Huobi Group announced on December 6, 2018, that Livio Weng had become chief executive of Huobi Global, the company's flagship cryptocurrency exchange1. The announcement went out as a press release on PR Newswire. Weng had been with Huobi Group only since August of that year, the release said. He kept his existing duties over marketing, public relations and business development for the parent company on top of running the exchange. CryptoNinjas carried the same announcement on December 6, 20182.
Eight executive hires on the record in 2018
Executive hires CryptoLately has verified, by year
- 2018: 8
- 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 2017 | 2 |
| 2018 | 8 |
| 2019 | 11 |
| 2020 | 12 |
| 2021 | 27 |
| 2022 | 37 |
| 2023 | 20 |
| 2024 | 39 |
Institutional Custody & Asset Management led executive hires in 2018, with three
Executive hires CryptoLately has verified in 2018, by the sector of the company
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Institutional Custody & Asset Management | 3 |
| Capital Markets & Treasury | 2 |
| Trading Venues & Brokerage | 1 |
The move
Leon Li, founder and chief executive of Huobi Group, made the case for Weng in the release. "We're very pleased to announce this news," Li said. “Livio's background and leadership abilities make him a natural fit for this role and we are confident that he will be instrumental in taking Huobi to the next level as we continue to expand into the global marketplace.”1 Weng answered in his own words. “I'm deeply humbled by this honor and by Leon's faith in me,” he said. “I relish the challenge and opportunity of piloting Huobi Global into the next era of the blockchain revolution.”
The release traced Weng's path before Huobi. He had held a senior management role at Jiedaibao, a Chinese peer-to-peer lending platform that the release said had raised more than $600 million. Earlier, he had worked as product director at Sohu and on the Kuaizhan mobile site, and he founded SXBBM, a social app for university students1. Weng studied software engineering at Tsinghua University, after learning to program in high school. He also described the scope of the job ahead in his own words. “I think that blockchain and crypto are among the most important and world changing technologies of the 21st century,” Weng said, “and I'm excited to be on the cutting edge of this change with a pioneering company like Huobi. Over 2019 and beyond, people should expect to see a number of great new products and services as well as some big changes to Huobi Global.”
Huobi before and after
In the same release, Huobi Group described itself as "the world's leading blockchain company," founded in 20131. Huobi Group said it was made up of ten upstream and downstream enterprises with cumulative turnover exceeding $1 trillion. The release said Huobi Global served millions of users across more than 130 countries through its exchange and asset management services. Weng's appointment added the exchange's top post to the marketing and business development work he already held at the parent company. The release framed it as a promotion, built on top of his existing portfolio rather than a swap into a separate role.
What came next
Ten weeks after the December 6, 2018 promotion, Weng was speaking for the exchange as its chief executive. CoinGeek reported on February 15, 2019, that Huobi Group had released Korean and Japanese versions of its Huobi Wallet app, and it quoted Weng as "CEO of Huobi Global" on that decision3. “Moreover, Japan and South Korea are two of the most advanced crypto markets in the world, so making sure Huobi Wallet has a presence there simply makes sense,” Weng said.
Sources
- Huobi Global, "Livio Weng Promoted to CEO of Huobi Global," PR Newswire, December 6, 2018, https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/livio-weng-promoted-to-ceo-of-huobi-global-871030215.html
- CryptoNinjas, "Livio Weng promoted to CEO for Huobi Global," CryptoNinjas, December 6, 2018, https://www.cryptoninjas.net/2018/12/06/livio-weng-promoted-to-ceo-for-huobi-global/
- Ed Drake, "Huobi Wallet brings Bitcoin SV, other cryptos to Japan and Korea," CoinGeek, February 15, 2019, https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMifEFVX3lxTE9fX1dhUkZVdHBFXzJZYzhZY21OWFBiWlJEZlBIcUdpYm5SbFN6TjVMZmVMeWNfeFpEaVR3VHQ4WDcxWE5IQjNuNHBtaTNtcVJQSmcwTy04WTl5aG5mQ2pGSi1aSmVQUlZKTDRoZEFUTlRiQ2RPQ05xWGNqZzA?oc=5