Benjamin Yi
Executive Chairman of the Board
Benjamin was recruited to Riot in October 2018 to serve as a director, audit committee chair and member of a special committee of the Board. At the time, Riot's market capitalization was approximately $34 million. During his tenure, the Company's collective achievements to-date include significantly improved operational and financial profiles, including the attainment of profitability, a reconstituted and more diverse Board of Directors, a reconstituted and operationally streamlined management team, and the announcement of a transformative transaction to create a US-based leader in Bitcoin mining via the planned acquisition of Whinstone US, the largest Bitcoin mining facility in North America. Benjamin was elected Chairman of the Board in November 2020 and nominated Executive Chairman in May 2021.
Benjamin brings significant experience in corporate strategy, corporate development, and governance to the Company. In addition to having served as a director of several public and private companies, he also brings over sixteen years of unique capital markets experience to the management team, with a particular expertise in fintech-enabled businesses, specialty finance, and special situations investing through a company's capital structure.
Prior to Riot, Benjamin led the capital markets and corporate development efforts at IOU Financial, a tech-enabled lender to small businesses and an investee company of Neuberger Berman. Prior thereto, he worked directly under Ned Goodman, a renowned Canadian financier, investor and founder of Dundee Corporation, a Toronto-based conglomerate. Prior to Dundee, Benjamin was a securities analyst at the predecessor to 1832 Asset Management L.P., where he covered energy and special situations investments on a team managing one of North America's largest natural resources-focused investment funds. Benjamin is a CFA charter holder and holds a Master of Finance degree from the Rotman School of Management and a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Trinity College in the University of Toronto.
Hubert Marleau
Director
Hubert is a veteran capital markets professional, corporate director, and Chair of the Marleau Lecture Series on Economic and Monetary Policy at the University of Ottawa. Currently, he serves as Chief Economist at Palos Management, a boutique investment management firm headquartered in Montreal, Canada. In addition to a career in the capital markets that has spanned over five decades, Mr. Marleau has previously served as a Governor of the Montreal and Vancouver stock exchanges, and as a Director of the Listing Committee for the Toronto Stock Exchange and Director of the Investment Dealers Association of Canada (now known as IIROC).
Hubert’s broad areas of expertise include macroeconomic policy & analysis, corporate governance, financial analysis, and investment banking. In addition to his being a current or past board member of approximately fifty publicly traded companies, he has raised funds privately and publicly for hundreds of emerging and mature companies, structured numerous mergers and acquisitions, and acted as the driving force behind numerous transactions. Hubert graduated from the University of Ottawa with an Honours Bachelor of Social Sciences in Economics.
Hannah Cho
Director
Hannah is an award-winning marketing and communications executive with expertise in brand building and storytelling. She has over 15 years of experience in enterprise technology brand marketing, product and corporate communications supporting hyper-growth companies and global, multinational organizations in business growth and expansion, rebranding efforts, M&A, IPO and divestiture.
Hannah holds a BA Honours in Criminology from Carleton University and currently resides in Sonoma, California where she enjoys the wine culture and outdoor activities the area offers.
Lance D'Ambrosio
Director
Lance is a successful entrepreneur, private investor, corporate director, and a past recipient of the Ernst & Young and Merrill Lynch Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the category of e-Software & Services. Currently, he serves as Managing Partner of 4 D Investments, which focuses on technology and real estate investments. Lance has founded and grown numerous companies spanning several industries including the telecommunications, materials, and automotive sectors. Over the course of his career, he has led capital raising efforts totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, executed on over thirty corporate acquisitions, successfully taken a number of companies public on both US and international exchanges, and successfully sold several businesses to larger market participants, including Sprint Telecommunications and Comsat International, a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin.
Lance brings significant corporate governance experience to Riot's Board, including expertise in financial analysis, mergers and acquisitions, and complex international structuring. Lance graduated from the University of Utah with a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Management as a member of the Dean's Honor List.
Jason Les
Chief Executive Officer
Jason is the driving force behind the Company’s mission to become one of the most relevant and significant companies supporting the Bitcoin network. He has been deeply involved with Bitcoin since 2013, with significant experience in cryptocurrency mining, and as an engineer studying protocol development, and contributing to open-source projects.
Jason was also a founding partner of Binary Digital, a software-development company where he led the engineering team and coordinated project development for artificial intelligence, reverse engineering, and inter-software compatibility projects.
Additionally, Jason’s background includes over a decade of unique experience as a former professional heads-up poker player during which he has successfully competed in high-stakes games online, in addition to the most prestigious, high-stakes tournaments in the world. In 2015 and 2017, he was selected as a human benchmark for testing the world’s best poker artificial intelligence in what was dubbed “Man vs Machine” at Carnegie Mellon University in 2015 and 2017.
Jason holds a Bachelor of Science in Information & Computer Science from UC Irvine.