Rachel Yu is a finance entrepreneur and one of the co-founders of ALEX, a DeFi company operating on the Stacks blockchain and inspired by traditional financial markets. ^[1]

Education

Yu earned her B.S. in Mathematics and M.A. in Economics from Peking University. ^[1]

Career

Rachel's investment banking career began at Goldman Sachs Asia in 2008, where she held various roles until 2016. In her last position as Executive Director of China Sales for Fixed Income, Commodity, and Currencies (FICC), she achieved significant revenue contributions through a diverse client and product portfolio, covering major institutions such as SAFE, CIC, and various banks and insurance companies. ^[1]

Rachel was also Executive Director at J.P. Morgan Asia, leading the China Institutional sales team from 2016 to 2017. She provided structuring finance solutions to banks, security houses, and asset management companies. ^[1]

ALEX

In April 2021, Yu and co-founder Dr. Chiente Hsu engaged in a conversation about DeFi and the current state of the crypto space. During their discussion, they pondered how Yu's son, Alex, would interact with decentralized finance in the future. They recognized significant deficiencies in the financial engineering of the crypto sector, particularly the absence of critical elements such as a yield curve and fixed-term fixed-yield lending/borrowing options. Identifying an opportunity for improvement, they envisioned a future where decentralized finance (DeFi) would surpass traditional finance, offering greater accessibility and inclusivity. In 2022, they founded ALEX alongside Chan Ahn, CTO of ALEX. ^[2]