Jean-Louis van der Velde is a technologist and serial entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in the fintech industry. He is currently the CEO of Tether and Co-founder/CEO of Bitfinex. ^[1][4]

Early Life & Education

Jean-Louis left his native country of the Netherlands in 1985 to attend National Taiwan University where he graduated in 1988 and has lived in Asia ever since. ^[1][3]

Career

Jean-Loius van der Velde has co-founded a number of IT companies in Asia since his arrival in 1998 after graduating from National Taiwan University. These IT companies range from hardware design to development, and software. He has also been involved in the early development of technologies such as embedded systems, video streaming, IPTV, digital TV, web-based applications, and digital marketing.

Jean-Louis was a regular speaker at technology conferences on open-source technologies due to his co-founding of an advanced embedded Linux company. He has held senior management positions in large private and public corporations in IT, distribution, and manufacturing and he serves as an executive director in a Chinese automotive group and a Hong Kong-based VC.

Bitfinex

In early 2013, Jean-Louis co-founded Bitfinex where he serves as the company's CEO. As CEO, he structured the holding (DigFinEx) focused on developing and investing in new Fintech and big-data-related technologies, and implements a strict set of AML/KYC rules with a self-developed system. His specialty lies in working with banking partners, and regulatory and law enforcement institutions to develop innovative solutions in the digital asset sector. ^[6]

Bitfinex is a digital asset trading platform offering different services for digital currency traders and liquidity providers.^[6]

Tether

Jean-Louis is the Chief Executive Officer of Tether. He is responsible for setting the company's overall direction, setting the strategy, and executing day-to-day operations. He also oversees the financial and legal operations of the company. ^[2]

Tether (USDT) is a blockchain-based stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the U.S. dollar and backed 100% by actual assets in the Tether platform’s reserve account. Tether Limited is owned by Hong Kong-based company iFinex, which also owns Bitfinex.^[2][1]

Jean-Louis is also a lecturer at the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (NTSTU) and a guest lecturer at Taiwan University (Blockchain and Regulation). ^[5]