Galaxy Digital's top performers spotted streaming out the door
Crypto investment bank Galaxy Digital hired at a tremendous pace over the past few years. It increased headcount by 200% in 2021, then grew a further 70% last year, reaching 395 employees.
In recent months, the issue has not been finding new employees, but keeping the current ones. After rumors of layoffs back in November, A number top senior staff have left, including the person behind all the headcount growth in 2022.
Some of the biggest names to exit are those who joined from banks. New York-based Robert Bogucki, Galaxy's former head of derivatives trading joined from Barclays in 2021, but quit for Brevan Howard as a portfolio manager in January. Gavin Phillips, who has just left to become a consultant for an undisclosed hedge fund in London, was previously head of sales trading at Japanese bank Nomura.
Chad Berner, who joined Galaxy in 2021 was global head of electronic trading and came from BofA where he was head of electronic FX trading. He left in January to become head of electronic FX trading at Wells Fargo.
Brevan Howard's crypto team is the biggest beneficiary of talent. Alongside Bogucki, Brevan hired Galaxy's algorithmic trading director John Jannes to be a senior product manager for systematic execution in January. Jannes was based in New York and joined Galaxy in 2021 from IHS Markit where he was global head of trading analytics.
Galaxy's chief people officer Jen Lee has also gone. She joined the bank from asset management firm Blackrock a year and a half ago and leaves them now for real estate firm LivCor, a Blackstone company.
Galaxy didn't respond to a request to comment.
Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you’d like to share? Contact: alex.mcmurray@efinancialcareers.com in the first instance.
Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: all our comments are moderated by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. Eventually it will – unless it’s offensive or libelous (in which case it won’t.)
