We share a passion for bringing gold to the digital world
Who We Are
Our people have decades of experience in financial markets, commodities and precious metals trading, building technology applications and asset and wealth management. While each of us has different specialities, we all share a passion for bringing the world’s earliest form of currency and store of value into the digital world.
Leadership Team
Ashraf Rizvi
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Ashraf Rizvi
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
As Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Ashraf is responsible for the strategic direction and day to day running of Gilded. He has over 20 years of executive experience as Founder, Managing Partner and Global Business Head. Prior to founding Gilded, Ashraf was the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of SummerHaven Investment Management, a commodities management firm overseeing nearly $2 billion in assets for retail and institutional clients including endowments, foundations, and family offices. For over 13 years, Ashraf was a senior leader at UBS holding a variety of roles in New York and London including Global Head of Commodities Trading, Global Head of Metals, Global Head of Emerging Markets FX and Global Head of Credit Repo. Previously, he was Head of FX Options Trading in New York for Credit Suisse. And prior to this, he was a Senior Trader at Susquehanna Investment Group. Ashraf earned a Bachelor of Science in Economics from The Wharton School. He also served for more than 15 years on the Undergraduate Board and the Europe, Middle East and Africa Board at The Wharton School.
Saira Rizvi
Chief Marketing Officer
Saira Rizvi
Chief Marketing Officer
As Chief Marketing Officer and Partner at Gilded, Saira has extensive experience in Industrial Engineering, Investment Banking and Digital Marketing. Saira received her B.S and M.S. Degrees in Industrial Engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington. Her graduate studies specialized in Ergonomics and the design/implementation of man machine interfaces. She applied these skills at a division of Eastman Kodak for 5 years focusing on spearheading the productivity and efficiency improvements for the company’s largest U.S. manufacturing facilities. Saira obtained her MBA in Entrepreneurship and Innovation from Imperial College, University of London. She joined UBS as an equity analyst, focusing on market analysis and writing research in the Aerospace and Defense sector before moving to Credit and Market Risk, where she served as a Director. Saira has spent the last 3 years as founder and CEO of a digital marketing firm specializing in content creation and digital advertising. At Gilded, Saira combines her analytical skills with out of-the-box creativity to tell Gilded’s story globally.
James Edwards
Chief Operating Officer - EMEA
James Edwards
Chief Operating Officer - EMEA
James is the Chief Operating Officer EMEA at Gilded. He has over 25 years of experience working as a Chief Operating Officer (COO)/Business Manager for several major firms, including UBS, Accenture, BNY Mellon, and CLS Group. Based in the U.K., James has consistently demonstrated strong skills in building, reorganizing, streamlining, and strengthening businesses across multiple asset classes, functions, and regions. He served over 15 years at UBS, primarily as the COO across Fixed Income and FX Emerging Markets, Commodities Sales and Trading, and Collateral Trading and Sales. Most recently, James served in a dual capacity as Business Manager for the Product division at CLS and Product Manager for a post-trade reporting product. James has a proven track record in several focus areas, including strategic planning and execution, financial and performance management, team building, talent development, resource planning, and regulatory, governance and control framework. He earned his Bachelor of Commerce, Economics, Marketing, and Business Administration from The University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Mark Ritter
Chief Risk Officer
Mark Ritter
Chief Risk Officer
Mark is the Chief Risk Officer at Gilded. He has over 35 years of experience working domestically and abroad in Japan, Australia, and the U.K. for some of the most recognizable names in financial services. For more than 30 years, Mark has worked in the education, finance, and technology industries, applying his skills in people management, strategic planning, and attention to detail. He specializes in positioning organizations for profitable growth, positive employee morale, and productive internal and external business partnerships. During his nearly 20-year tenure at UBS, Mark retained several roles, including Global Head of Credit Exposure Management and Global Head of Commodities. He also spent the better half of a decade working as an Independent Board Member of Morgan Stanley Derivative Products He earned his Doctorate in Business Administration in Finance from Sacred Heart University and served as a Fellow and currently is a member of the Fellowships Advisory Council of the Advanced Leadership Initiative at Harvard University.
Keith Fishe
Head of Structured Products
Keith Fishe
Head of Structured Products
Keith is the Head of Structured Products at Gilded. He has over 20 years of experience working in finance and technology, holding several executive-level positions. Keith specializes in helping client segments by providing new and innovative financial products. Keith has worked with several prestigious financial firms such as UBS, Swiss Bank Corp, Mellon Bank, DRW, and several hedge funds. He has a wide range of industry knowledge and skills and served on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s sub-committee on Automated and High-Frequency Trading for several years. Keith has also chaired standards committees for development practices in financial services. He earned his MBA from Carnegie Mellon University – Tepper School of Business and his undergraduate degree in Computer Science from the University of Miami.
Meet Our Advisors
Amod Dange
Amod is an Advisor at Gilded. He has over 20 years of experience working as an Inventor, Entrepreneur, Startup Advisor, and Product Designer for multiple prestigious companies. His long list of skills and industry knowledge include User Interface, UX Design, Agile Methodologies, Business Analysis, Interaction Design, Usability, Content Management, and Software Project Management. Amod’s vast career experience includes a nearly seven-year stint at Facebook, where he served as a Product Design Manager and Product Designer, building and managing a product design team tasked with distilling complex enterprise products into simple consumer-centric experiences. He also worked as a UX Designer for Wells Fargo, Intuit, and UI Designer for eBay. He also was the Founder and CPO at Skrypton, a platform designed as a professional film script evaluation platform for writers, readers, and buyers. He studied Human Computer Interaction at Stanford University and Disruptive Technology at MIT.
Anand Subramanian
Anand is an Advisor for Gilded. He is a serial entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in the digital space, specifically in online advertising, TV, and e-commerce. Anand is a prolific inventor and problem solver with numerous patents that have changed the course of the industry. He is regularly mentioned by print and television media like the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, MIT Technology Review, Wired Magazine, Bloomberg TV, CNN, to name a few. He is a recipient of numerous awards, including Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Awards – 2012, along with Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter and Square, and Ernest & Young Entrepreneur of the year 2008, to name a few. Most recently, Anand started and exited a Live TV streaming company called NimbleTV Inc. to a global and publically traded Media Company called Synacor Inc. Anand is a rocket scientist with a keen mind towards business and studied at the Indian Institute of Technology (Bombay) for a B. Tech degree in Aerospace Engineering.
Fareed Zakaria
Fareed is an Advisor for Gilded. He is a decorated journalist with over 30 years of experience in the editorial arena specializing in Foreign Exchange and International Affairs. He is currently the host of CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS.” He has authored several publications, including “From Wealth to Power: The Unusual Origins of America’s World Role,” “The Future of Freedom,” “The Post-American World,” and “In Defense of a Liberal Education.” He began his career as an Editor for Foreign Affairs Magazine. Fareed then served over ten years at Newsweek, where he worked as a Columnist and then as an Editor for Newsweek International. Fareed has since worked as a correspondent and analyst for CNN for multiple network programs for over 13 years and counting. He earned a BA in History from Yale College and a Ph.D. in Political Science – International Relations from Harvard University.
James Oates
James is an Advisor at Gilded. He has over 25 years of experience working in the Governance and Risk & Compliance space with several renowned financial institutions. James is a seasoned leader and Governance, Audit, Risk, and Compliance expert. He has vast international experience in global financial services, focusing on the critical risks of cyber, technology, financial crime, data, and conduct. James has a long-proven track record of transforming organizations to focus on achieving optimal effectiveness. He spent over 15 years at UBS as a Senior Risk Advisor and Global Head of Compliance & Operational Risk Control, leading the investigation, crisis management, and remediation of significant events affecting the financial industry globally. He also served as a Vice President at Credit Suisse, focusing specifically on Internal Audit. His wide range of skills includes Operational Risk, Financial Analysis, Banking, Auditing, Enterprise Risk Management, and Operational Risk Management. James received his Directorship Certificate from NACD and earned a BBA in Finance from Iona College.
Scott Johnston
Scott is an Advisory Board Member at Gilded. He has over 30 years of experience working in Operations for multiple reputable firms, including UBS, Tower Research Capital, O’Connor & Associates, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, XO Capital Group, Citadel, and Hudson River Trading. Scott served nearly eight years as a Managing Director at UBS and over seven years as a Partner and COO at Tower Research Capital. He also spent more than three decades at Citadel as the CAO of the company. Scott’s plethora of industry knowledge includes Trading Systems, Electronic Trading, Derivatives, Fixed Income, Capital Markets, Equities, Risk Management, Hedge Funds, Securities, FX Options, and Financial Markets. He received a BGS in Computer Science & Computer Engineering from The University of Michigan and is certified in Deep Learning Specialization and Financial Accounting through Coursera.