Marc Robinson
Strategy Executive
Summary
Successful Executive with over 20 years of demonstrated ability in delivering mission-critical results mixed across Financial Services and Digital Asset firms. Offering outstanding communication and cross-cultural team management skills. Entrepreneurial attitude for optimal profitability. Ambitious team leader adept at creating strategic alliances with organizational leaders and effectively aligning with and supporting key business initiatives.
Overview
20
20
years of professional experience
4
4
years of post-secondary education
2
2
Languages
Work History
APAC Head of Market Ops & Chief Operating Officer
Coinbase Singapore
04.2022 - Current
- COO of Coinbase Singapore
- Part of the executive team enabling Go-Live in APAC Markets
- Work with APAC regulators on license approval
- Construct Governance and Operational Framework allowing APAC to grow in compliance of Regulatory requirements
- Work with FX partnerships to review product expansion and cost savings
- Structure the product offering to encourage retail clients and Institutional clients to leverage liquidity of the matching engine
- Work with APAC Institutional and Retails Brokers on structuring partnership opportunities
- Review current processes, and restructure teams to achieve more efficiency, achieving cost savings for $6mm USD in Japan YoY
Global Head of Custody
BitMEX
06.2021 - 03.2022
- Established a segregated custodian business servicing both retail and institutional clients globally for Digital Assets
- Conceptualized and implemented a safekeeping product that allows the firm to generate an additional $1M USD monthly revenue from existing assets
- Ensured all Digital Assets are fully secure whilst also guarantee ease of access for clients via Hot/Warm/Cold Wallets
- Ensured the Custody business line supports new product initiatives created by BitMEX Spot, Derivatives, and Market Making business lines
- Managed a team of 43 people split across multiple jurisdictions and departments to fully drive and support the custody business
- Worked closely with regulatory bodies globally for appropriate licensing where needed
- Built strong external strategic partnerships, and explore new territories such as S.E Asia for new opportunities for market entry
- Nurtured a strong team culture of ownership and recognition by appointing clear KPIs and goals
- Built a business that supports both internal BitMEX business growth, and ability to onboard external clients independently from the trading arm of the firm that are looking for Custodian services
- Rolled out new products to the market such as Staking, Lending/Borrow that can provide additional revenue opportunities to the firm
- Ensured the product roadmap takes into account new protocols/blockchains that are going to be in high demand such as SPL and TRX
- Stayed on top of market trends and market sentiment in order to adapt to the market
- Evaluated what products are gaining long term traction vs short term gain
Chief Operating Officer & Global Head of Digital
SBI Digital Asset Holdings
01.2020 - 06.2021
- Conceptualized and built SBI Digital Asset Holdings and its subsidiaries from a team of 2 to 135 employees with a valuation in excess of $600m USD
- Drove the complete Digital Asset strategy and Implementation for SBI Digital Asset Holdings and its subsidiaries
- Management of team responsible for regional applicable licenses for Capital market and Exchange related business operations
- Established new entities globally to align to business growth and strategy in the Digital Asset ecosystem
- Created Joint Ventures with strategic partners to fuel market opportunity
- Creation of Institutional grade Digital Asset Custody Wallet called SBIWallet
- Running our Prime Brokerage business and product buildout to meet Institutional client needs
- Identifying future product opportunities in the Digital Asset Space such as STOs, NFT, Lending
- Worked closely with CEO to grow the business in a scalable yet cost efficient manner
- Ensured work culture of the firm is continuing to be strong as the firm continues to grow
Head of Strategic Investments
SBI Digital Asset Holdings
09.2019 - 06.2021
- Managed a portfolio of 13 companies with a team of 3 people
- Total portfolio in excess of $175m USD
- Construct, review and negotiate Term Sheets and Investment contracts
- Evaluation of new M&A opportunities in the Digital Asset space (Series A onwards)
- Companies that were evaluated have a specific fit into our broader SBI Digital Asset Holdings growth and eco-system buildout strategy
Chief Operating Officer
SBI Security Solutions
06.2019 - 06.2021
- Assisted in Business Development for our Market Making and Crypto exchange desk
- Established new entities to focus on the wider retail and Institutional client base for Crypto;including custody, settlement, and global buildout
- Worked with Asia regulators, and our Legal and Compliance teams for new regulatory initiatives
- Structured the company to allow for future growth
- Built a team to support and develop this new business
Chief Operating Officer
SBI VC Trade
06.2018 - 01.2019
- Established, expand and productized the Virtual Currencies Crypto retail and exchange business from zero to 50,000 users in first 6 months of going live, and average of 500 new clients a day joining, Managed IT, business, legal and operations to ensure day to day client trading and exchange matching is stable and secure
- Led and direct all global strategic planning & initiatives, conflict management & vendor relationships for the company
- Worked with joint venture partners to expand business into ASEAN
- Established and maintain operational standards, regulatory compliance and quality management
- Built a high performance organization and teams by revamping organizational structure and aligning decision making with strategic goals
Chief Strategy Officer
SBI BITS
12.2017 - 07.2019
- Evaluated upcoming Fintech companies & technologies globally looking for Seed round, or Series A/B funding
- Closed 8 ventures in total
- Average company investment was $10MM - $35MM
- Goal was to bring these firms into the Asia market, levering the power of SBI Holdings, or do Joint venture
Chief Client Relationship Officer & Chief Sales Officer
SBI Japannext
01.2016 - 07.2019
- Generated new sales opportunities, and onboard new clients onto our venue
- Increased monthly revenues in Japannext by 35% in 2017, and 47% in 2018
- Onboarded 4 of the top 8 HFT/Hedge Fund firms in 2017, and an additional 3 in 2018, including the #1 ranked HFT firm
- Maintain regular meetings or calls with clients to keep them abreast of the market changes / regulatory updates, and internal initiatives
- Worked closely with Global Market Makers ,Brokers, Buy side clients on increasing volumes in our venue
- Providing business needs to our technology teams to drive new products into the marketplace
- Created market microstructure analysis reports for our clients with the assistance from the Quantitative teams data repository and analytics
- Worked with our external vendors on contract renegotiation's and SLAs
- Owner of the BCP and DR initiative plan for the company.
APAC and Middle East Regional President
ThreatSTOP
Tokyo
01.2014 - 02.2016
- Worked with other Cyber Security vendors to establish synergies in the Threatstop product working alongside their products
- Managed the business development requirements and create customized solutions of the Threatstop product to tailor the client needs
- Sat in confidential forum meetings with other cyber security cleared members to discuss current and potential threats
- Established and maintain relationships with reseller and partners across the region
- Responsible for the strategy, support, P&L , budgets, and hiring in APAC
- Developed strategies for the region that ensure the firm provides a high level of excellence supporting our clients, achieve cost saving where possible via vendor negotiations, and help grow the business
- Responsible for setting objectives to the team, and providing quarterly strategy reviews to the CEO and Board of Directors
- Created weekly presentations to global management listing the support issues raised / resolution, status of JIRA tickets for the region, status of projects in the region, and budget tracking
Executive Director, Business Development & Sales Manager
J.P Morgan Securities
Tokyo
01.2012 - 01.2014
- APAC strategic business owner for the Electronic Trading franchise, and client connectivity environment covering all major APAC trading exchanges including India, and Australia
- Managed multi-million dollar annual spend budgets, cost reduction initiatives, and performance review initiatives
- Worked closely with APAC Legal, Compliance, Risk to ensure new product offerings are in compliance with firm & regulator rules
- Maintained a close communication channel and worked alongside Senior Global Equity and I.T Management, COO and CTO
- Managed the weekly global management meeting representing APAC, to discuss APAC “Run the Bank” issues, Key regulatory and strategic related projects
- Created a new APAC support team (32 staff) based across APAC, and restructured current businesses to improve stability of systems
- Initiated, managed and sponsored an overhaul of the Equities trading environment in Japan and Hong Kong for market access
- Built strong relationships with Global vendors and technology providers ensuring the firm is up to date with current initiatives
Vice President, Client Coverage Manager
Nomura Securities
Tokyo
09.2008 - 12.2011
- Responsible for developing new initiatives that provide strategic benefits for the firm, pushing technological boundaries to ensure we are constantly competitive
- Project managed multiple exchange and company related projects at the same time, and on time and on budget
- Worked with Equity I.T, Sales, Finance, Legal & Compliance; ensuring any new product or major enhancement were fully signed off, resources allocated, and QA/UAT successfully completed
- Drove Client Hosting, Exchange Co-Location build-outs and new initiatives within the region
- Created and managed a new “Run the bank”, “Change the bank” and Project Management team consisting of >20 people across APAC
- Established relationships, and met new clients, marketing Nomura's suite of products , and maintained existing client relationships
- Worked closely with the Key Trading Exchanges to evaluate any enhancements they had in the pipeline and the impact that it would have on our business
Head of Connectivity
Lehman Brothers Japan Inc
Tokyo
01.2002 - 09.2008
- First regional player to establish Client Hosting Connectivity solutions for Global Clients
- Was the primary person to conceptualize the design, as well as the lead designer and implementer of this solution
- Created a support management initiative that allowed IT to focus on troubleshooting product issues, whilst at the same time ensuring the business is fully updated on progress
- Worked closely with Quantitative Prime Services, providing technical recommendations to design and implement key infrastructure initiatives to meet tactical and strategic business requirements
- Implemented sub-millisecond latency architecture for end to end execution
- Provided real time and interactive support to our global Clients
- Conducted weekly change management meetings representing the infrastructure team within the Asia change management meetings
Intern
ING Barings
London
06.2000 - 09.2001
Skills
Joint Ventures and Partnerships
Board of Directors
2019 - 2021
- Bourse Stuttgart Digital Exchange (Germany)
- Sygnum Bank AG (Switzerland)
- Templum Inc (US)
- Sepior APS (Denmark)
- BRD (Switzerland)
- Japannext (Japan)
Speaking Engagements
- iFX Expo Bangkok - Financial Services Regulation: From Asia to Australia to the World - Sept 2022
- The Block - Crypto Custody In Asia Pacific - Feb 2021
- Cointelegraph - Digital Assets in Asia: Corporate Treasury and Investment Trends - Mar 2021
- Voice of Fintech - SBI Digital Assets: from Japan to the world - Aug 2020
- Multiple FIX Conferences 2015 - 2019
Education
Bachelor of Science - Business Information Technology
Bournemouth University
England 07.1998 - 06.2002
Accomplishments
- Over 20 years relationship with clients and vendors globally in Financial Services space across APAC
- Over 7 Years experience in the Digital Asset/Crypto world
- Strong Interpersonal skills & IT skills
- Highly experienced in change management and incident management
- Present to Board of Directors, Cxx level executives and clients
- Ability to think outside the box and be a team player
- Agile, ITIL, PRINCE II, Kanban Methodology trained
- Japan Securities and Derivatives Association Level 1 & 2 Certified
- Used CRM tools such as Sugar, Sales Force, Hubspot
- Use cross messaging platforms such as Slack, Monday.com, Jira for tracking and management of initiatives
Timeline
APAC Head of Market Ops & Chief Operating Officer
Coinbase Singapore
04.2022 - Current
Global Head of Custody
BitMEX
06.2021 - 03.2022
Chief Operating Officer & Global Head of Digital
SBI Digital Asset Holdings
01.2020 - 06.2021
Head of Strategic Investments
SBI Digital Asset Holdings
09.2019 - 06.2021
Chief Operating Officer
SBI Security Solutions
06.2019 - 06.2021
Chief Operating Officer
SBI VC Trade
06.2018 - 01.2019
Chief Strategy Officer
SBI BITS
12.2017 - 07.2019
Chief Client Relationship Officer & Chief Sales Officer
SBI Japannext
01.2016 - 07.2019
APAC and Middle East Regional President
ThreatSTOP
01.2014 - 02.2016
Executive Director, Business Development & Sales Manager
J.P Morgan Securities
01.2012 - 01.2014
Vice President, Client Coverage Manager
Nomura Securities
09.2008 - 12.2011
Head of Connectivity
Lehman Brothers Japan Inc
01.2002 - 09.2008
Intern
ING Barings
06.2000 - 09.2001
Bachelor of Science - Business Information Technology
Bournemouth University
07.1998 - 06.2002
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