Animoca Brands has announced the expansion of its executive team with several new hires.

Jared Shaw has been appointed as the company’s Chief Financial Officer, where he will oversee and support the strategic financial direction of both Animoca Brands and its portfolio companies.

Most recently, Shaw worked as the head of finance at cryptocurrency and NFT platform Gemini. Prior to this, he was a co-founder of Ernst and Young’s fintech consulting division, and also worked at Goldman Sachs in fixed income portfolio management.

“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,” said Animoca Brands president Evan Auyang. “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.”

Who's joining the company?

Former Grosvenor Property Head of HR for Asia May Szeto has been appointed as the group HR director, where she will leverage 20 years of HR experience. Szeto has also held positions at J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, Nomura Securities, and Bloomberg L.P.

Jamil Quoc has been appointed as head of legal for the commercial and M&A divisions, where she will be responsible for managing the legal team and advising on commercial and investment transactions for the group. Quoc was previously the general counsel at Meridian Capital, leading the legal team on M&A and capital transactions, securities compliance, dispute resolutions, and restructuring.

Ant Group veteran Samuel Tse has joined the team as M&A director, where he’ll be responsible for driving the companies strategic investment, joint venture, and M&A efforts.

Finally, Josh Du has been hired as the company’s head of digital assets portfolio. An experienced money risk manager, Du has previously held roles at multiple hedge funds, such as Horizon Asset LLP and Nine Masts Capital. He was also previously a partner at crypto investment manager Symphony Digital.

“We are excited to have May, Jamii, Samuel, and Josh joining Animoca Brands’ leadership team in the company’s critical capability areas,” said Auyang. “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.”

Last month, we listed Animoca Brands as one of 2022’s top 50 mobile game makers.