MEET THE TEAM

The founders of Blockchain Coinvestors Acquisitions share deep experience in the Internet, financial technology, blockchain and digital currency sectors, as well as in forming, leading, directing and advising companies.

Our management team and board of directors consist of proven leaders and include category-creating entrepreneurs, having developed and managed businesses with attractive business model attributes such as scalable network-effects, open platforms technologies and robust ecosystems. Our team’s deep transaction experience across multiple sectors as buyers and investors is distinctive, having executed, impacted and operationalized numerous transactions. The depth of our management team’s experience extends to a wide range of specialization, including complex regulatory landscapes that may increase our ability to source attractive target opportunities.


EXECUTIVE TEAM


Matthew C. Le Merle is a Managing Director, and serves as Chair of our board of directors. He and Ms. Davis founded and have managed Blockchain Coinvestors since inception and have participated in, advised and sourced opportunities in internet, fintech and blockchain for over 20 years. Mr. Le Merle has served as a Manager of the General Partner and the Investment Manager of Blockchain Coinvestors since its founding. Mr. Le Merle has also served as Managing Partner of Fifth Era, LLC since 2014 and Keiretsu Capital Blockchain Fund Manager, LLC since January 2018, two of the most active early-stage venture managers backing over 300 companies. Mr. Le Merle and Ms. Davis co-wrote the book “Blockchain Competitive Advantage.” Mr. Le Merle is Chair of Concept Art House, Securitize (Europe), Universal Protocol Alliance and Vice Chair of SFOX. He is also currently serving as an advisor to a number of teams including the Trident Acquisitions Corp. SPAC and EC Assets Acquisition Corporation. His board work has included holding Chairman or Non-Executive Director roles in 15 public and private companies. Prior to these roles, Mr. Le Merle held several roles as a strategy, operations and corporate finance advisor to Fortune 500 CEOs, boards and executive teams with McKinsey & Company, as well as A.T. Kearney and Monitor Group, where he led both firms’ West Coast practices and at Booz & Company where he co-led the global digital practice. Mr. Le Merle also served as a corporate executive of Gap Inc., where he was SVP Strategy and Corporate Development and SVP Gap Global Marketing. Mr. Le Merle received his B.A. (Double First) and Masters from Christ Church, Oxford, and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business. Mr. Le Merle is currently married to Alison Davis, one of our Managing Directors. We believe Mr. Le Merle’s significant experience as a global strategy advisor, professional services firm leader, corporate operating executive, private equity and venture capital investor, and board director make him well qualified to serve as a member of our board of directors.

 

Lou Kerner is a Managing Director, and serves as our Chief Executive Officer and a member of our board of directors. He held his first bitcoin webinar in 2013, followed by his first encrypted (or “crypto”) digital currency-related venture capital investment in 2014 as the Manager of the Social Internet Fund. He began focusing full-time on investing in crypto in 2017 as a Founding Partner at CryptoOracle. Mr. Kerner has written more than 200 blog posts on crypto, and has been ranked among the most influential cryptocurrency bloggers on Medium since 2017. Since 2020, he has served as Head Crypto Analyst for Quantum Economics, a digital advisory firm. Mr. Kerner regularly keynotes major crypto industry events, and often appears in the media discussing crypto-related topics. He started CryptoMondays, one of the largest crypto-focused groups on Meetup, with chapters in more than 50 cities around the world. At CryptoMondays, Mr. Kerner has held fireside chats with numerous crypto industry luminaries. Mr. Kerner has been an advisor to Blockchain Coinvestors since 2019, and has served as Manager of the Blockchain Coinvestor syndicate on AngelList since 2020. Mr. Kerner launched The Social Internet (VC) Fund in 2012, where he invested in the private rounds of future public companies including Palantir, LiveRamp and FireEye. Mr. Kerner also served as Chief Executive Officer of Force Protection Video Equipment (d.b.a. BIGToken) from February 2020 through May 2021. In 2015 he joined Flight Ventures where he focused on investing in Israel-based technology companies. Mr. Kerner also has significant public company experience as an equity analyst, beginning his career at Merrill Lynch (1994-1996), before spending four years (1996-2000) at Goldman Sachs following cable and satellite companies. After Wall Street, Mr. Kerner served as the Chief Executive Officer the .tv Corporation, which was acquired by Verisign. That was followed by his role as Chief Executive Officer of Bolt Media, the largest social media company before MySpace. Mr. Kerner has advised other blockchain-related companies including Casper Labs (since 2019), Props (since 2019), Silver Castle (since 2019), and Bancor (since 2020). Mr. Kerner received his BA in economics from University of California, Los Angeles and an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business. We expect Mr. Kerner’s vast network of industry relationships to create proprietary acquisition opportunities for us.

 

Alison Davis is a Managing Director. She and Mr. Le Merle founded and have managed Blockchain Coinvestors since inception and have participated in, advised and sourced opportunities in internet, fintech and blockchain for over 20 years. Ms. Davis has served as a Manager of the General Partner and the Investment Manager of Blockchain Coinvestors since its founding. Additionally, Ms. Davis has served as a Managing Partner of Fifth Era, LLC since 2014 and Keiretsu Capital Blockchain Fund Manager, LLC since January 2018. Ms. Davis and Mr. Le Merle co-wrote the book “Blockchain Competitive Advantage.” Ms. Davis has served as a director of Collibra since October 2019, Fiserv since November 2014, Janus Henderson Group since February 2021 and SVB Financial Group (parent of Silicon Valley Bank) since May 2020. She is the Chair of the Advisory Board for Blockchain Capital LLC, and an advisor to Bitwise Asset Management Inc. Previously, Ms. Davis served as a director of City National Bank, Diamond Foods, First Data Corporation, Ooma Inc., Royal Bank of Scotland (now NatWest Group), Unisys Corporation, and Xoom Corporation and was the Chair of LECG Corporation. She has also been a director of multiple private companies. Ms. Davis was previously the Managing Partner of Belvedere Capital Partners LLC, a regulated bank holding company and private equity firm focused on investing in U.S. banks and financial services firms where she worked closely with the Federal Reserve, the OCC, the FDIC and various state banking regulators. Earlier in her career, Ms. Davis served as the Chief Financial Officer of Barclays Global Investors Corp. (now BlackRock Inc.). She also spent 14 years as a strategy consultant and advisor to Fortune 500 CEOs, boards and executive teams with McKinsey & Company, and as a practice leader with A.T. Kearney where she built and led the global Financial Services Practice. Ms. Davis is also active in the community supporting non-profits and social enterprises as a board director, fundraiser and volunteer. She has been named a “Most Influential Women in Business” multiple times by the San Francisco Business Times. Ms. Davis received a B.A. Honors and a Master’s in Economics from Cambridge University in England, and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business after completing the first-year at Harvard University. Ms. Davis is currently married to Matthew C. Le Merle, one of our Managing Directors and Chair of our board of directors. We believe that we will benefit greatly from Ms. Davis’s regulatory expertise, extensive experience in the financial services industry and serving on public company boards (including as audit chair), experience overseeing acquisitions by public companies, and her deep network of relationships across the blockchain ecosystem.

 

Mitchell Mechigian serves as our Chief Financial Officer. He has served as Chief of Staff for Blockchain Coinvestors Fund Manager, LLC since September 2021 and in various other roles since February 2021. Previously, Mr. Mechigian held various positions at Morgan Stanley from July 2016 through September 2019. Mr. Mechigian received his Masters of Sciences from the London School of Economics and Political Science and B.A. in mathematics and economics from Washington University in St. Louis.


INDEPENDENT DIRECTORS


Gary Cookhorn will serve as a director upon the completion of this offering. Mr. Cookhorn is an experienced finance and investment industry professional. His career has spanned finance, strategy, and operations in both the private and public sector. Mr. Cookhorn is currently a member of Health2047 Capital Partners, a venture capital firm focused on investing in U.S.-based, healthcare startups, including those with promising artificial intelligence, data connectivity and other technology-related solutions. He is involved in all aspects of management of the business, including fund-raising, investing and operational matters. He helped to set up and subsequently became a member of Health2047 Capital Partners after joining Health2047 Inc., a healthcare focused incubator owned by the American Medical Association, where he served as Chief Financial Officer. Before joining Health2047 Inc., Mr. Cookhorn was a managing director at Fortress Investment Group (“Fortress”), a highly diversified global investment management firm, now owned by Softbank. At Fortress, Mr. Cookhorn was involved in client-relationship management and several special projects, including helping to establish Pantera Capital, a blockchain-related investment firm. Earlier in his career, Mr. Cookhorn worked as Finance chief at the New York headquarters of UNFPA, a division of the United Nations Development Programme and later headed the World Bank’s Loan Services Group in Washington, D.C., where he was responsible for financial operations and client services relating to the World Bank’s loan portfolio. He helped establish a major operational center for the bank in Chennai, India. Mr. Cookhorn is an active personal investor and was a pre-IPO investor in Palantir (NYSE: PLTR), amongst other investments. Mr. Cookhorn sits on the advisory board of BizWorld and the board of Accountability Counsel, two non-profit organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area. Mr. Cookhorn received his M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and a B.Sc. in Chemistry from Kings College, University of London. We believe that we will benefit from Mr. Cookhorn’s deep knowledge of the finance industry and his experience in corporate governance.

 

Rebecca Macieira-Kaufmann will serve as a director upon the completion of this offering. Ms. Macieira-Kaufmann is a seasoned CEO with broad leadership experience in sales, marketing, risk management, and international business operations. She draws on deep expertise in the financial services industry and has a demonstrated track record of leading highly successful business turnarounds, scaling new businesses, and expanding operations globally. She is the founding member of the RMK Group, LLC, an advisory and consulting service focused on fintech, digital currency and payment systems, which was formed in June 2020. Previously, she served in various senior leadership roles at Citibank from 2008 until June 2020 and at Wells Fargo from 1996 until 2008. Ms. Macieira-Kaufmann has served as non-executive director of Revolut USA, a global financial technology company, since October 2020, and previously served as a chair of the board of Banamex USA/Servicing Inc. from April 2016 to March 2020 and as a director since 2013. She also has served on the advisory board of DigitalDX Ventures, a majority women-owned impact fund focused on leveraging AI and big data to solve global health issues, since February 2021, as an advisor to Notabene, a privacy-preserving compliance platform for digital currency companies, since December 2020, and the Growth Advisory Council of Duco, which provides data management for financial services firms, since September 2020. In addition, Ms. Macieira-Kaufmann serves as Vice Chair Audit of the San Francisco Symphony Board of Governors and as a director of the Jewish Senior Living Group. Ms. Macieira-Kaufmann receive her B.A. in semiotics from Brown University and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business, and was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Helsinki. We believe that we will benefit from Ms. Macieira-Kaufmann’s deep regulatory experience and network in the financial services sector.

 

Colin Wiel will serve as a director upon the completion of this offering. Mr. Wiel is an engineer, inventor, and entrepreneur. He is currently Co-Founder and Chairman at Mynd Management, a technology focused real estate management company serving the small residential rental sector. He served as Chief Technology Officer from May 2016 until November 2020. Prior to founding Mynd Management, Mr. Wiel was a Co-Founder and Managing Director of Waypoint Homes, Inc., a pioneer in scaling single family rentals that went public on NYSE as Starwood Waypoint Residential Trust (NYSE: SWAY). Mr. Wiel oversaw acquisitions, technology and fundraising for the company. Prior to founding Waypoint Homes, Mr. Wiel founded and sold an e-commerce software engineering firm, and provided Java software consulting services for Hewlett Packard, Oracle and Netscape. Mr. Wiel has been a successful investor in a variety of asset classes including real estate, public markets, venture capital and angel investments. In 2005, Mr. Wiel founded the San Francisco chapter of Keiretsu Forum, the nation’s largest angel investor group. Notable technical achievements include designing an antilock braking system for commercial aircraft for Boeing (two US patents issued). Mr. Wiel also has a passion for biodiversity conservation and has helped launch two companies dedicated to land conservation: the Mamoni 100 and Wildlife Works Carbon. He currently serves as a director for Wildlife Works Carbon and is also the Chairman of Rainforest Capital Management. Mr. Wiel was the founder and Chief Executive Officer of ecoReserve, and previously served on their board of directors. Mr. Wiel was named one of Goldman Sachs’ Top 100 Most Innovative Entrepreneurs and was awarded the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Mr. Wiel received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. We believe that we will benefit from Mr. Wiel’s strong knowledge of artificial intelligence and extensive commercial experience.


PARTNERS