Management appointments also include May Szeto as Group HR Director, Jamii Quoc as Head of Legal – Commercial and M&A, Samuel Tse as M&A Director, and Josh Du as Head of Digital Assets Portfolio
22 September 2022 — Animoca Brands, the company advancing digital property rights for gaming and the open metaverse, today announced the appointment of Jared Shaw as chief financial officer as well as other senior management appointments detailed below.
Jared Shaw
Chief Financial Officer
Jared Shaw brings over 20 years of experience across the traditional finance, fintech, and cryptocurrency sectors. As CFO, Jared will oversee and support the strategic financial direction of Animoca Brands and its more than 380 portfolio companies. Most recently, Jared was the head of finance at Gemini, a leading cryptocurrency and NFT platform. Prior to Gemini, Jared was a financial services and fintech consultant at Ernst & Young, where he was one of the founding members of EY’s fintech consulting division. He also worked at Goldman Sachs in fixed income portfolio management and at Prudential Financial as an internal auditor. Jared is a Chartered Financial Analyst and holds an MBA from New York University and an undergraduate degree in physics from Boston University.
Evan Auyang, president of Animoca Brands, commented: “Jared has a wealth of experience spanning audit, asset management, crypto, and more. He joins us at a time when the finance team is growing rapidly and building strong capabilities. Jared brings to us not only relevant experience from leading Gemini’s finance operations, but also extensive business, audit and asset management experience at Goldman Sachs, Ernst & Young, and Prudential. We believe that Jared’s strong leadership background will help to take Animoca Brands to the next level.”
Animoca Brands also made the following senior appointments:
May Szeto
Group HR Director
May Szeto has been appointed as group human resources director. In this role, May will develop and lead group HR functions, driving people strategy and transformation efforts to streamline processes to support organizational development.
May brings 20 years of all-rounded HR experience. Her specialties include change management, organisational development, talent management, and employee relations. Prior to joining Animoca Brands, May spent seven years at Grosvenor Property where she was the head of HR for Asia. During her time there she built the APAC HR team, designed and implemented HR agenda to enable the business for re-positioning, and developed a high-performing team. Before joining Grosvenor, May worked for J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, Nomura Securities, MGPA (now part of Blackrock) and Bloomberg L.P. in various regional HR roles. May holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree (First Class Honours) from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a Masters of Business Administration degree from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
Jamii Quoc
Head of Legal – Commercial and M&A
Jamii Quoc has been appointed as head of legal – commercial and M&A, where she will be responsible for managing the legal team and advising on commercial and investment transactions for the group.
Jamii brings over 20 years of legal experience as a M&A/PE lawyer from both private practice and in-house. Prior to joining Animoca Brands, Jamii was the general counsel at Meridian Capital, where she led the legal team on M&A and capital raising transactions, securities compliance, dispute resolutions, and restructuring. She was also responsible for advising stakeholders and the board and was a member of the investment committee. Prior to Meridian Capital, Jamii was a partner in the M&A practice at Kirkland & Ellis, where she represented private equity firms, major corporations, and investment banks on a broad range of M&A matters, including public takeovers and private M&A, joint ventures, private equity transactions, and distressed M&A transactions. Jamii holds a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) and a Bachelor of Commerce from Monash University, Australia.
Samuel Tse
M&A Director
Samuel Tse has been appointed to the role of M&A director, where he will be responsible for driving the company’s strategic investment, M&A, and joint venture efforts.
Samuel brings over 10 years of experience in corporate finance, strategic M&A, and venture investing. Prior to joining Animoca Brands, Samuel spent more than 4 years at Ant Group, where he led the execution of various corporate investment, joint venture and strategic partnership projects to expand Ant’s presence in international markets. Samuel started his career in investment banking at UBS Hong Kong advising financial institutions on M&A and capital market transactions. Thereafter he joined PAG, one of Asia’s leading alternative investment groups to focus on private equity and special situation investing. Samuel obtained his Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Accounting and Finance from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
Josh Du
Head of Digital Assets Portfolio
Josh Du has been appointed as the head of digital assets portfolio, where he will be responsible for managing Animoca Brands’ digital asset treasury, balance sheet optimization and yielding activities, and group market making and trading operations.
Josh brings over 15 years of experience in the asset investment management industry across multiple asset classes including crypto, equities, and credit. He is an experienced money risk manager, having been entrusted with discretionary portfolios of upward of a billion dollars in his previous portfolio manager roles at multiple tier-1 hedge funds including Horizon Asset LLP and Nine Masts Capital. He was a partner at crypto investment manager Symphony Digital, where he directed research and capital allocation. Josh also previously dabbled in entrepreneurship and co-founded an onchain DEX, but started his career in a more traditional way at Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank’s principal investment desks. Josh is a Chartered Financial Analyst and is a graduate from Tulane University with a major in finance.
Commenting on the recent appointments, Evan Auyang said: “We are excited to have May, Jamii, Samuel, and Josh joining Animoca Brands’ leadership team in the company’s critical capability areas. They are all highly accomplished senior leaders who contribute a wealth of knowledge and experience. As our business expands, we will need to deliver at world class standards with HR, strengthen legal, thoughtfully run our M&A, and manage our diversified digital assets with the utmost professionalism.”
Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands, commented: “I would like to enthusiastically welcome Jared to the Animoca Brands family in the role of our CFO. He is not only a world-class professional with experience in the Web3 space, but he’s also fully aligned with our mission as ecosystem builders. I am likewise thrilled with the appointments of May, Jamii, Samuel, and Josh, who will greatly enhance our capabilities in their respective areas. Animoca Brands has made significant business progress this year, and we are prioritizing the addition of mission-aligned world-class professionals. I look forward to working with all of them.”
About Animoca Brands
Animoca Brands, a Deloitte Tech Fast winner and ranked in the Financial Times list of High Growth Companies Asia-Pacific 2021, is a leader in digital entertainment, blockchain, and gamification that is working to advance digital property rights and contribute to the establishment of the open metaverse. The company develops and publishes a broad portfolio of products including the REVV token and SAND token; original games including The Sandbox, Crazy Kings, and Crazy Defense Heroes; and products utilizing popular intellectual properties including Disney, WWE, Snoop Dogg, The Walking Dead, Power Rangers, MotoGP™, and Formula E. It has multiple subsidiaries, including The Sandbox, Blowfish Studios, Quidd, GAMEE, nWay, Pixowl, Forj, Lympo, Grease Monkey Games, Eden Games, Darewise Entertainment, Notre Game, TinyTap, and Be Media. Animoca Brands has a growing portfolio of more than 340 investments, including Colossal, Axie Infinity, OpenSea, Dapper Labs (NBA Top Shot), Yield Guild Games, Harmony, Alien Worlds, Star Atlas, and others. For more information visit www.animocabrands.com or follow on Twitter or Facebook.
Contact:Animoca Brands: [email protected]
