Anchorage Hires Bank of America, Celsius Alum as Head of Sales
In an effort to meet growing institutional demand, Anchorage Digital has hired former Celsius global head of business development Camilla Churcher as its new head of sales.
Camilla Churcher
key takeaways
- Anchorage Digital has hired a traditional finance veteran to lead its sales team
- The platform is looking to expand its prime brokerage offerings as institutional demand picks up
Camilla Churcher spent 18 years in the traditional finance world, working in sales and prime derivatives services at Bank of America, Credit Suisse, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley before moving into the digital asset space, and now Anchorage Digital. It was a move that surprised many of her colleagues, she said.
“There was a healthy amount of skepticism when I made the transition,” Churcher said. “There were a handful of people that were excited for me, but broadly, at the time, people were not familiar with what was happening in digital assets.”
Churcher started her cryptocurrency career in 2018 at startup LGO, a trading platform which was eventually acquired by Voyager.
“It was very clear to me that the technology was going to be completely transformative for the industry, and I wanted to be a part of that,” she said. “So I took the jump.”
After LGO, Churcher spent time at Celsius. It was Anchorage’s prime brokerage offerings that eventually drew her to the platform.
“I was very excited to have the chance to join Anchorage, as I think it’s really a preeminent platform and probably, the leading platform that can actually deliver a real prime brokerage offering in the space,” she said.
Churcher’s experience with traditional financial markets will be essential in expanding Anchorage’s prime brokerage and custody services, the company said.
“Camilla will help our sales team understand our clients holistically, serve as trusted advisors, and help institutions interested in digital assets understand the significance of Anchorage’s secure custody solution as the infrastructure basis for secure, accessible digital asset solutions,” Diogo Monica, co-founder and president of Anchorage said.
Prime brokerage services mostly focus around custody, Churcher said, but customers are also looking for execution, financing, staking and governance. A full suite of services is what is going to bring institutional players to the space.
“That is going to be an important bridge for traditional finance,” she said.
Get the day’s top crypto news and insights delivered to your inbox every evening. Subscribe to Blockworks’ free newsletter now.
