Christopher Montagano

Christopher Montagano is the Chief Legal Officer of Orca, Montagano has leveraged his experience from previous tenures at prestigious institutions like Sidley Austin LLP and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to navigate the evolving regulatory landscape of the crypto industry. Through his work and public engagements, Montagano has contributed significantly to discussions on crypto regulations and blockchain adoption in the United States. ^{[1] [3] [5]}

Education

Christopher Montagano received a Bachelor of Arts with honors from DePauw University. As part of his undergraduate education, he studied in Tokyo, Japan. He was included on the Dean's List every semester, served on the governing board of Phi Kappa Psi, and participated in tennis.

He later studied Economics and Psychology at the University of Oxford, where he was involved with the Oxford Law Society and the St. Edmund Hall Debate Club.

Montagano subsequently earned a Juris Doctor (J.D.) with high honors from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law and was elected to the Order of the Coif. During law school, he worked as a judicial law clerk for Judge E. Michael Hoff and served as a research assistant to Professor Brian Broughman, contributing to research on incentive structures in corporate governance frameworks. ^[2]

Career

Early Career

Christopher Montagano began his professional career in 2008 as Finance Director for the Montagano for Congress campaign, where he was responsible for fundraising, communications, outreach, and financial compliance. He later worked as a Law Clerk in the Office of the General Counsel at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), assisting senior attorneys with litigation, ethics, enforcement matters, and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, which served as a basis for later work with digital assets.

After his time at the SEC, Montagano joined Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP as an Associate. His practice focused on advising private equity firms, corporate executives, and boards of directors on domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, divestitures, and financing transactions. In 2016, he became an Associate at Sidley Austin LLP, where he worked on mergers and acquisitions and capital markets transactions involving public companies, private equity firms, and technology companies. His responsibilities included advising on corporate governance, disclosure obligations, and equity compensation matters.

Phillips Edison & Company

In 2018, Montagano joined Phillips Edison & Company as Associate General Counsel, Corporate and M&A. He was promoted to Vice President, Associate General Counsel in 2019. In this position, he advised the company's executive leadership on corporate transactions, securities law compliance, corporate governance, and intellectual property matters. His work included overseeing legal aspects of the company's initial public offering, merger, bond offering, joint venture transactions, and corporate finance activities.

Orca

Montagano joined Orca as General Counsel in 2022 and became Chief Legal Officer & Head of Corporate Development in January 2024. His responsibilities include overseeing the organization's legal, compliance, corporate development, business development, and investor relations functions. He also works with finance, operations, human resources, tax, and other internal teams on corporate structuring, partnerships, compensation, anti-money laundering compliance, and export control matters.

In addition to his executive responsibilities, Montagano serves as corporate secretary to the board of Orca's parent company and as the executive representative on the ORCA Governance Council, which is responsible for governance matters related to the protocol, including oversight of its treasury and validator operations.

His role also includes coordinating government affairs and regulatory engagement with regulatory agencies, policymakers, legislators, and industry organizations in multiple jurisdictions. He has participated in Project Open, an initiative involving discussions with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission regarding regulatory considerations for decentralized finance.

Board Memberships and Industry Involvement

Montagano serves on the board of Defend Developers PAC (DDPAC), an organization focused on cryptocurrency-related public policy in the United States. Through this role, he participates in initiatives related to legal and regulatory frameworks for blockchain technology and digital assets.

He has participated in industry events, including the DC Blockchain Summit, where he has spoken on legal and regulatory topics affecting blockchain and cryptocurrency organizations. Montagano also maintains public profiles on social media platforms, where he shares information and commentary related to blockchain technology and cryptocurrency regulation. ^{[2] [1] [3] [4] [5]}