Yaka Stuff
News, Ecosystem Updates, and Industry Perspectives
Kevin Leiske
Partner
Kevin is an attorney with a background in tax, cryptocurrency, venture, and hedge funds. Before joining Hard Yaka, Kevin practiced law in major financial centers at law firms, accounting firms, and investment banks, advising a wide range of clients from startups to multi-billion dollar investment funds. He holds an LL.M. in tax from New York University, a J.D. from the University of Wisconsin and B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University.
Kevin is an attorney with a background in tax, cryptocurrency, venture, and hedge funds. Before joining Hard Yaka, Kevin practiced law in major financial centers at law firms, accounting firms, and investment banks.
Jun Hiraga
Partner
Jun leads investment activities at Hard Yaka Ventures on a day-to-day basis. He was previously a Managing Director at UBS and Merrill Lynch, where he was responsible for leading West Coast Institutional Equity Sales & Trading. He has broad experience across asset classes, having traded fixed income, equities, and supervised derivatives. Jun graduated from Brown University and is Nico Hiraga’s cool pops, having turned him on to Radiohead and Kanye.
Jun leads investment activities at Hard Yaka Ventures on a day-to-day basis. He was previously a Managing Director at UBS and Merrill Lynch, where he was responsible for leading West Coast Institutional Equity Sales & Trading.
Chris Lewis
Partner
Chris has more than 30 years of experience in risk and compliance management in the banking, fintech, consumer finance, consultancy, and regulatory sectors. Chris served as a Director at Promontory Financial Group for over a decade providing risk management advice to its global fintech and banking client base and was recently the Chief Risk and Compliance Officer at an internet-based consumer finance company. He is a former Senior Adviser to the Comptroller at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).
Chris has more than 30 years of experience in risk and compliance management in the banking, fintech, consumer finance, consultancy, and regulatory sectors. Chris served as a Director at Promontory Financial Group for over a decade.
Margaret Slemmer
Partner
Margaret has over two decades of experience across the financial services industry as a regulator, banker, legal analyst, consultant, and investor. Throughout her career, Margaret’s work has centered around helping financial institutions understand and respond to significant enforcement actions, educating industry newcomers (e.g., fintech management) on the regulatory environment and its requirements, and conducting independent investigations.
Margaret has over two decades of experience across the financial services industry as a regulator, banker, legal analyst, consultant, and investor.
Greg Kidd
Partner
Greg is a co-founder and partner of Hard Yaka. As an investor, Greg provided first money at Twitter, Square, Coinbase, Robinhood, and Solana. Other early investments include Ripple, Uphold, and Brave.
After working at consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, Greg took his first company public on the NASDAQ with $250 million in revenue and 3,200 staff globally. He later served in the payments division of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and as a director at the financial regulatory consulting firm Promontory Financial Group. Greg also served as Chief Risk Officer at Andreesen Horowitz and Google Ventures backed startup Ripple. Greg graduated from Brown University and earned an MBA from Yale University and an MPA in public policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School.
Greg is a co-founder and partner of Hard Yaka. As an investor, Greg provided first money at Twitter, Square, Coinbase, Robinhood, and Solana. Other early investments include Ripple, Uphold, and Brave.
