Vivien Khoo is the Chairman and co-founder of the Asia Crypto Alliance, an industry association that promotes the growth and development, as well as safeguarding the reputation, of virtual assets providers in Asia. She is also a Senior Advisor of StashAway, a digital wealth management platform with more than USD 1bn of assets under management and the APAC Advisor of Delphi Digital, an independent research boutique providing institutional-grade analysis on the digital asset market.
After a long career in senior compliance and regulatory roles, Vivien moved into the digital industry in 2019 where she was the Global Chief Operating Officer and Interim CEO at a leading crypto derivatives exchange. Prior to that, Vivien spent close to two decades at Goldman Sachs where she was the managing director of Goldman Sachs’ Asia Pacific Ex-Japan Compliance division. Vivien had also spent time as a regulator with the HK Securities & Futures Commission.
Vivien’s move across from traditional finance into digital assets was motivated by a realisation that society is currently in the midst of a great transformation in how financial services are created, accessed and delivered. She was keen to be involved in shaping that future - particularly as blockchain technology extends beyond financial services
An ardent advocate for diversity and inclusion, Vivien is the founder of W3W and co-founder of SatoshiWomen, both of which provide education, inspiration and connections to women interested in the digital assets space. She is also an advisory board member for Inspiring Girls and is actively working with universities and schools to pilot programs to raise awareness and provide access and education of Web3 to girls at a young age.
Having been described by Tatler Asia as “a prime mover in cryptocurrency in Asia…on a mission to provide leadership and education,” she talks to Regulatory Ramblings’ host Ajay Shamdasani about her passion for diversity and inclusion in the fintech and Web3 space, and how education to help us get there – especially through the medium of e-games to reinforce the skills needed to function in the digital economy of the future where cryptocurrencies and e-tokens will be an important part of daily interactions and transactions.
They discuss her transition from being a compliance professional to the tech world, her motivations for establishing W3W, the challenges she faced as an entrepreneur, the progress women have made in banking and finance in APAC, and how more can be done to draw women to tech careers at an early age. Their conversation concludes with Vivien sharing her thoughts more broadly on the extent to which Hong Kong’s legal and regulatory system is conducive to the needs of fintech, virtual asset and Web3 entrepreneurs.
HKU FinTech is the leading fintech research and education in Asia. Learn more at www.hkufintech.com.