One of the prime movers in Asia’s cryptocurrency industry, with a mission to provide leadership, connect the industry’s diverse range of players and educate everyone else, Vivien Khoo has helped to set up no fewer than three major industry associations: the Asia Crypto Alliance, and the female-focused Satoshi Women and W3W (Web 3 Women), formerly the Digital Women Leadership Network.

Born in Hong Kong, she was educated partly in the UK and Canada, then back to headed back to Hong Kong to begin her career at Credit Suisse, where she worked initially as an equities trader but soon moved into compliance. She transferred her skills to regulator the Securities and Futures Commission before moving to Goldman Sachs in 2000, eventually rising to the role of managing director and co-head of compliance for Asia Pacific ex-Japan for the investment banking giant. After nearly two decades, she made the unexpected move of stepping down to take over as chief operating officer of crypto exchange Bitmex in 2019, working at the company until 2021.

These days, in addition to the various industry associations she helps to run, she is also a senior advisor to Singapore based retail robo advisory platform StashAway and a board advisor to Hong Kong based crypto exchange Fusang.