Meet the team

Akbar Thobani is the Co-Founder and President of sFOX, a full-service crypto prime broker bringing together liquidity, best price execution, dark pool access, treasury management, custody and settlement services all together in one trading platform and API. Prior to co-founding sFOX, Thobani served as Head of Growth & Business Development at Airbnb, where he managed payments for over 190 countries.

With vast experience in trading and payments, Thobani has developed several platform solutions for companies like ITG, Boku, and Stamps.com. He started his career as a software engineer at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Thobani earned his MBA from MIT, where he started mining bitcoins before it was popular.

Javier Martinez is the Chief Legal and Compliance Officer and Head of Human Resources for sFOX. He joined in 2024 having been most recently at Forte Labs, Inc., and prior to that at OANDA where he was General Counsel, Corporate Secretary and Chief Compliance Officer since 2016. Before that, Javier was at Boku, Inc. in San Francisco where he was co-founder, General Counsel, Chief Human Resources Officer and Chief Compliance Officer.

After receiving his law degree from The University of Chicago Law School in 1989, Javier began his career at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw and Pittman where his practice focused on financial services and technology transactions.

He is a technology geek and thrives on having a deep understanding of his clients’ tech stack having co-authored several patents and patent applications. His legal skills encompass a broad range of disciplines with deep expertise in financial services, blockchain, intellectual property, employment, and corporate and securities law. Javier grew up in Miami, Florida and obtained a Bachelor of Science from the University of Florida in Gainesville.

Diana Pires is the Vice President of Sales at sFOX, and an exceptionally versatile sales executive with extensive experience scaling businesses from zero to multimillion-dollar revenue across traditional finance, crypto, and the broader Web3 ecosystem.

Across three continents, Diana has built and led high-performing sales organizations, developed innovative revenue functions, and executed direct sales strategies that drive measurable impact. Prior to joining sFOX, Diana held leadership roles at OKX, B2C2 and Crypto.com and was pivotal in expanding their global market share.

James Kiernan is the Chief Compliance Officer and U.S. Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) Officer at SFOX, a cryptocurrency prime dealer, where he leads the firm’s global compliance strategy and regulatory engagement across digital asset trading and custody operations. He has been with SFOX for more than four years, previously serving as the firm’s U.S. BSA Officer before being appointed Chief Compliance Officer.

James has over 15 years of experience combating global financial crime, money laundering, and terrorist financing across both traditional financial institutions and digital asset markets. Prior to joining SFOX, he held financial crime and compliance roles at City National Bank of Florida, RBC Capital Markets, and Morgan Stanley, where he focused on regulatory compliance, AML investigations, and financial crime risk management.

Earlier in his career, James served as a U.S. Army Operations and Intelligence Officer assigned to an Airborne Direct Support Civil Affairs Brigade supporting overseas contingency operations in Africa and Eastern Europe.

In addition to his professional work, James supports several anti-human trafficking initiatives, serving as a Task Force Member of the Anti-Human Trafficking Intelligence Initiative and a Board Advisory Member of both the National Child Protection Task Force and the Human Trafficking Coalition of the Palm Beaches.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice and Psychology from Pace University and an MBA in Finance from Johns Hopkins University.

David Arnold is the Chief Financial Officer at sFOX and possesses over two decades of diverse global experience in business, finance, and operations. His expertise was cultivated across Fortune 500 corporations, startups, international banks, and consulting firms. Additionally, he serves as a board advisor for several startup companies.

He demonstrates a profound understanding of the fintech, payments/mobile payments, ecommerce, and SaaS industries, coupled with substantial experience in IPOs and fundraising (equity and debt), having secured over $300 million throughout his career. Furthermore, he is highly proficient in the global expansion of businesses, having established operations across Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America.

Bilal Chinoy is the Chief Technology Officer and Head of Engineering at sFOX, and brings more than two decades of experience leading engineering, product, and technology organizations. Prior to joining sFOX, Bilal served as Vice President of Engineering at Mosaic, where he built the engineering organization from the ground up and delivered a strategic finance SaaS platform. Before that, he founded and led AlphaZoa as Head of Products and Technology, partnering with clients to bring innovative product concepts to market through a blend of product management rigor and agile engineering execution.

He earned his Master’s in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Michigan, where he specialized in Digital Signal Processing and Communications Engineering, and has since built a career architecting scalable systems and managing complex product lifecycles.

Aleksandr Zhuk is the Chief Information Security Officer at sFOX. He has over 25 years of experience delivering business value in Fortune 100 financial services and startup organizations. Aleksandr served 10 years as Citi Banks VP, and won awards for leadership, performance excellence, and commitment. He is a creator and co-founder of Business Relationship Management Institute, which is a go-to source of professional learning and a community catalyst for more than 20,000 BRM professionals in 40 countries around the world.

Aleksandr has a Doctor of Management in Organizational Leadership, and a Master in Engineering in Cyber Security Policy and Compliance. Additionally, he is a founding faculty member at Yeshiva University’s Masters in Cybersecurity program, which is currently the #2 online Cybersecurity program in the country as ranked by Fortune magazine.