Digital Asset
Trading and Lending

Sameer Shalaby oversees all non-trading/sales functions at VersiFi, with a focus on maximizing value for the company’s clients, employees and shareholders. Prior to founding VersiFi, Mr. Shalaby spent five years as President and CEO of HazelTree Fund Services, a treasury management solutions provider for asset managers, where he oversaw the addition of over 200 of the world’s largest hedge fund managers and private equity managers as clients, resulting in explosive revenue growth. Before HazelTree, Mr. Shalaby was the founder and CEO of Paladyne Systems, an investment management solutions provider that was acquired by Broadridge Financial Solutions in 2011. Previous ventures include founding Cogency Systems, an investor operational management and accounting solutions provider later acquired by BackStop Solutions, and co-founding TenFold Corporation, a technology and vertical applications provider he piloted to an IPO in 1999. Mr. Shalaby started his career at Oracle Corporation as a member of its core technology team. He holds a B.S. from The George Washington University and an M.S. from MIT. He is an active investor in software startups and serves on several technology startup boards.

Martin Garcia oversees all sales and trading functions at VersiFi, with a focus on maximizing value for the company’s clients, employees and shareholders. Before joining VersiFi, Mr. Garcia was among the pioneering employees at SecondMarket, which evolved into Digital Currency Group (DCG). Notably, he played a foundational role in establishing DCG’s wholly owned trading business, Genesis Global Trading. Beginning his professional journey in Bitcoin and other digital assets in 2013, Mr. Garcia steered Genesis to prominence as one of the world’s largest digital currency trading and lending desks before departing in 2021. He earned a B.E. from Vanderbilt University and holds FINRA Series 7, 24, 63 and 53 licenses.

Dr. Valentin Zhigulin has over 15 years of investment management experience in traditional and digital assets. Since 2007, he has worked as an equity portfolio manager at multiple hedge funds, including Visium Asset Management and Citadel Investment Group. Over the last five years, he has focused on investing and trading in digital assets, most recently serving as Chief Investment Officer of a crypto-focused hedge fund. Dr. Zhigulin received a PhD in Physics from the California Institute of Technology.

Sasha Kouperman is an entrepreneur, networker, fintech executive, company and culture builder, investor and mentor. As CTO of VersiFi, he focuses on how technology can drive strategic, corporate and business development. Before joining VersiFi, Mr. Kouperman spent 27 years in the hedge fund industry. He founded, grew and exited InfoHedge Technologies, a well-known MSP in the hedge fund space. Before founding InfoHedge, he spent 10 years as CTO of a large hedge fund, where he architected and built what became known as Paladyne Systems. It was around this time that Mr. Kouperman met VersiFi co-founder Sameer Shalaby, with whom he continued to collaborate on various projects throughout the next 15 years. Over the course of his career, Mr. Kouperman has become an expert on architecting, building and implementing applications and business platforms for hedge funds, asset managers, broker-dealers, fintechs and prime brokerages, from trading and risk management to reference data, portfolio accounting, low-latency market data systems and transport layers, core infrastructure, cloud and cybersecurity. He holds a B.S. from Brooklyn College.

Sol Zlotchenko helps oversee VersiFi’s engineering and product teams. He brings over 25 years of experience driving growth and innovation across the financial services and technology sectors, most recently at Hazeltree Fund Services, a treasury management solutions provider for asset managers, and Paladyne Systems, an investment management solutions provider that was acquired by Broadridge Financial Solutions in 2011. With deep knowledge of buy-side operations, financial engineering and risk management, Mr. Zlotchenko is a proven technology leader whose solutions have consistently delivered value to the world’s foremost financial institutions. He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University.

Daniel Zayfman oversees all systems, networks, security and applications infrastructure at VersiFi, with a focus on protecting assets and minimizing cybersecurity threats. Prior to joining VersiFi, Mr. Zayfman spent six years at Hazeltree Fund Services, a treasury management solutions provider for asset managers, where he oversaw the continued development of an innovative, robust and secure IT environment. Prior to joining Hazeltree, Mr. Zayfman was Vice President of IT and Operations at Paladyne Systems, an investment management solutions provider that was acquired by Broadridge Financial Solutions in 2011, where he played a key role in building its hosted Application Service Provider (ASP) solution. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Touro University.

Adam Guren is the founder and CIO of Hunting Hill Global Capital, which launched its first fund in February 2012. From 2005 to 2011, Mr. Guren managed a global event-driven arbitrage portfolio at First New York Securities, investing in ETF arbitrage, cross-border arbitrage, merger arbitrage, corporate actions and other special situations. In 2007, he was named a partner at FNYS at the age of 26, becoming the youngest partner in the firm’s history to that point. In 2008, Mr. Guren was named to Trader Monthly’s “Top 30 Traders Under 30” list. From 2009 to 2011, he continued to manage his portfolio while a full-time student at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he received an M.B.A. with a focus in Entrepreneurial Management. He also holds a B.A. in Economics from Duke University. Mr. Guren has also enjoyed success on the soccer pitch – as a member of the top-ranked Duke Blue Devils varsity squad, professionally for the MLS’ Columbus Crew and Cleveland Force organizations, and with the U-18 U.S. Men’s National Team.

Dimitri Sogoloff is a founder and CEO of Horton Point, an alternative investment specialist firm. Prior to starting Horton Point in 2006, he was Co-Founder and President of a $3b relative value hedge fund investment firm, which he ran from 1992 to 2006, and a convertible arbitrage and equity derivatives trader at several trading firms, including Baring Securities and Spear Leeds. Mr. Sogoloff has helped launch a number of financial technology firms, with several highly successful exits. He holds a B.S. in Engineering and an M.B.A. in Finance, both from Columbia University.

Dougal Brech has spent over 25 years working in prime brokerage, providing investment banking and financing services to hedge funds. He spent the first 13 years of his career at Morgan Stanley, where he learned his trade. He left in 2007 to head up Credit Suisse’s European Prime Services team, helping to establish the franchise as the region’s top service provider by AUM, a position it maintained for seven years. Mr. Brech joined Nomura in 2018 as the Global Head of Prime Finance, where he reengineered the business: increasing pre-tax income by 500%, negotiating wholesale financing rates to cheaper levels and working with the team to focus on identifying the most profitable clients on a firmwide level. He has also set up smaller entrepreneurial businesses, from listed pub groups to vegan burgers. Mr. Brech holds a degree in Environmental Chemistry from Queen Mary University of London, as well as diplomas in Sustainable Financing from Cambridge University and in Cryptocurrency from MIT.