Meet the First Black Woman Appointed as General Counsel of a Digital Currency Marketplace

HBUS, the exclusive U.S. strategic partner of blockchain asset solutions provider Huobi, recently named Tiffani McCoy as General Counsel. “My new role and responsibilities drive business and legal strategy for all HBUS company operations, including product dev and operations, corporate development, sales, marketing, finance, corporate governance, government affairs, compliance, and business policy,” McCoy told me in an email.

Prior to joining the team at HBUS, she served as Assistant General Counsel at Intuit and fulfilled leadership positions at Yahoo! and Google. McCoy is a graduate of USC Gould School of Law, the University of Oklahoma (M.A. in Organizational and Small Group Communication), and Ithaca College (B.S., Television and Radio). She has over two decades of experience navigating legal environments and developing innovative products.

“Being involved in a burgeoning industry with blockchain being a groundbreaking technology, it’s important that HBUS does things the right way. As a market leader, we’re taking great effort to define and evolve the digital currency trading space,” she said.

McCoy is the first Black woman to serve in this type of role at a digital currency marketplace. “From a personal achievement standpoint, I’m grateful for the opportunity to grow and lead. As an African-American woman, I hope it means more diversity is possible and that culturally and globally more people are able to recognize that people with skill and drive come in different packages and contribute valuable voices to conversations about business, leadership, and innovation.”

As she oversees upcoming initiatives at HBUS, McCoy says she’ll continue to push for diversity and conscious leadership on a global stage. “People want to do the right things because we know diversity enriches and strengthens perspective and the ability to innovate and engage in our increasingly connected global environment. Yet, we struggle with what doing the right thing looks like,” she noted.

“The challenges are widely known — smaller talent pools due to lack of education and professional opportunities, difficulty keeping multicultural talent, and unconscious bias. These factors are still all too prevalent. So the tech industry has work to do in finding, educating, and supporting new and more diverse talent pools, while also activating our leaders to model inclusive conversation and value diverse opinions.”

McCoy also mentioned plans to double the HBUS staff by 2019. “HBUS has a very diverse staff and a very open policy. Team members are encouraged to voice their opinions and work on projects that may not be in their normal scope,” she said. “More than 90% of the office is multi-lingual and over half the team has international work experience. All of this leads to a respectful and lively environment where new ideas are openly traded.”

ThePLUG Staff

Our stories move beyond popular deficit narratives to show the substantive ways that Black people are affected by and engaged with the innovation economy, including analyses of modern technologies and the structures and cultures.