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Bitreserve, a bitcoin startup based in LA, has just hired Anthony Watson, the former CIO of NIke who left the sportswear giant in April of last year. His belief in the broader vision for bitcoin beyond digital currencies motivated the move.
Bitreserve was founded just a few months ago and transfers bitcoin deposits into other currencies and also transmits funds to anywhere in the world for a nominal fee. The founder of the startup, Halsey Minor, was the founder of CNET and a co-founder of Salesforce.
Watson- a rising executive in a Fortune 500 company- leaving to join Bitreserve symbolizes the world class talent joining startups that look to build long term businesses and change the global financial system.
Watson’s background is in banking—prior to Nike, he was CIO of Europe, Middle East, and global operations at Barclays. While at Nike, he longed to get back into the banking world in order to help change what he sees as an unjust financial system. “I was itching to make an impact,” he said. “I wanted to do something that is valuable for people broadly, not just in one industry. And what Bitreserve is looking to achieve really democratizes finance. It’s going to help people all over the world. The financial system is inherently unfair—it’s always the richest who have access, and the poorest don’t have access, or when they do, they have to pay astronomical rates.” Bitreserve charges a 0.45% fee for BTC to USD conversions.
http://fortune.com/2015/04/06/nike-cio-bitcoin/?xid=nl_termsheet
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