US-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase last Friday announced that it now has a new Chief Operating Officer. As per the statement released by Coinbase, Michael Li – current Vice President of data at the exchange who has been part of the firm for more than a year now will take up the role of new COO replacing Asiff Hirji. Asiff Hirji has been serving as Coinbase’s President and Chief Operating Officer for a period of nearly two years now.
This move comes soon after news of Timothy Plakas’s resignation from US’s numero uno cryptocurrency firm which could be viewed as a sign that major changes are taking place in Coinbase’s top-level management at the moment. Timothy Plakas has been in charge of looking after running Coinbase’s over-the-counter trading desk.
When speaking about the announcement of Asiff’s resignation, Brian Armstrong – Chief Executive Officer and CEO of Coinbase commented, “We’re incredibly grateful for Asiff’s contributions over the past 18 months. His experience and mentorship helped guide Coinbase through an important chapter in its history. He joined at a critical time when both the company and crypto space were going through rapid growth, bringing his extensive experience to bear when it was most necessary”. However, neither Asiff’s LinkedIn profile nor the statement released by Coinbase has any information on the date of Asiff’s resignation from the company. As per the detail in his LinkedIn profile, prior to his current tenure at Coinbase, Michael Li served as Head of Analytics and Data Science at LinkedIn for more than 7 years. Prior to LinkedIn, LI served as an advisor for Coursera and was Analytics manager at eBay and Business analyst at Capital One.
Aside from his commitment to Coinbase, Li also acts as an advisory board member for business analytics and Santa Clara University. As per details in Coinbase’s LinkedIn profile, the company has yet another CEO aside from Asiff Hirji. As per data from the website, Emilie Choi former Vice President and Head of Corporate Development of LinkedIn is also mentioned as Chief Operating Officer of the firm. Emilie is also a part of the Board of Directors at Naspers ltd and ZipRecruiter. While two officers who once held major roles at LinkedIn are a part of Coinbase now, Aside from Asiff & Timothy, two other members of Coinbase family who held key roles moved away from the firm in recent past. They are – Adam White – one of the exchange’s employees from its debut who moved to ICE backed Bakkt as its new COO late last year and Mike Lempres – Board of Director for Coinbase’s custody trust company also left the firm to join Andreessen Horowitz as their Executive in Residence late last year.
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