Ben El-Baz

Managing Director, Global Expansion & Licensing July 2023 – Present Lead HashKey Group’s global expansion efforts through regulatory market access, strategic partnerships, and institutional enablement. In 2024, successfully drove the company’s entry into three regulated jurisdictions—Bermuda, the EU, and Dubai—within a single year, unlocking product growth and banking capabilities in each market. - Oversaw end-to-end license acquisition strategy, including regulatory engagement, application management, and executive authorization processes. - Appointed as senior executive in each jurisdiction: PCF-approved by the Central Bank of Ireland, Responsible Individual under Dubai VARA, and Senior Representative under the Bermuda Monetary Authority. - Built and maintained senior relationships with central banks, ministries, and financial regulators across Europe and the Middle East. - Secured Tier 1 banking relationships for operating and client-money accounts in both Dubai and Bermuda. - Established and launched local legal entities to support regional operations and new product initiatives. - Led a cross-border team spanning Hong Kong and overseas, covering licensing execution, corporate governance, and regulatory strategy. Head of Ecosystems & Strategy June 2018 – July 2023 Joined as the first employee at HashKey and played a central role in scaling the company from early concept to a 600+ person regulated crypto enterprise with exchange operations in Asia and beyond. - Co-led HashKey’s successful Hong Kong SFC licensing process, including regulatory demos for trading, custody, AML, and surveillance systems. - Initiated the group’s earliest regulatory dialogues with the Singapore MAS, and led joint innovation pilots with the HKMA, BIS, and IMDA. - Oversaw token listing, due diligence, and the development of two ERC20 tokens (platform and staking-related). - Built strategic alliances with VCs, law firms, market makers, and fiat on/off-ramp providers.

The Stanford Blockchain Collective is an interdisciplinary group of students from Stanford's business, law, and engineering schools focused on blockchain technology, creating opportunities for both student-to-student and student-to-industry collaboration.

Head of product strategy at a high-tech startup building the world’s lowest cost open source development kit for IoT devices. Worked on product, business development, and market strategy. • Managed cross-functional technology team building IoT infrastructure platform • Led enterprise client development resulting in company’s first paying customers • Worked alongside CTO to co-develop complex software-hardware systems and development tools

Led product and business development for a $2B market cap semiconductor company based in China and the US. Achievements: • Delivered $60m in revenue for company’s application processor business • Closed company’s first Tier-1 customers and partnerships • Negotiated and closed a complex strategic tie-up between the company and one of the leading semiconductor firms in the U.S., involving IP agreements and technology co-development Responsibilities: • Led product management for open-source IoT solutions • Led Strategic Alliances Group, responsible for developing and managing relationships with Key Operating System Technology Partners • Managed a team of PR/marketing staff

Led product development for a mobile technology supply chain management firm based in Shenzhen, China. Achievements: • Managed and led over 5 complex mobile technology products from concept-to-launch • Built up company’s ecosystem of supply chain partners, covering the entire value chain from manufacturing to logistics Responsibilities: • Led mobile technology product development team building mobile, internet-connected devices • Led product management for cross-functional, multi-lingual engineering groups • Ran client relationships team for overseas clients

Analyst for a boutique, cross-borders corporate finance advisory firm. Achievements: • Lead analyst supporting a successful offering by a Chinese SME in Wuhan to US private investors Responsibilities: • Produced pitchbooks for cross-borders corporate finance activities • Led research and analysis on US/China reverse mergers industry