(L-R) Brian Armstrong and Chris Dodds
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase continues to cherry pick Wall Street as it acquires another longtime serving executive from the San Francisco-based financial services giant Charles Schwab Corp.
In a company blog post, Coinbase said Chris Dodds, Schwab’s former executive vice president and CFO, is joining the board of America’s largest cryptocurrency platform. During his 21 years at Schwab, his responsibilities included overseeing strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, and financial planning and analysis.
Dodds is not the first Wall Street veteran Coinbase has poached to reinforce its institutional offering and get advice on investment opportunities.
On Monday, JPMorgan longtime executive director Oputa Ezediaro joined the San Francisco company to take on a key role within its Institutional Coverage Department.
Coinbase already announced aggressive growth plans for its newly opened New York office and is also building teams in Chicago and London.
Specifically, the largest US crypto exchange and wallet platform expects to increase its manpower by more than seven-fold, from its 20 employees to 150 employees next year.
58-year-old Dodds joined Schwab in 1986 and has held a variety of financial positions. He served as treasurer from 1993 to 1997, as corporate controller from 1997 to 1999, and as chief financial officer since July 1999.
Chris also served as a senior advisor at Washington-based private equity firm The Carlyle Group since 2008. He retired as the chief financial officer and executive vice president at Charles Schwab in May 2007, according to his Linkedin profile.
Coinbase acknowledges that part of the reasons for being focused on hiring executives from Wall Street is to deal with the strict regulatory conditions of acting as a licensed cryptocurrency exchange in the US. The company is also scaling up to meet future demands from the institutional market.
“Dodds’ addition to the Coinbase board is part of our effort to expand our financial services capabilities as we head into this next chapter for the company and the cryptocurrency industry as a whole,” a company statement said.
(Photo: Coinbase)
