Institutional-grade DeFi platform, Avantgarde, has appointed portfolio management specialist Ainsley To as head of asset management.
Avantgarde is known for building and “maintaining the world’s first on-chain asset management protocol, Enzyme.”
Appointed to research, design, and manage Avantgarde’s on-chain strategies, To brings a wealth of experience in “both traditional finance and crypto.” His breadth of knowledge across asset classes and investment strategies will “enable the next stage of growth for the team in building institutional grade DeFi products and navigating DeFi’s next wave of adoption.”
In his role, To will be responsible “for; portfolio construction criteria, risk management and monitoring processes for new strategies and will manage live portfolio risk daily to ensure the portfolio operates within defined risk limits.”
To joins Avantgarde having “spent 14 years in traditional finance, including a decade managing portfolios and multi-asset funds as head of multi-asset at £4bn wealth management firm Credo.” He has also previously “covered crypto as a research analyst at digital asset prime broker Genesis, as a contributor to Messari’s research hub, and in his academic research.”
To has been a CFA charterholder since 2014 and has “a PhD in finance and an MSc in risk & finance from EDHEC Business School, and a BSc from Imperial College.”
Mona El Isa, founder and CEO of Avantgarde commented:
“Ainsley’s experience in traditional finance and DeFi will be invaluable to the continued success and growth of Avantgarde. He is an exceptional individual and a dynamic employee who’s more than capable of taking on the responsibilities of the role. The crypto industry is incredibly fast paced but we’re confident that Ainsley is the right person for the job to help take our business to new heights.”
Ainsley To, head of asset management at Avantgarde said:
“Having experienced first-hand some of the inefficiencies embedded within traditional asset management, I’m convinced that many aspects of DeFi are tailor made to address these challenges. Similarly, I see a lot of low hanging fruit and portfolio management best practices that have yet to be implemented within digital assets and am interested in exploring data driven strategies with longer-term horizons. I’m excited to join a project at the cutting edge of DeFi. I look forward to contributing and learning from a team who are true pioneers at the intersection of crypto and asset management.”
As noted in the update, Avantgarde is “a multi-faceted digital investment business that aims to open the doors to DeFi investment opportunities to institutional investors.”
The team are also the builders of Enzyme, “a decentralized protocol for on-chain asset management, allowing users to create, manage and invest in custom crypto asset management vaults. Before becoming Enzyme the protocol was called Melonport, and it is one of the oldest DeFi protocols running on Ethereum.”
Avantgarde’s institutional-grade DeFi products and services “unlock the full potential of on-chain asset management.”
Its four business units are:
- Avantgarde Asset – Its Asset Management arm builds DeFi investment products that are powered by Enzyme vaults and provides DeFi-native advisory services for a wide variety of users.
- Avantgarde Crypto Fund Platform – Avantgarde Crypto Fund Platform – A regulated and compliant turnkey platform, managing all components necessary for the set up and day-to-day operation of a DeFi crypto fund. Streamline fund set-up, administration and operations so you can reduce the total expense ratios of funds by 80% and increase speed to market 10x.
- Avantgarde Technology – As the core developers of the Enzyme protocol, Avantgarde Technology leverages experience in both DeFi and traditional finance to build products and services on top of Enzyme, the DeFi Operating System.
- Avantgarde Treasury – The Treasury team works collaboratively with both DAOs and corporate treasury managers to manage balance sheets in a safe and transparent manner while still taking full advantage of the rapid pace of innovation and iteration of new financial primitives.
With more than 50+ years of experience in traditional finance at organisations such as Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and UBS, “alongside deep DeFi engineering expertise, Avantgarde is well positioned to help investors safely and compliantly access the best that DeFi has to offer.”