Org Chart: A closer look at the people who run Binance

Org Chart maps out the people at the top of Asia’s most prominent tech companies. Who are the key decision-makers? How are the teams organized? What does it tell us about the company’s priorities? We continue this series with crypto exchange Binance.

For a company valued at north of US$90 billion earlier this March, Binance remains an enigma.

The privately owned crypto exchange, officially registered in the Cayman Islands, operates in over 180 countries. Yet, it maintains that it doesn’t have a headquarters. Founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao has flirted with various jurisdictions – from Malta, to Singapore, and now Dubai – after leaving China in 2018 following a crackdown on the crypto industry there.

It’s no surprise, then, that mapping out its org structure hasn’t been straightforward.

Take geography, for instance. Binance has individuals leading operations in certain regions, including Australia, the US, Europe, and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Yet, while the heads of the first two regions have the title of CEO, this hasn’t been extended to the leaders of Europe and MENA.

For example, Richard Teng, who was previously Binance Singapore’s CEO, was later reassigned as regional head of MENA. This was after the cryptocurrency exchange announced that it was withdrawing its application with the Monetary Authority of Singapore for a license to offer digital payment token services.

Perhaps, the markets led by CEOs are those that Binance is prioritizing.

This seems to be the case with Binance US, which is led by CEO Brian Shroder. It operates as a separate company from the main Binance organization and has recently raised over US$200 million to reach a valuation of US$4.5 billion.

Here are a few more observations:

• Binance does not appear to have a CFO currently – former CFO Wei Zhou, who left in 2021, recently emerged as the buyer of Philippine-based fintech firm Coins.ph. The absence of anyone in this major position is unusual for a business of this scale.
• The company has announced many compliance hires – these include global money laundering reporting officer Greg Monahan, senior director of audit and investigations Aron Akbiyikian, and vice president of global intelligence and investigations Tigran Gambaryan. However, the reporting lines of these individuals are unclear. Given the heightened regulatory scrutiny for crypto firms, it’s no surprise that Binance is – and wants to be seen as – beefing up its team in this space.
  Recently, Binance made a key hire: Rohit Wad, who joined as CTO in March this year. Wad joined Binance following decades of experience at blue-chip technology companies such as Meta, Google, and Microsoft.
• A special report by Reuters earlier this year cited five people who had worked with Samuel Lim. The Singaporean national had been Binance’s chief compliance officer since early 2018, and the five individuals cited said he “lacked the experience to manage compliance at a company the size of Binance.” It is unclear whether Lim remains with the firm.

Tech in Asia verified this org chart with some sources familiar with the cryptocurrency firm as well as via publicly available information.

We reached out to Binance for comment and their response was as follows:

“The document shared is entirely inaccurate. Binance – as a matter of policy – does not share its internal management structure for security reasons, to minimize attempts for social engineering, for example.”