Welcome Richard Gong, Roger Gu, John Kothanek and Andy Alness to Coinbase

We’re excited to announce four great additions to the team: Richard Gong, Roger Gu, John Kothanek and Andy Alness.

Richard Gong — Software Engineer

Richard has been coding since age 11. He has experience as a high-frequency trader in U.S. stocks, stock options, and energy futures, and has applied algorithmic trading to Bitcoin. He holds a BA in Economics from Harvard, and was a lead coder on the Harvard-MIT Robocup team.

Roger Gu — Business Development

Roger previously worked in Strategy and Development at Visa, where he focused on innovation and alternative payments. Prior to that, he was an investment banking analyst for retail-tech companies at Marcum Cronus. He holds an A.B. in Economics from Princeton University. Roger enjoys hiking and meticulously planning trips.

John Kothanek — Regulatory Compliance Investigator

Prior to joining Coinbase John Kothanek was with ACS Solutions/Omney Inc., a provider of instant ACH and corporate disbursements. John also started and headed up PayPal’s criminal investigations team after eBay acquired PayPal he ran the joint eBay PayPal Investigations group. John was also a US Marine who worked in intelligence operations. John is one of a handful of civilians to have received the FBI Director’s Award.

Andy Alness — Software Engineer

Andy joins us as a Systems Engineer with over 12 years of experience with distinguished engineering teams in Silicon Valley. He joins us most recently from VMware, Inc. Prior to that he was with Akamai Technologies, Inc. where he worked on the backend software which powers things like Apple’s iTunes. He’s recently been consumed with all things Bitcoin and decided he had better work on it professionally because not much else was going to get done. He also surfs all over the Eastside of Santa Cruz and we hear he rips but we haven’t seen footage. He’s also an instrument-rated private pilot.

Welcome Richard, Roger, John and Andy!