Our leaders
The Valkyrie team has deep expertise in traditional asset management with extensive backgrounds in building, launching, and scaling financial products with major financial firms. We aim to be the experts across the universe of investment management and digital assets.
Leah Wald
Chief Executive Officer
Leah Wald is the CEO of Valkyrie Investments. She is an economist with an expertise in asset management focused on value investing. As a direct report to the CEO of Vital Financial, Wald spearheaded investment strategies for multi-billion dollar asset managers on global macro strategy.
Read BioLeah Wald
Chief Executive Officer
Leah Wald is an economist with an expertise in asset management focusing on value investing. As a direct report to the CEO of Vital Financial, Ms. Wald spearheaded investment strategies for multi-billion dollar asset managers on global macro strategy.
Prior, Ms. Wald was a Partner at Lucid Investment Strategies, an asset management firm specializing in cryptocurrency investments. Ms. Wald worked at the World Bank Group and co-founded Veterati, a mentorship platform assisting unemployed and transitioning US veterans to secure meaningful employment.
Ms. Wald is a contributing writer for Forbes and co-authored the book Hyperwave Theory: The Rogue Waves of Financial Markets. Ms. Wald has a BA in International Political Economy and a MSc in Management specialized in International Business from IE Business School.
She studied at University of Beijing, University of Haifa, and served as a research assistant to the Director of University of Cambridge's Lauterpacht Centre for International Law where she researched and coded algorithms for a dataset examining the role of arbitrator background for outcomes in international investment arbitration.
Steven McClurg
Chief Investment Officer
Steven McClurg is the Chief Investment Officer of Valkyrie Investments. He has considerable traditional finance and Fintech experience, ranging from insurtech and payments to blockchain. Previously, Mr. McClurg was a Managing Director at Guggenheim Partners, where he was a portfolio manager and...
Read BioSteven McClurg
Chief Investment Officer
Steven McClurg is the Chief Investment Officer of Valkyrie Investments. He has considerable traditional finance and Fintech experience, ranging from insurtech and payments to blockchain.
Previously, Mr. McClurg was a Managing Director at Guggenheim Partners, where he was a portfolio manager and responsible for portfolio construction and strategy for fixed income and private equity. Most recently, Mr. McClurg founded Theseus Capital, a blockchain-powered asset management platform which was acquired by a merchant bank, Galaxy Digital, where he continued as Managing Director, building their asset management and public funds businesses. He also co-founded payments company, Paydrop. He also has experience in leadership roles in technology companies such as Electronic Arts and Crowdfunder. Mr. McClurg holds a Master of Science and an MBA from Pepperdine University, where he has served as an adjunct professor.
Nick Bonos
Head of Fund Operations
Nikolaos (Nick) Bonos has been in the financial services industry for more than 32 years. He has worked in various senior operational roles for State Street, JP Morgan Chase, Rydex Investments, Security Benefit Corp., Guggenheim Investments, and MUFG Investor Services (US), LLC.
Read BioNick Bonos
Head of Fund Operations
Nikolaos (Nick) Bonos has been in the financial services industry for more than 32 years. He has worked in various senior operational roles for State Street, JP Morgan Chase, Rydex Investments, Security Benefit Corp., Guggenheim Investments, and MUFG Investor Services (US), LLC. He also has held various senior officer roles for the Rydex Funds, Rydex ETF’s, Rydex Specialized Products LLC, Security Funds, Guggenheim Funds, and Guggenheim ETF’s throughout the years.
He also assisted in the transaction of Rydex Investments to Security Benefit Corporation in 2006.
He was President of Rydex Fund Services when it was sold to MUFG in 2016.
Nick graduated with a BSBA cum laude from Suffolk University in 1986.
Lori Tiernan
Chief Marketing Officer
Lori Tiernan brings over a decade of experience launching and growing financial brands. Since 2013, she has run Innovative Asset Growth where she served in an outsourced CMO capacity to several emerging and niche asset managers and FinTech brands. She was an early employee...
Read BioLori Tiernan
Managing Director of Marketing
Lori Tiernan brings over a decade of experience launching and growing financial brands. Since 2013, she has run Innovative Asset Growth where she served in an outsourced CMO capacity to several emerging and niche asset managers and FinTech brands.
Prior to launching her own firm, Ms. Tiernan ran Marketing and Investor Relations for a long only equity hedge fund. She was an early employee in Institutional Distribution and Marketing at Guggenheim investments and helped the firm expand their footprint globally and raise billions in new assets.
Ms. Tiernan is a speaker and advocate for women in the technology and financial services sector and runs a non profit in New Hampshire that provides Pro Bono marketing service to local businesses. She is a graduate of the University of Richmond.
Will McDonough
Vice Chairman
Will McDonough is the Vice Chairman of Valkyrie Investments, and co-founder of the Valkyrie On Chain DeFi Fund. Will brings over 20 years of experience as an investor and entrepreneur with a career ranging from sports management to global finance. In 2014, Mr. McDonough led...
Read BioWill McDonough
Vice Chairman
Will McDonough is the Vice Chairman of Valkyrie Investments, and co-founder of the Valkyrie On Chain DeFi Fund. Will brings over 20 years of experience as an investor and entrepreneur with a career ranging from sports management to global finance.
In 2014, Mr. McDonough led the $825 million IPO for Atlas Mara (ATMA:LSE), a network of African Banks which he co-founded with former Barclays CEO, Bob Diamond. Prior to founding Atlas, Mr. McDonough and his team in the Investment Management Division of Goldman Sachs managed more than $17 billion in private capital of the firm’s current and retired partners. Before that, he partnered with New York-based Avenue Capital Group to co-found a $250 million distressed debt fund of funds.
Most recently, Mr. McDonough co-founded and manages Corestone Capital, a merchant bank with investments across the financial services, real estate, consumer, and technology sectors. He has been active in blockchain investing since 2017 and serves as a unique bridge between traditional and decentralized worlds.
John Key
Managing Director
John is the Managing Director of Valkyrie Investments. Key is the Principal/Founder of Key Strategic Advisors, LLC, a strategic advisory and consulting firm specializing in advising asset managers on their growth strategies and corporate development initiatives.
Read BioJohn Key
Managing Director
John is the Managing Director of Valkyrie Investments. Key is the Principal/Founder of Key Strategic Advisors, LLC, a strategic advisory and consulting firm specializing in advising asset managers on their growth strategies and corporate development initiatives. Most recently, John was a Senior Managing Director in UBS Investment Bank’s Global Financial Institutions Group focused primarily on working with asset management and related companies. He has extensive experience in the origination, structuring and capital raising of investment products on behalf of asset management companies, launching over 145 investment vehicles raising in excess of $100 billion in new assets. John was also head of the Fund Advisory and Shareholder Services Group that is responsible for providing clients and fund Boards with comprehensive market analysis.
John joined PaineWebber in 1992 and occupied a variety of roles in different areas within the Private Client Group before joining the Investment Bank.
John holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and History from Stony Brook University.
Wes Cowan
Managing Director, DeFi
Wes Cowan is the Managing Director of Decentralized Finance at Valkyrie, and co-founder of the Valkyrie On Chain DeFi Fund. Prior to working in the blockchain sector, Wes was a Principal at JPMorgan managing over $800 Million, before leaving to start his own tech agency...
Read BioWes Cowan
Managing Director, Decentralized Finance
Wes Cowan is the Managing Director of Decentralized Finance at Valkyrie, and co-founder of the Valkyrie On Chain DeFi Fund. Prior to working in the blockchain sector, Wes was a Principal at JPMorgan managing over $800 Million, before leaving to start his own tech agency. He started mining Bitcoin out of his agency office in 2015 and has been deeply involved in the sector ever since. In 2020 he then co-founded On-Chain Partners and lead the development of DeFi Valuation & Yield aggregation software which was acquired through a merger by Valkyrie in 2021 to continue to scale and trade on the proprietary data. Wes graduated from New York University and is headquartered in Miami, FL.
Shawn Singh
Director/ Principal
Mr. Singh is an experienced financial services legal, compliance, fintech and business professional. Shawn was the Chief Operating Officer, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of a multi-billion dollar asset manager and was responsible for the Brevan Howard firm spin out in 2014-2015...
Read BioShawn Singh
Legal Advisor
Mr. Singh is an experienced financial services legal, compliance, fintech and business professional with a proven track record of accomplishment and leadership demonstrated over the last 20+ years in the United States and Canada.
Mr. Singh has an in-depth understanding of the investment management space and brings a diverse transactional, securities, cybersecurity, corporate, compliance, regulatory and fund formation expertise to bear when providing strategic and commercial legal and compliance advice to both internal and external stakeholders. He has a thorough knowledge of the Investment Advisers Act, various securities laws and an in-depth knowledge of FATCA, CRS, FCPA, UK, Asia and European regulatory and securities regimes.
He is a trusted counselor to senior management and relied upon for his commercial judgment and valued for building integrated, solutions-oriented teams within a global asset manager.
He was the Chief Operating Officer, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of a multi-billion dollar asset manager and was responsible for the Brevan Howard firm spin out in 2014-2015.
Previously he has overseen (from a Legal, Regulatory, Operations and Compliance perspective) advisers with assets under supervision in excess of $125 billion dollars and was previously an associate at Fried Frank, Dewey LeBoeuf, Norton Rose Fulbright and Bryan Cave.
Previous to his legal career he was a private banker for Bank of Nova Scotia, owned mKarma Productions - responsible for producing live shows and entertainment productions and consulting services for feature films. Mr. Singh is a recipient of the Commonwealth Leadership Award.
Kristen Flores
Operations Manager
Kristen Flores is a graduate of Pepperdine University with a degree in Business Administration. Having spent most of her career in project management in the accounting and finance industry, she understands the importance of teamwork and team synergy.
Read BioKristen Flores
Operations Manager
Kristen Flores is a graduate of Pepperdine University with a degree in Business Administration. Having spent most of her career in project management in the accounting and finance industry, she understands the importance of teamwork and team synergy .Growing up in a family whose business is concrete, Kristen has been inspired by the large-scale projects built in Los Angeles. Having researched the best opportunities for participating in this market, Kristen joined BCPM with the goal of learning from the thought leaders of the residential construction industry.As a Project Coordinator, Kristen assists in developing the most influential and professional design and construction teams in the City and in the Country. She assists in the coordination of the day to day responsibilities of the project team, as well as apply her background in finance to oversee each project budget on a daily basis.
Sean Rooney
VP of Research and Trading
Sean Rooney graduated from Pepperdine University with a degree in Business Administration and an accomplished D1 volleyball career. After four All-American seasons and one NCAA championship, Sean joined the United States National Team and competed in two Olympic Games...
Read BioSean Rooney
Head of Research
Sean Rooney graduated from Pepperdine University with a degree in Business Administration and an accomplished D1 volleyball career. After four All-American seasons and one NCAA championship, Sean joined the United States National Team and competed in two Olympic Games, earning a gold medal at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. While playing professionally in Russia, Italy and South Korea, Sean became fascinated with analyzing, investing, and trading financial markets. Especially in the latter country where advanced smartphone and payment technologies were colliding with the fast-developing world of fintech and cryptocurrency. In 2014, Sean retired from volleyball due to injury and returned to Orange County, California where he helped launch a successful fitness startup as well as a family operated business in the floral industry. In 2015, Sean began exploring the crypto currency space while managing his own trades. He has continued his passion for the digital asset market and is thrilled to return to a fast-paced team environment with Valkyrie.
John Mulroy
Head of Capital Markets
John is a Senior-Level Capital Markets Executive with 25+ years of experience specializing in ETF creation and distribution, with more than 35 years of experience in the Financial Industry as a whole. John managed the ETF team at Guggenheim Investments in Chicago and oversaw 77 ETFs...
Read BioJohn Mulroy
Head of Capital Markets
John is a Senior-Level Capital Markets Executive with 25+ years of experience specializing in ETF creation and distribution, with more than 35 years of experience in the Financial Industry as a whole. After graduating Cum Laude from CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice, John began his career at Spear Leeds & Kellogg in 1982 managing the NYSE Major Market Index (XMI). In 1989 John joined Hull Trading Company/Goldman Sachs, managing the New York office and their trade operations, in addition to being the floor official on the American Stock Exchange. John is an experienced market maker in several options and ETF products including SPYDERS, DIAMONDS and QQQQ’S, in addition to advising and orchestrating the launch of Barclays iShares products. More recently, John managed the ETF team at Guggenheim Investments in Chicago and oversaw 77 ETFs including the BulletShares ETFs, raising $40 billion in AUM before selling the Guggenheim ETF franchise to Invesco in April 2018.
Annie Little
Marketing Associate
Annie Little is nearing a decade of dynamic and successful marketing experience for freelanced clients in a range of sectors. With a BA cum laude in Advertising and Graphic Art from Pepperdine University, she specializes in graphic design, social media management, and photography...
Read BioAnnie Little
Marketing Associate
Annie Little is nearing a decade of dynamic and successful marketing experience for freelanced clients in a range of sectors. With a BA cum laude in Advertising and Graphic Art from Pepperdine University, she specializes in graphic design, social media management, and photography. Annie values the support of small business owners and creative entrepreneurs, which she puts into action through her hosting and advertising service for local artisans in the Southern California region. As well as supporting independent artists, her platform prioritizes the donation of proceeds to organizations that fight for justice, equality, and a greener planet.
Jamie Jones
VP of Sales
Jamie began her career in the financial industry 8 years ago as an Investment Advisor before transitioning to investment product sales at JPMorgan Asset Management. She has comprehensive experience partnering with RIA and Independent Broker Dealer firms, with breadth of expertise....
Read BioJamie Jones
VP of Sales
Jamie began her career in the financial industry 8 years ago as an Investment Advisor before transitioning to investment product sales at JPMorgan Asset Management. She has comprehensive experience partnering with RIA and Independent Broker Dealer firms, with breadth of expertise in ETFs, mutual funds, structured products, alternative and digital assets. Jamie carries an MBA from the University of Arkansas and received her bachelor's degree from the College of Charleston where she played women's Division 1 tennis.
Shannon Smith
Senior Investor Relations Associate
Shannon Smith is the Senior Investor Relations Associate at Valkyrie. She joins with 4 years' experience in the alternative asset management space. Prior to joining Valkyrie, she worked in investor relations and marketing at asset-based credit specialist Raven Capital Management...
Read BioShannon Smith
Senior Investor Relations Associate
Shannon Smith is the Senior Investor Relations Associate at Valkyrie. She joins with 4 years' experience in the alternative asset management space. Prior to joining Valkyrie, she worked in investor relations and marketing at asset-based credit specialist Raven Capital Management. She began her career at DG Capital Management, a middle market distressed manager, focused on investor relations and client servicing. Shannon graduated with honors from The University of Texas at Austin with a bachelor's degree in journalism and a finance minor.
Benjamin Gaffey
Fund Controller
Ben Gaffey is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) with over a decade of experience in auditing financial services companies and funds. As a senior manager at Ernst & Young, he worked with a number of financial institutions including Guggenheim, State Street, US Bank and...
Read BioBenjamin Gaffey
Fund Controller
Ben Gaffey is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) with over a decade of experience in auditing financial services companies and funds. As a senior manager at Ernst & Young, he worked with a number of financial institutions including Guggenheim, State Street, US Bank and BNYM. With a focus in wealth and asset management, Ben provided assurance services to trusts, hedge funds, private equity funds, and registered investment companies, ranging from $1 million in assets to over $10 billion.
Ben graduated from The College of William & Mary with a degree in accounting in 2008.
Liam Rafferty
Data Analyst
Liam began his career as an Investment Analyst at JP Morgan Securities, where he held his Series 6, 7, 63, and 65 securities licenses. He left JPM in 2016 for Bain Capital, where he focused on the internal reporting for Bain Capital Credit with over $40 billion across 100+ funds...
Read BioLiam Rafferty
Consultant
Liam began his career as an Investment Analyst at JP Morgan Securities, where he held his Series 6, 7, 63, and 65 securities licenses. He left JPM in 2016 for Bain Capital, where he focused on the internal reporting for Bain Capital Credit with over $40 billion across 100+ funds globally. Since Bain, Liam has worked as a Principal of Corestone Capital, managing the company’s investments across the financial services, real estate, consumer, and technology sectors.
Liam graduated from Florida Gulf Coast University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing. He also holds a Master’s Degree in Accounting with a concentration in Financial Analysis.