Welcome, James Taylor: From BNY Mellon to Unizen

Finally, we can announce the big news for Unizen and our community.

In short, James Taylor has joined the Unizen executive team in a newly created Chief Business Development Officer role.

A long-established expert, he brings on board extensive experience of the capital markets, electronic trading, and fintech, acquired over a 20+ year career working at some of the largest and most prestigious names in the banking industry — BNY Mellon, JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank, Barclays Capital, and Salomon Brothers.

Before joining Unizen, James was Global Head of Electronic Foreign Exchange sales at BNY Mellon, the world’s largest custodian and one of the oldest US banks. Prior to becoming a part of our project, James spent eight years at JP Morgan Chase in a variety of roles, his last held position was Head of Fixed Income Currency and Commodity (FICC) Market Structure.

What’s next for Unizen?

James has a proven record in both establishing and growing new businesses. Immediately after his arrival, he aims to introduce Unizen to a multitude of global financial institutions, including investment banks, asset managers, hedge funds, corporates, sovereign wealth funds, and central banks. The expertise and professional network of the new Chief Business Development Officer are crucial to nurturing new long-term partnerships and developing global opportunities.

This news marks a new chapter for Unizen, providing the team with the expertise to facilitate the ultimate goal of bringing together centralized institutions and decentralized providers. It also means a shift in dynamics between the traditional financial sector and blockchain space, now driven not by the opposition but by collaboration.

Here’s how James Taylor explains his decision to join Unizen:

“Without a doubt, the team is top-notch in terms of talent, but what impresses me the most is the moral philosophy I see applied by all. I’m very excited by our ambition to be THE universal and unified gateway through which traditional financial market participants access new digital asset marketplaces.”

As for the first priorities as the Chief Business Development Officer, his primary goal is to help Unizen with “building a Centralized-Decentralized ecosystem (CeDeFi) to address the challenges that lie ahead of broader crypto acceptance and adoption, including KYC, security, and fragmented liquidity.

Summary

We are very excited about changes to come (and some that already came). For us, welcoming James Taylor, a top-notch financial expert, is another step in the direction towards building a powerful CeDeFi and compliant liquidity converging with the traditional financial sector. But it’s not just our win. For the global blockchain market, the exchange of experience of traditional finance experts with decentralized projects promises incredible opportunities — hopefully, with Unizen being at the forefront of global adoption.