Wave hires Harumi Urata-Thompson as CFO of SEC-regulated crypto investment company

Wave Financial LLC has appointed Harumi Urata-Thompson as Chief Financial Officer, based in New York City and reporting to chief executive David Siemer.

The SEC-regulated digital asset investment management company caters to high-net-worth individuals, crypto corporate entities, and institutional investors. Since launching in 2018, Wave has accumulated over $1 billion in assets under management (AUM), expanding its offerings to include a full-service wealth management platform and a suite of in-house crypto investment funds.

Bringing nearly thirty years of experience to crypto

The appointment of Harumi Urata-Thompson comes at a somewhat difficult time within the digital asset space, as the ‘crypto winter’ proceeds to take down big established names. The collapse of FTX risks extending contagion further.

As Chief Financial Officer, Harumi Urata-Thompson will play an important role in advancing Wave’s financial strategy and expanding its infrastructure to support the firm’s growing and increasingly sophisticated client base. She will be responsible for building out Wave’s financial operations infrastructure and back office solutions to better service the team’s institutional and high-net-worth clients.

Harumi Urata-Thompson joins Wave from Emrit, where she was CFO of the distributed blockchain infrastructure provider. She has nearly thirty years as an experienced, CFA-certified financial officer and business strategist across both the traditional finance and cryptocurrency industries.

Prior to Emrit, she served as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Investment Officer at the Celsius Network, where she oversaw significant growth of the company between February 2020 and November 2021. She left half a year before the collapse of the crypto lending firm.

Prior to joining the team at Celsius, she held multiple senior-level positions at notable firms such as Thomas Reuters, Morgan Stanley, and Citigroup. Harumi began her work in the blockchain industry in 2017 with the founding of cybersecurity and blockchain-specific consulting agency, HUT Consulting LLC.

David Siemer, CEO at Wave, said: “With extensive experience leading teams across both the traditional finance and digital asset sectors, Harumi is well-equipped to provide our team with the immediate strategic insights needed to optimize our financial operations. She is a fantastic addition to our team as we continue to strengthen our position as one of the leading digital asset managers and to deliver sophisticated financial services to our clients.”

Harumi Urata-Thompson, CFO at Wave, commented: “Wave’s leadership team has established the company as a notable digital asset management firm in a short period of time. As investors’ demand for more sophisticated and secure portfolio management services continues to grow, I look forward to further establishing Wave as among the leading investment management firms in Web3.0.”