Bitcoin Exchange Advisory
Phuket, Thailand | Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Virgilio Lizardo is an experienced bitcoin exchange industry executive, leading large teams for leading global bitcoin sector companies since 2015. After starting his career in operations consulting for corporates in the Boston area, he moved to China in the late 2000s and spent the next 11 years working with leading Chinese companies on globalization initiatives. In 2015 he started working with Bitbank Group, a top 4 bitcoin exchange operator in China and top 2 global bitcoin mining equipment manufacturer, leading their international expansion. After a successful tenure, he decided to exclusively focus on the bitcoin exchange industry subsequently joined Gate.io, leading their international expansion into becoming one of the largest bitcoin exchanges in the world with more than $1 billion in daily trading volume.
Fun Fact: Virgilio is the only person on the team who shows up to every meeting in a three-piece suit and tie.
Jeremy Lee
Director, Strategist
New York, USA | Houston, USA
Jeremy Lee is a seasoned technical manager and product builder, with a 20+ year career leading engineering and technology companies at the enterprise and startup level. He spent the first 12 years of his career at Bechtel, working with world leading government and private sector organizations on large scale engineering projects. He has since been focused on building sales, operations, and technical teams and capacity in addition to product and project management at various organizations as both an in-house and external consultant, including Colgate, Scala, Nearshore, Market Realist, and Symbiont. His long term passion is building high performance teams and cultures by utilizing the latest findings and strategies in performance science (peak performance), organizational psychology, and neurobiology to change the culture and output of individuals and organizations.
Fun Fact: Jeremy was a high school American football star, leading his team to Texas state championship victory.
Yusuf Bashir
Director, Head of Africa
Kaduna, Nigeria
Yusuf Bashir is a career technologist with in-depth experience and proven expertise in engineering and product development going back to 2003. Yusuf built one of the first smart city and building automation networks in the world during his time at Johnson Controls in the USA and subsequently was recruited back to Nigeria to build a technology industry incubator in collaboration with the Kaduna state government. He has built private sector and public sector technology solutions bringing monumental change to millions of people across Africa and throughout the world.
Fun Fact: Yusuf is one of the leading proponents of technological education in Nigeria and offers an open-access computer library to the public at our Africa headquarters in Kaduna.