As we head towards the end of an already exciting and eventful Q1 2021, Blockdaemon is thrilled to welcome Cecily Mak as our new Chief Operating Officer. Cecily is a deeply experienced operator, investor, and advisor to a number of start-ups and organisations across tech, blockchain, media, and wellbeing. Cecily joins us from her former role as a partner at the Ethereum product development and investment firm ConsenSys.
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There she drove strategy, operations, and served as portfolio manager for 25+ early stage companies in the emergent blockchain ecosystem. At ConsenSys Cecily was responsible for incubator strategy and oversight, founder coaching, capitalization strategies, and operational excellence for projects throughout the portfolio, all while being a champion for DEI across all efforts. Cecily is also a founding LP of How Women Invest, an early stage venture capital firm that leverages a network of female led investors to identify high potential women-led companies.
When asked about what she’s looking forward to while working with Blockdaemon, Cecily shared:
“I have been chasing disruptive tech throughout my career with an enduring emphasis on industry transitions from analog and centralized to digital and decentralized. As I developed an advisory relationship with Blockdaemon, it became clear that an opportunity to join this phenomenal team was one that I couldn’t pass up. With their already-established high quality bar, they continue to fulfill their mission to build the foundational gateway to connect blockchains to individuals. We’re serving a crucial need in the blockchain ecosystem as the demand for secure and scalable blockchain infrastructure is rapidly accelerating. I couldn’t be more excited to dive in.”
Prior to ConsenSys, Cecily held several roles at the Silicon Valley-based news platform Flipboard including Chief Legal and Business Officer, Chief Revenue Officer, and co-led the company’s corporate development and investor relations functions to raise $150M in two funding rounds (Series C & D).
Previously she was a member of the founding team that spun Rhapsody International, Inc. (now Napster) out of a JV between Viacom and RealNetworks with funding from Best Buy and Universal Music Group. She coaches leaders across her portfolio on fundraising, reorgs, OKR establishment and execution, DEI initiatives, and overall operational efficiency and excellence.
Cecily serves as Chair of the board of directors for the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute (spun out from Google), taught Digital Media Law at UC Hastings for twelve years, and maintains positions on advisory boards of several companies in the enterprise blockchain, consumer software, and mindfulness industries. Cecily’s appointment as COO comes at an important time in the history and growth of Blockdaemon following the recent acquisition of staking and governance platform, Lunie and headcount growth as a distributed global team producing industry leading blockchain infrastructure products and services.
“It’s thrilling to be joining such a strong team with a fantastic product solving real market problems. Our immediate operational challenge is scaling fast enough to meet demand while preserving a very high quality bar. It’s still early days for this industry and Blockdaemon is exactly where it needs to be to meet the moment.”
Stay tuned for more major news on additional services coming soon and check out our marketplace to discover over 30+ supported protocols, API solutions, custodial integrations, and more that we support.
