Management Team

Tom Farley

Chief Executive Officer

Tom serves as Chief Executive Officer of Bullish, responsible for creating, planning, and implementing the company’s strategic direction. Previously, Tom served as CEO, President and Chairman of Far Peak Acquisition Corporation, and Far Point Acquisition Corporation. Tom also serves as Chairman of Global Blue Group Holding AG (NYSE: GB).

Tom brings many years of executive leadership in the finance industry, including serving as President of the NYSE Group of Intercontinental Exchange Inc., or ICE, from 2014 to 2018. Tom led all operations for the NYSE and managed a diverse range of equity and equity options exchanges, comprising the largest equities listing and securities trading venue in the world. In this role, Tom spearheaded the NYSE through a significant strategic and operational transition, revitalizing an iconic business and brand. Tom also presided over a series of operational improvements which led to the tripling of profits, the doubling of pre-acquisition operating margin, the reduction of annual costs by US$550 million, and the modernization of NYSE technology. Prior to joining the NYSE, Tom served as the SVP of Financial Markets at ICE, where he oversaw a variety of modernization efforts, strategic acquisitions, and exchange consolidations. Prior to joining ICE, Tom was President of SunGard Kiodex, after serving as its CFO and COO.

David Bonanno

Chief Financial Officer

David serves as Chief Financial Officer of Bullish, responsible for embedding Bullish’s strategic vision across the company to accelerate growth. Prior to becoming CSO of Bullish, David served as CFO, and was a Director of Far Peak Acquisition Corp and Far Point Acquisition Corp. David is also a Director of Sculptor Capital Management (NYSE: SCU).

David’s many years of investment management experience include serving as a Managing Director at Third Point LLC, a New York based investment firm. During his twelve-year tenure at Third Point, David was responsible for analyzing and executing public and private investment opportunities across a broad range of industries including financial technology, financial services, telecommunications, energy, and real estate. Over the years, he has held senior leadership roles at companies that have collectively issued more than US$4 billion in equity and over US$30 billion in debt through the public and private capital markets.

Sara Stratoberdha

CoinDesk CEO

Sara serves as the CEO of CoinDesk, which forms part of the Bullish group. Appointed in February 2024, Sara oversees editorial, events, and indices marketing at the award-winning media outlet. In her prior role as Head of Development at Bullish, Sara held responsibility for marketing, communications, investor relations, and business development including investments and M&A.

Previously, Sara served as Vice President of Far Peak Acquisition Corp and worked for a number of regulated financial institutions including Blackstone, Asante Capital Group LLP, and Credit Suisse. She holds a Bachelor of Science in International Economics from Georgetown University Walsh School of Foreign Service.

Chris Tyrer

President of Bullish Exchange

As President of Bullish Exchange, Chris provides strategic leadership to broaden Bullish’s institutional customer base, expand its regulatory footprint, and drive the platform’s next phase of growth. Prior to this role, Chris served as Vice President, Head of Institutional, where he led strategic initiatives that fueled growth and innovation between the exchange and exchange-related products.

Chris joined Bullish after nearly five years at Fidelity, where he was instrumental in their rapid growth, serving in various leadership roles including Head of Institutional, Head of Europe, and President of Fidelity Digital Asset Management. Prior to Fidelity, he was a Managing Director at Barclays Investment Bank, where he led commodities trading and digital assets.

Chris holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Finance from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

George Gaffney

Chief Operating Officer

George leads global operations for Bullish and is responsible for both the operations and technology infrastructure of the exchange, ensuring that the platform is stable, fast, and secure. He joined Bullish in 2021 as Head of Exchange Platform Technology and Operations. Prior to that, George was Managing Director, Global Head of Platform Services, and Head of Global Markets Technology for Hong Kong at Macquarie Group.

George’s prior roles over a two decade career include Thomson Reuters Japan, where he specialized in market data technology. His expertise is in capital markets technology and operations. George graduated from Monash University with a bachelor’s degree in computing.

Mothusi Majinda

Chief Technology Officer

Mothusi is responsible for all development at Bullish, including trading, custody, and blockchain engineering. He joined the financial services division in 2019 to help grow the engineering team for the exchange product and has held several roles at Bullish across architecture and engineering.

Mothusi brings a decade of experience working in traditional finance where he built equities and derivatives trading systems for companies like JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and Credit Suisse. He started working in crypto in 2018 for OSL, a digital asset platform backed by BC Technology Group, where he was principal engineer building custody solutions. Originally from Botswana, Mothusi holds a Bachelors of Engineering from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Michael Lau

Chairman of Consensus, and SVP, Group Head of Business Development

Michael serves as Chairman of Consensus, and Senior Vice President, Group Head of Business Development at Bullish. Michael leads strategy, partnership, and development efforts for Consensus – CoinDesk’s flagship cryptocurrency, blockchain, and Web3 events globally. In addition, he is responsible for global business development efforts across the Bullish Group ecosystem including the regulated Bullish Exchange, CoinDesk, and Coindesk Indices.

As Chairman of Consensus, Michael was at the helm of the inaugural Consensus Hong Kong conference in February 2025, which attracted nearly 10,000 attendees from over 100 countries to attend one of the most significant crypto conferences globally. Consensus Hong Kong hosted over 300 speakers, generated over 350 side events, generated an estimated HKD $275M in economic impact for Hong Kong, and garnered significant government interest including a specific named mention in the Hong Kong Financial Secretary’s 2025-2026 Budget Speech.

Michael joined the financial services division in early 2020 to lead the institutional sales and marketing of the crypto exchange product that is now known as Bullish. He has held several roles at Bullish and was most recently Senior Vice President, Global Head of Sales.

Michael holds over a decade of experience in traditional capital markets. He previously served as Global Chief Marketing Officer of CLSA, a leading capital markets and investment group, where he spearheaded marketing initiatives for the firm’s alternative asset management, corporate finance, capital markets, securities, and wealth management products and services. Michael’s experience spans his role as Chief Operating Officer, Equity Advisory at CLSA as well as several positions within the equities business at J.P. Morgan.

Originally from Canada, Michael holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Industrial Engineering from the University of Toronto, a Postgraduate Diploma in Strategy & Innovation from the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford, and a certificate of participation in the Chief Marketing Officer Program from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Mark Woods

Head of Product

Mark leads the company’s Product Management function as Head of Product, and has held similar roles since joining the financial services division in 2019. Prior to this, Mark worked at PPD Inc as the Director of Finance Innovation where he was responsible for business systems leveraged by the 25,000+ person organization in both a private and public market setting. During this time, he also ran his own blockchain consulting business, 12Logics Consulting LLC, which specialized in token and smart contract consulting, bitcoin mining, and blockchain education.

Mark holds undergraduate degrees from Virginia Tech in economics and computer science, and a postgraduate degree in information technology.

James Mendes

Chief People Officer

James leads the company’s human resources and corporate operations functions and is responsible for designing and implementing culture and talent structures to support Bullish’s growth. He is responsible for ensuring compliance with company policies, training, adherence to employment laws, and compensation practices.

James brings a wealth of experience in people and talent management and has held senior leadership roles at leading financial institutions, technology, and management consulting firms across Europe, Asia, and Africa. Previously, James was Managing Director of Human Resources at Citibank and held senior positions at Korn Ferry and Alexander Mann Solutions.

Nicholas Armstrong

General Counsel

Nicholas is General Counsel at Bullish, where he leads the legal team’s efforts to help Bullish expand our product offering and geographies served. Previously, Nick was Deputy General Counsel at the technology and investment company Block.one. Prior to that, Nick held senior legal and commercial roles at technology companies in the U.S. and Russia, and before that he was a Senior Associate at Clifford Chance.

He received his Executive M.B.A from INSEAD and has bachelor degrees in Law and Computer Science from the University of Queensland.

Alasdair Foster

Bullish Capital CEO

Alasdair serves as CEO of Bullish Capital where he leads the group’s venture capital investments.

Alasdair initially practiced as a barrister in the UK before working for JPMorgan in London. He moved to the Cayman Islands in 2008 and worked with both the Walkers and Maples groups. He most recently managed the active investment portfolio of the Dart group where he continues to serve as a director. There he had responsibility for a diverse global investment portfolio covering fintech, biotech, hospitality and retail.

Originally from Scotland, Alasdair holds an MA Jurisprudence from Oxford University and an MBA from Cambridge University.