Bridging
Established and Digital Finance

Zoe Cruz is the Founder and CEO of Menai Financial Group, and a highly accomplished executive who spent decades at the forefront of the financial services industry, working in trading and capital markets. Zoe had a 25-year tenure at Morgan Stanley, where she was Co-President from 2005 to 2007; in this role, she ran major revenue-generating businesses, including the company’s securities, risk management and information technology organizations. Prior to that, Zoe was the Global Head of Fixed Income, Commodities and Foreign Exchange from 2001 until 2005. She joined Morgan Stanley in 1982 and was the third founding member of the company’s foreign exchange trading group.

Zoe is also a former Senior Advisor at Promontory Financial Group, LLC, and the founder of an investment management firm, Voras Capital Management. In addition to her leadership position at Menai, Zoe serves as Founder and CEO of EOZ Global, a single family office. She also sits on the boards of MAN Group, Bowdoin College Investment Committee, and the Harvard Kennedy School Center for Business and Government Advisory Council. Zoe previously sat on the boards of Ripple, Old Mutual PLC, Morgan Stanley, and Harvard Dean’s Council. Zoe earned her undergraduate and Master of Business Administration degrees from Harvard University.

Jinal Surti is the Head of Menai Finance and Head of the U.K. Office. An experienced leader in the digital finance industry, he joined Ripple in 2015 and developed the go-to-market strategy for the first enterprise blockchain product in the market. Jinal was the Head of Business Operations at Ripple from 2017 to 2020; during this time, he led key strategic initiatives for the company, including global expansion, strategic partnerships, reorganization, annual and quarterly priority setting, and company operations. Prior to Ripple, Jinal managed pricing strategy for an enterprise SaaS company. He began his career in management consulting with Booz & Company, servicing clients in the United States and China. Jinal has an undergraduate degree in Engineering from the University of Waterloo and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.

Marc Vesecky is the Head of Menai Markets and the Chief Risk Officer for Menai Financial Group. Marc has more than 25 years of experience in the financial services industry, most recently as the Chief Risk Officer at Tower Research Capital, where he spent 12 years. Prior to that, he spent four years as a Risk Manager at Citadel Investment Group. Previously, Marc was a Risk Analyst at Man Financial, an independent Equity Options Trader, and an FX and Interest Rates Options Trader for Societe Generale.

Marc earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Economics and Finance, and a Master of Business Administration degree, from the University of Illinois.

Julio Garcia is the CFO and Chief Operating Officer for Menai Financial Group. Julio has decades of experience building successful asset management businesses, most recently as a Founding Partner at FLSV Fund Consulting Services (FCS), an investment operations consulting firm. Prior to FCS, Julio was President, COO and CCO at Contour Asset Management, a global equity long/short hedge fund. Julio was also a Partner and CFO of Perella Weinberg Partners, a global corporate mergers and acquisitions advisory and investment management business, and a Partner and CFO at FrontPoint Partners, a multi-strategy hedge fund business. Julio also held executive positions at Credit Suisse AM, DLJ Merchant Banking, Chancellor LGT and Ernst & Young.

Julio earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Mercy College and is a Certified Public Accountant in the State of New York.

Shubin Jha is the Head of Research & Portfolio Manager for Menai Finance. Shubin has led research efforts across various markets, industries and securities during his 17 years of experience in investing at three hedge funds. Most recently, he spent seven years at Southpaw Asset Management as Managing Director of Research. He has significant experience in studying macro variables, product and market analyses, as well as valuations driven by both fundamental and technical factors.

Prior to Southpaw, Shubin worked with Zoe Cruz at Voras Capital Management, where he conducted macroeconomic and fixed income investment research. Shubin began his career in International Finance in India. He has an undergraduate degree in Economics from Delhi University and a Master of Business Administration degree from New York University.

Laya Khadjavi is the Global Head of Business Development & Client Relations for Menai Financial Group. Laya is a seasoned finance executive with more than 30 years of sell side and buy side experience, with a focus on solution-driven and innovative capital markets and investment products. Before joining Menai, Laya was an independent consultant, providing advisory services to institutions including FinTech companies. Prior to that, Laya was the COO, Head of Strategy and Business Development at ICE Canyon, a global investment management firm specializing in Emerging Markets. Before ICE Canyon, Laya was a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley where, during her 23-year tenure, she held a succession of senior management positions, including the Global Head of Markets in Global Wealth Management and the Global Head of various structured products platforms within the Fixed Income Division in Institutional Securities. Laya began her career as a Financial Analyst at Salomon Brothers.

Laya is a non-executive board member of GoldenTree ABS Management LLC. She also serves on a number of non-profit boards, councils and visiting committees, including the Institute of International Education, Brown University and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Laya holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Mathematics-Economics from Brown University and a Master of Business Administration degree from Columbia University.

Philip N. Duff, an Advisor for Menai Financial Group, is an accomplished executive with decades of experience in the financial services industry. Philip was the Founder and CEO at Massif Partners, an institutional investment company focused on the solvency of funding long-term liabilities. Prior to founding Massif Partners, Philip was one of the founding partners of FrontPoint Partners LLC, an investment management firm, and served as its Chairman and CEO from November 2000 to December 2006. In December 2006, FrontPoint Partners was sold to Morgan Stanley. Prior to starting FrontPoint Partners in 2000, Philip was the COO and Senior Managing Director of Tiger Management from 1998 to 2000. Before joining Tiger, Philip spent much of his career at Morgan Stanley and served as the CFO of Morgan Stanley from 1994 to 1997. From 1997 to 1998, he served as President and CEO of Van Kampen Investments, a mutual fund acquired by Morgan Stanley. Philip started his career at Morgan Stanley in 1984 in investment banking, where he became head of the Financial Institutions Group. Philip received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics from Harvard University and a Master of Business Administration degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Bruce Hemphill, an Advisor for Menai Financial Group, is a United Kingdom qualified lawyer with 28 years of C-suite experience in the financial services industry. Bruce currently serves as an operating partner at Apollo Investment Consulting Europe Ltd.

From 2015 to 2019, Bruce was Group Chief Executive of Old Mutual Plc., where he was Chairman of Old Mutual Wealth and Old Mutual Emerging Markets, and sat on the boards of Old Mutual Plc. and Nedbank. Prior to that, Bruce held executive positions, including Co-Head of Investment Banking at Standard Corporate and Merchant Bank, Deputy Chief Executive at Standard Commercial Bank, Chief Executive at Stanlib Asset Management, Chief Executive at Liberty Holdings Ltd. and Chief Executive at Standard Bank Group Wealth, Insurance and Non-Bank Financial Services.

Stefan Thomas is an Advisor for Menai Financial Group. Stefan has more than 15 years of experience as an open-source developer, a distributed systems advocate and an active angel investor. He is the co-inventor of Interledger Protocol, an open payments technology designed for payments between different stores of value, such as banks, mobile money schemes and blockchains. He is currently the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Coil, a content platform powered by open-source web monetization technology that can stream micropayments. Prior to Coil, Stefan was the Chief Technology Officer of Ripple and one of the architects behind Codius, a universal smart contracts platform. Before that, he developed vast experience in digital currencies as both the founder of WeUseCoins.com, the largest website for novice Bitcoin users, and as the creator of BitcoinJS, a software package used by a wide range of Bitcoin businesses all over the world. Stefan was one of the earliest developers in the Bitcoin ecosystem and played a big part in introducing Bitcoin to the masses in 2011 when he created an animated video “What is Bitcoin?”

Stefan is a Board Member of Imgur, an image sharing platform. He previously served on the boards of Omni, an on-demand storage and delivery solution, and OpenJS Foundation, an entity to help the development and adoption of JavaScript technology.