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REDEFINING THE FRONTIER OF DIGITAL FINANCE

We’re Laser Digital. We partner with global financial institutions, bringing
confidence to the digital asset market.
Find out more



MEET LASER DIGITAL

A digital asset business backed by Nomura, we deliver scalable, robust
opportunities across trading, asset management, and ventures. We operate with an
open and dynamic culture that gives us the freedom to adapt to market needs. As
we grow, we share learnings with clients and partners to strengthen the
ecosystem around us.
Find out more


WHY WE'RE DIFFERENT

We are uniquely shaped to help institutions navigate the challenges of digital
assets with confidence through:


FINANCIAL AND DIGITAL ASSET EXPERTISE

Bringing the best of traditional banking and finance expertise to digital
assets.


BUILT-IN AGILITY

The cultural freedom to move, experiment, and adapt to market dynamics.


RESPONSIBLE INNOVATION

Raising the bar on risk management, compliance, and commercial viability, with
technologies, products, and ventures grounded in real market need.


INSTITUTIONAL FOCUS

Focused on shaping an institutional-grade digital asset offering without
compromise—now and for the long term.


ASSET MANAGEMENT

We raise the bar for rigour in digital asset investing. Our innovative suite of
institutional-grade digital asset management strategies is developed with deep
quant expertise and designed with high levels of risk management to offer
diversification to institutional investors.
Get In Touch



TRADING

Our quant-driven liquidity provision and market making capabilities are powered
by a proprietary technology platform, developed against a backdrop of rigorous
risk management and years of experience in systematic trading.
Get In Touch
Trading API


VENTURES

We’re an early-stage investor in companies building innovative institutional
products and services in the digital asset ecosystem, focused on DeFi, CeFi,
Web3, and infrastructure.
Get In Touch



MEET OUR LEADERSHIP TEAM

Our team of experts is headed up by experienced leaders with skillsets in both
traditional and digital finance, bringing rigour and viability to our offering.


GINO WIRTHENSOHN

Chief Legal and Compliance Officer

Gino Wirthensohn is Laser Digital’s Chief Legal and Compliance Officer. He
joined the company in February 2023 from Sygnum Bank, the world’s first
regulated digital asset bank.  At Sygnum, Gino was Chief Legal, Compliance and
RegTech Officer. Before joining Sygnum, Gino co-founded an award-winning
RegTech/FinTech start-up. Prior to working in the start-up space, he held
positions in legal, compliance, and risk management in the banking and
audit/consulting industries, and has worked previously in public notary
services.
Gino holds a Master of Law from the University of Lucerne and an Executive MBA
from the University of Oxford.


PAUL MURPHY

Chief People Officer

Paul Murphy is Chief People Officer and joined Laser Digital from Royal Bank of
Canada where he spent nearly 20 years in senior roles across human resources and
recruitment, latterly in Global Talent and previously as Head of Recruitment for
Europe and Asia Pacific.
Paul started his career at JP Morgan and graduated from the University of Essex
with a BSc in Economics.


HIDEAKI KUDO

Representative Director, Laser Digital Japan

Hideaki Kudo is a Representative Director and is the head of the Laser’s Japan
office. Prior to his appointment at Laser in October 2023, Kudo was an Executive
Director in the Digital Asset Strategy Department of Nomura’s Digital Company,
responsible for its overall project management, including projects such as the
development of security tokens for Nomura Securities and developing the first
real estate security token offering in Japan. Previously, he was a Senior
Portfolio Manager at Nomura Asset Management and has been with the Nomura Group
since 2007.  He has a PhD in Theoretical Physics from Kyoto University. 


CHRIS FLEMING

Chief Client Officer

Chris Fleming is Laser Digital’s Chief Client Officer and joined the company
from Nomura, where he was Vice Chairman of Wholesale EMEA, prior to which he was
the Head of Global Markets EMEA Sales.  Chris began his career in finance in
gilt sales and has held several senior roles in bond and interest rate sales at
Barclays, RBS and UBS. Chris has a Master’s Degree in Economics and Law from the
University of Aberdeen. 


STEVE ASHLEY

Executive Chairman

Steve Ashley is the Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of Laser Digital. He has
over 35 years’ experience in the financial services sector, the last 13 of which
have been with Nomura, where he served most recently as Senior Managing Director
and Head of the Wholesale Division. As Head of Wholesale, Steve served on the
Group Executive Management Board, overseeing the management of all sales and
trading activities globally, as well as the financing and advisory business
across investment banking.
Prior to Nomura, Steve held several senior trading and risk management roles at
RBS and UBS. Steve has served on the board of the Global Financial Markets
Association and the UK Fixed Income Currencies and Commodities Markets Standards
Board.


JEZ MOHIDEEN

CEO

Jez joined Nomura in 2018 as Chief Digital Officer & Co-head of Global Markets
EMEA, where he was responsible for the development and execution of Nomura’s
digital strategy and flow trading.
Prior to joining Nomura, Jez has over 20 years of financial services experience
in macro trading: most recently at Brevan Howard, where he led the development
of systematic trading capabilities with a focus on AI/ML.
Jez has a PhD in Process Systems Engineering and a Masters in Chemical
Engineering from Imperial College, London, and over 10 publications in reputed
international mathematical journals.


OLIVIER DANG

Head of Ventures

Olivier Dang leads Ventures at Laser Digital. His expertise includes investments
in early-stage Web3 companies that are focused on responsible innovation and
technology that meets the challenges of institutional digital asset adoption.
Prior to Laser, Olivier spent over a decade at Nomura, latterly as Global COO of
Wholesale Digital Office. He also serves on the board of Laser Digital and
various portfolio companies of Laser Ventures.
Olivier holds an MBA from London Business School and graduated from the Ecole
D’Ingénieurs du Numérique (ISEP) and Chalmers University with a Masters in
Telecommunication.


CAMERON DICKIE

Head of Distribution - Trading Division

Cameron Dickie joined Laser Digital in March 2023 as Head of Distribution of the
trading division. He has worked in digital assets for the past six years, first
as Head of Broking at digital prime broker Bequant and then as Head of EMEA
Sales at B2C2, a leading crypto liquidity provider.
Cameron started his career in finance as a stockbroker in The City of London and
he graduated from the University of Bristol.


ROMAIN BERRY

Chief Risk Officer

Romain has over 20 years of experience in the financial markets sector and
joined Laser Digital in April 2023 as Chief Risk Officer. Prior to joining Laser
Digital, Romain was the Global Head of Risk at Flow Traders, where he managed a
global team of 25 risk managers across investment, market, counterparty credit,
and operational risks in Equities, FX, Fixed Income and Digital Assets.
Previously, he has held several senior Risk Management positions at top tier
banks including HSBC, Citi, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley.
Romain holds an M.Sc. in Decision Sciences from the London School of Economics,
an M.Phil. in Operational Research from University Paris IX-Dauphine & Ecole des
Mines Paris and a B.Sc. in Economic and Financial Engineering from University of
Montpellier.


SEBASTIEN GUGLIETTA

Head of Asset Management

Sebastien Guglietta is the Head of Asset Management at Laser Digital. His domain
of expertise is in crypto assets and blockchain-based protocols, systematic
macro trading strategies, derivatives arbitrages, and artificial intelligence.
From 2021, Sebastian was Nomura’s Chief Scientist Officer, prior to which he was
a Portfolio Manager and Senior Scientist at Brevan Howard.
 
Sebastian has a M.Sc. from ESSEC Business School, an M.Phil. in Mathematical
Economics and Econometrics from the EHESS, along with a B.Sc. and M.Phil. in
Pure Mathematics.


CRAIG HOWELL

Chief Financial Officer

Craig Howell joined Laser Digital in 2023, having spent the past fourteen years
at Nomura,  latterly in the Tokyo Head Office as the Global Head of Group MI –
Financial Planning and Strategy and before that he held various Finance roles,
based in Tokyo and Hong Kong.
Prior to Nomura, Craig was at Lehman Brothers and he began his career at PwC.
A Chartered Financial Analyst and Chartered Accountant, Craig graduated from the
University of Cape Town with a Bachelor’s of Business Science and a Bachelor of
Commerce in Financial Management.


WASSIL KACHA

Chief Information Security Officer

Wassil is the CISO of Laser Digital. Prior to this, Wassil was at Citi for 18
years in various IT and Information Security roles, latterly as Head of
Cybersecurity Services, EMEA  and Global head of Data Security. He is a
Certified Information Systems Security Professional and graduated with a
Master’s in IT and Computer Science Engineering from Télécom SudParis. He also
has a joint MBA from LSE, NYU Stern, and HEC (Trium program).


FIONA KING

Head of Distribution – Asset Management

Fiona is Head of Distribution for Laser Digital Asset Management and has worked
within digital asset management for the last two and half years, previously as
Head of Distribution for Nickel Digital Asset Management, marketing a range of
alpha and beta crypto funds.
Prior to working in digital,  Fiona was at Bank of America Merrill Lynch,
responsible for their UCITS alternative platform and she was also a director at
Rothschild Asset Management, as global head of their alternative UCITS platform.


JAMES LANCASTER

Chief Operating Officer

James Lancaster is the COO of Laser Digital, prior to which he spent over a
decade at Nomura, latterly as Global Wholesale COO.
 James has over 20 years’ experience of developing and managing business
operations, he joined Nomura in Tokyo in 2010 as COO, Global Rates and Fixed
Income Japan, and later worked in Singapore before relocating to London.
 Before Nomura, James worked at RBS in London and New York where he held several
roles within Finance and Flow Rates Trading. He became the COO for Global Rates
in 2006.
 James has served on the board of the Association for Financial Markets in
Europe.


CHRIS OLD

Chief Administrative Officer

Chris Old is the CAO of Laser Digital with oversight of Operations, Business
Management and Corporate Communications. Previously he was at Nomura for 13
years, latterly as the CAO for Nomura’s wholesale digital office, covering
strategy, transformation, financial management and operational risk management
across FX and fixed income e-trading platforms.
Chris graduated from Loughborough University with a Bachelor’s degree in
Electronic and Electrical Engineering.


GINO WIRTHENSOHN

Chief Legal and Compliance Officer

Gino Wirthensohn is Laser Digital’s Chief Legal and Compliance Officer. He
joined the company in February 2023 from Sygnum Bank, the world’s first
regulated digital asset bank.  At Sygnum, Gino was Chief Legal, Compliance and
RegTech Officer. Before joining Sygnum, Gino co-founded an award-winning
RegTech/FinTech start-up. Prior to working in the start-up space, he held
positions in legal, compliance, and risk management in the banking and
audit/consulting industries, and has worked previously in public notary
services.
Gino holds a Master of Law from the University of Lucerne and an Executive MBA
from the University of Oxford.


PAUL MURPHY

Chief People Officer

Paul Murphy is Chief People Officer and joined Laser Digital from Royal Bank of
Canada where he spent nearly 20 years in senior roles across human resources and
recruitment, latterly in Global Talent and previously as Head of Recruitment for
Europe and Asia Pacific.
Paul started his career at JP Morgan and graduated from the University of Essex
with a BSc in Economics.


HIDEAKI KUDO

Representative Director, Laser Digital Japan

Hideaki Kudo is a Representative Director and is the head of the Laser’s Japan
office. Prior to his appointment at Laser in October 2023, Kudo was an Executive
Director in the Digital Asset Strategy Department of Nomura’s Digital Company,
responsible for its overall project management, including projects such as the
development of security tokens for Nomura Securities and developing the first
real estate security token offering in Japan. Previously, he was a Senior
Portfolio Manager at Nomura Asset Management and has been with the Nomura Group
since 2007.  He has a PhD in Theoretical Physics from Kyoto University. 


CHRIS FLEMING

Chief Client Officer

Chris Fleming is Laser Digital’s Chief Client Officer and joined the company
from Nomura, where he was Vice Chairman of Wholesale EMEA, prior to which he was
the Head of Global Markets EMEA Sales.  Chris began his career in finance in
gilt sales and has held several senior roles in bond and interest rate sales at
Barclays, RBS and UBS. Chris has a Master’s Degree in Economics and Law from the
University of Aberdeen. 


STEVE ASHLEY

Executive Chairman

Steve Ashley is the Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of Laser Digital. He has
over 35 years’ experience in the financial services sector, the last 13 of which
have been with Nomura, where he served most recently as Senior Managing Director
and Head of the Wholesale Division. As Head of Wholesale, Steve served on the
Group Executive Management Board, overseeing the management of all sales and
trading activities globally, as well as the financing and advisory business
across investment banking.
Prior to Nomura, Steve held several senior trading and risk management roles at
RBS and UBS. Steve has served on the board of the Global Financial Markets
Association and the UK Fixed Income Currencies and Commodities Markets Standards
Board.


JEZ MOHIDEEN

CEO

Jez joined Nomura in 2018 as Chief Digital Officer & Co-head of Global Markets
EMEA, where he was responsible for the development and execution of Nomura’s
digital strategy and flow trading.
Prior to joining Nomura, Jez has over 20 years of financial services experience
in macro trading: most recently at Brevan Howard, where he led the development
of systematic trading capabilities with a focus on AI/ML.
Jez has a PhD in Process Systems Engineering and a Masters in Chemical
Engineering from Imperial College, London, and over 10 publications in reputed
international mathematical journals.


OLIVIER DANG

Head of Ventures

Olivier Dang leads Ventures at Laser Digital. His expertise includes investments
in early-stage Web3 companies that are focused on responsible innovation and
technology that meets the challenges of institutional digital asset adoption.
Prior to Laser, Olivier spent over a decade at Nomura, latterly as Global COO of
Wholesale Digital Office. He also serves on the board of Laser Digital and
various portfolio companies of Laser Ventures.
Olivier holds an MBA from London Business School and graduated from the Ecole
D’Ingénieurs du Numérique (ISEP) and Chalmers University with a Masters in
Telecommunication.


CAMERON DICKIE

Head of Distribution - Trading Division

Cameron Dickie joined Laser Digital in March 2023 as Head of Distribution of the
trading division. He has worked in digital assets for the past six years, first
as Head of Broking at digital prime broker Bequant and then as Head of EMEA
Sales at B2C2, a leading crypto liquidity provider.
Cameron started his career in finance as a stockbroker in The City of London and
he graduated from the University of Bristol.


ROMAIN BERRY

Chief Risk Officer

Romain has over 20 years of experience in the financial markets sector and
joined Laser Digital in April 2023 as Chief Risk Officer. Prior to joining Laser
Digital, Romain was the Global Head of Risk at Flow Traders, where he managed a
global team of 25 risk managers across investment, market, counterparty credit,
and operational risks in Equities, FX, Fixed Income and Digital Assets.
Previously, he has held several senior Risk Management positions at top tier
banks including HSBC, Citi, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley.
Romain holds an M.Sc. in Decision Sciences from the London School of Economics,
an M.Phil. in Operational Research from University Paris IX-Dauphine & Ecole des
Mines Paris and a B.Sc. in Economic and Financial Engineering from University of
Montpellier.


SEBASTIEN GUGLIETTA

Head of Asset Management

Sebastien Guglietta is the Head of Asset Management at Laser Digital. His domain
of expertise is in crypto assets and blockchain-based protocols, systematic
macro trading strategies, derivatives arbitrages, and artificial intelligence.
From 2021, Sebastian was Nomura’s Chief Scientist Officer, prior to which he was
a Portfolio Manager and Senior Scientist at Brevan Howard.
 
Sebastian has a M.Sc. from ESSEC Business School, an M.Phil. in Mathematical
Economics and Econometrics from the EHESS, along with a B.Sc. and M.Phil. in
Pure Mathematics.


CRAIG HOWELL

Chief Financial Officer

Craig Howell joined Laser Digital in 2023, having spent the past fourteen years
at Nomura,  latterly in the Tokyo Head Office as the Global Head of Group MI –
Financial Planning and Strategy and before that he held various Finance roles,
based in Tokyo and Hong Kong.
Prior to Nomura, Craig was at Lehman Brothers and he began his career at PwC.
A Chartered Financial Analyst and Chartered Accountant, Craig graduated from the
University of Cape Town with a Bachelor’s of Business Science and a Bachelor of
Commerce in Financial Management.


WASSIL KACHA

Chief Information Security Officer

Wassil is the CISO of Laser Digital. Prior to this, Wassil was at Citi for 18
years in various IT and Information Security roles, latterly as Head of
Cybersecurity Services, EMEA  and Global head of Data Security. He is a
Certified Information Systems Security Professional and graduated with a
Master’s in IT and Computer Science Engineering from Télécom SudParis. He also
has a joint MBA from LSE, NYU Stern, and HEC (Trium program).


FIONA KING

Head of Distribution – Asset Management

Fiona is Head of Distribution for Laser Digital Asset Management and has worked
within digital asset management for the last two and half years, previously as
Head of Distribution for Nickel Digital Asset Management, marketing a range of
alpha and beta crypto funds.
Prior to working in digital,  Fiona was at Bank of America Merrill Lynch,
responsible for their UCITS alternative platform and she was also a director at
Rothschild Asset Management, as global head of their alternative UCITS platform.


JAMES LANCASTER

Chief Operating Officer

James Lancaster is the COO of Laser Digital, prior to which he spent over a
decade at Nomura, latterly as Global Wholesale COO.
 James has over 20 years’ experience of developing and managing business
operations, he joined Nomura in Tokyo in 2010 as COO, Global Rates and Fixed
Income Japan, and later worked in Singapore before relocating to London.
 Before Nomura, James worked at RBS in London and New York where he held several
roles within Finance and Flow Rates Trading. He became the COO for Global Rates
in 2006.
 James has served on the board of the Association for Financial Markets in
Europe.


CHRIS OLD

Chief Administrative Officer

Chris Old is the CAO of Laser Digital with oversight of Operations, Business
Management and Corporate Communications. Previously he was at Nomura for 13
years, latterly as the CAO for Nomura’s wholesale digital office, covering
strategy, transformation, financial management and operational risk management
across FX and fixed income e-trading platforms.
Chris graduated from Loughborough University with a Bachelor’s degree in
Electronic and Electrical Engineering.


GINO WIRTHENSOHN

Chief Legal and Compliance Officer

Gino Wirthensohn is Laser Digital’s Chief Legal and Compliance Officer. He
joined the company in February 2023 from Sygnum Bank, the world’s first
regulated digital asset bank.  At Sygnum, Gino was Chief Legal, Compliance and
RegTech Officer. Before joining Sygnum, Gino co-founded an award-winning
RegTech/FinTech start-up. Prior to working in the start-up space, he held
positions in legal, compliance, and risk management in the banking and
audit/consulting industries, and has worked previously in public notary
services.
Gino holds a Master of Law from the University of Lucerne and an Executive MBA
from the University of Oxford.


PAUL MURPHY

Chief People Officer

Paul Murphy is Chief People Officer and joined Laser Digital from Royal Bank of
Canada where he spent nearly 20 years in senior roles across human resources and
recruitment, latterly in Global Talent and previously as Head of Recruitment for
Europe and Asia Pacific.
Paul started his career at JP Morgan and graduated from the University of Essex
with a BSc in Economics.


HIDEAKI KUDO

Representative Director, Laser Digital Japan

Hideaki Kudo is a Representative Director and is the head of the Laser’s Japan
office. Prior to his appointment at Laser in October 2023, Kudo was an Executive
Director in the Digital Asset Strategy Department of Nomura’s Digital Company,
responsible for its overall project management, including projects such as the
development of security tokens for Nomura Securities and developing the first
real estate security token offering in Japan. Previously, he was a Senior
Portfolio Manager at Nomura Asset Management and has been with the Nomura Group
since 2007.  He has a PhD in Theoretical Physics from Kyoto University. 


CHRIS FLEMING

Chief Client Officer

Chris Fleming is Laser Digital’s Chief Client Officer and joined the company
from Nomura, where he was Vice Chairman of Wholesale EMEA, prior to which he was
the Head of Global Markets EMEA Sales.  Chris began his career in finance in
gilt sales and has held several senior roles in bond and interest rate sales at
Barclays, RBS and UBS. Chris has a Master’s Degree in Economics and Law from the
University of Aberdeen. 

 * Steve Ashley
 * Jez Mohideen
 * Olivier Dang
 * Cameron Dickie
 * Romain Berry
 * Sebastien Guglietta
 * Craig Howell
 * Wassil Kacha
 * Fiona King
 * James Lancaster
 * Chris Old
 * Gino Wirthensohn
 * Paul Murphy
 * Hideaki Kudo
 * Chris Fleming


WE COMBINE CRYPTO-NATIVE AGILITY WITH INSTITUTIONAL RISK MANAGEMENT PRACTICES,
TO EMPOWER THE NEXT ERA OF GLOBAL DIGITAL FINANCE.


CAREERS WITH LASER DIGITAL

We’re looking for ambitious people who are as serious about digital assets as we
are, and who share our belief in the power of responsible innovation.
Get in Touch


CONTACT US


GENERAL INQUIRIES

Let’s connect. Get in touch to learn more about Laser Digital and our portfolio.
Get In Touch


MEDIA INQUIRIES

For media inquiries please get in touch with our team:
Media Contact



COMPANY NEWS

Laser Digital latest news
 * 2024-03-27
   Nomura-Backed Laser Digital Launches Institutional-Focused Polygon Adoption
   Fund
 * 2024-03-07
   Laser Digital, Nomura’s Digital Asset Subsidiary, Announces Strategic
   Partnership with Pyth Network as a Data Provider.
 * 2024-01-10
   WebN and Laser Digital launch Libre, a new institutional Web3 infrastructure,
   powered by Polygon
 * 2023-11-28
   Laser Digital Integrates with Talos to Offer Institutional-Grade Liquidity
   for Digital Assets
 * 2023-11-09
   Laser Digital Asset Management launches Ethereum Adoption Fund for
   Institutional Investors
 * 2023-10-30
   Laser Digital, in cooperation with Nomura, partners with The Sandbox to make
   its debut in the metaverse
 * 2023-10-02
   Laser Digital opens Japan office, appoints Hideaki Kudo as head
 * 2023-09-26
   Laser Digital receives In-Principal Approval from Abu Dhabi Global Market
 * 2023-09-19
   Laser Digital Asset Management launches Bitcoin Adoption Fund for
   Institutional Investors
 * 2023-09-06
   ClearToken completes first phase with successful industry proof of concept
   and moves towards authorisation
 * 2023-08-01
   Laser Digital receives Virtual Asset Service Provider Licence from Dubai’s
   Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority
 * 2023-07-19
   Webn Group announces investment from Laser Digital, Nomura’s digital asset
   subsidiary
 * 2023-07-11
   Laser Digital adds Florent Jouanneau as Partner to its rapidly growing
   ventures business
 * 2023-06-29
   Laser Digital acquires Elysium Technology Group, bringing innovative
   cross-asset post-trade solutions to digital finance
 * 2023-06-19
   Laser Digital Investor Survey on Digital Assets
 * 2023-03-22
   Nomura's Laser Digital Invests in ClearToken Digital Asset Clearing House to
   Enable Market Structure for Institutional Engagement
 * 2023-02-15
   Nomura's Laser Digital Invests in DeFi Protocol Infinity to Accelerate Hybrid
   Finance

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