Goldman Sachs Veteran Howard Surloff Joins Blockchain as General Advisory

Howard Surloff, Goldman Sachs and BlackRock veteran, has become a member of top crypto wallet provider Blockchain.com as general counsel.

Surloff, who served two of the world’s largest and most acclaimed financial powerhouses for more than 25 years, is handed over the responsibility of fine tuning blockchain’s standard for compliance, legal and corporate governance within the crypto sector.

Before entering the crypto sector, Surloff – as per LinkedIn page – worked for more than 12 years at BlackRock, the largest exchange-traded fund provider in the world.

At BlackRock, Surloff served as Deputy General Counsel before taking the role as Global Chief Operating Officer of BlackRock’s iShares and Index business, which has more than $4.4 trillion in assets and 800 employees worldwide.

The Wall Street veteran, before being roped by BlackRock, was employed by Goldman Sachs for more than 12 years. He served as Managing Director and General Counsel for the US Asset Management Division. Furthermore, he also took care of legal strategy and handling of over 1000 product offerings.

In the meantime, Goldman Sachs and BlackRock have conveyed their curiosity in Bitcoin (BTC) and its fundamental blockchain technology. Of late, in a note to customers, Goldman Sachs offered a bullish view for Bitcoin, giving a short-term price target of $13,971.

In July 2019, Goldman Sachs disclosed its plan to establish a new crypto venture by advertising a job opportunity for a Digital Asset Project Manager under the bank’s GS Accelerate in-house incubator program.

In 2018, BlackRock setup the creation of a working group to explore opportunities in Bitcoin, including trading and investing in Bitcoin futures. Last month, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink asserted that he does consider Facebook’s intended stable coin Libra as a cryptocurrency. Fink further stated that the world does not require Libra but only the tech implementation.