MLA Places Kelly Catherine Chapman as Head of Legal and Chief Compliance Officer at Wave Financial Group, LLC

Hanover, MD (August 2, 2022) — Major, Lindsey & Africa (MLA), the world’s leading legal search firm, today announced the placement of Kelly Catherine Chapman as head of legal and chief compliance officer at Wave Financial Group, LLC in Los Angeles. The search was conducted by Michael Sachs, partner, and Thanh Nguyen, director, both with MLA’s In-House Counsel Recruiting group.

Wave is a SEC-registered digital asset wealth manager and fund manager, servicing high-net-worth individual and institutional investors and companies and had over $1 billion in assets under management (AUM) as of March 2022. Since its launch in 2018, Wave’s capabilities have expanded to include a full-service wealth management platform and a suite of in-house crypto investment funds.

Kelly will be responsible for leading Wave's legal and compliance function, and in particular, providing legal advice as it relates to Wave’s domestic and offshore expansion and activities, including managing outside counsel on fund formation work, active fund management, institutional investor/limited partnership work, venture fund deals and investments, M&A, and other strategic corporate transactions.

“When we met Kelly, we felt she was the perfect candidate to lead Wave Financial’s Legal and Compliance function. She embraces the innovative, pioneering, positive, passionate, growth-oriented mindset that is key to Wave’s culture and mission to be the bridge between traditional asset management and cutting-edge technology behind digital assets and blockchain,” said Michael Sachs. “Kelly is uniquely positioned to lead the legal charge at Wave, given that she’s squarely at the intersection of investment/funds management and digital assets, bringing over 10 years of legal experience in the investment fund space from top-tier AmLaw 100 law firms, combined with in-house fintech legal experience,” added Thanh Nguyen.

Kelly most recently served as product counsel for securities-related products for a venture-backed fintech company focused on blockchain-based financial services products, and in-house counsel and chief compliance officer for their related funds and registered investment advisers. Previously, she served led the fund formation practice of the Securities, Regulatory and Complex Transactions Team at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. She also spent time with K&L Gates as an investment management associate. She began her legal career at Fried Frank as a private equity fund formation associate, and she traces her investment management roots to time spent at the Carlyle Group prior to law school. Kelly earned her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and her B.A. from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College.