Anthony Emtman
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Chief Executive Officer
“Proprietary is a concept trending toward diminishing significance. Well-honed go-to-market strategies coupled with disciplined execution trumps all in an open-source ecosystem where technology and products are consistently iterated and improved upon at an accelerating pace.
Owning this subsequently necessitates a focus on building a trustworthy, credible brand that truthfully exists to serve and delight its customers.”
Anthony Emtman is the CEO of Ikigai Asset Management, a L/S multi-strategy crypto asset hedge fund. Prior to founding Ikigai in 2018, Anthony spent 10 years on active duty in the Air Force, achieving the rank of Captain. He has also built businesses in FinTech, blockchain, real estate, transportation, and video intelligence spaces.
In the Air Force, Anthony was a contracting officer and software developer. As a full stack Ruby developer, he created contract management systems. As a contracting officer – a licensed and regulated steward of taxpayer funds – Anthony gained a deep understanding of contract law and management. He led contracting teams across construction, technology development, physical science R&D, and satellite system efforts, including the Boeing Wideband Global SATCOM ($3bn) system. In 2014, Anthony’s squadron was awarded #1 of 17 in the AMC Major Command.
During his time in the Air Force, Anthony also led two Techstars companies. He served as CFO for Jogg, a Disney Techstars company. His efforts as CFO re-engineered Jogg’s corporate infrastructure – creating multimillion-dollar tax shields. He also Co-Founded as CFO and Software Developer, MARK Labs, a Barclays Techstars company focused on creating FinTech solutions for philanthropic and social enterprises. Anthony developed MARK Labs’ corporate infrastructure and early product solutions, responsible for the full software stack and automated continuous integration (CI) and continuous deployment (CD) pipeline. MARK Labs was one of ten teams selected to participate in the Accelerator of nearly 700 team applications.
His multidisciplinary background led naturally to a primary focus on crypto asset and distributed ledger technologies. As CEO, he is responsible for leading across Ikigai’s investment management, advisory, and broader crypto asset solutions efforts, spearheading Ikigai’s daily operations. His leadership philosophy is a blend of meritocracy and the broader meaning of ikigai – a nearly 1200-year-old Japanese term that means ‘a reason for being’ – the concept on which the firm was created.
Anthony earned his B.S. in Economics from the United States Air Force Academy and M.S. in Finance from Georgetown University. He also competed nationally and internationally on All Air Force and All Armed Forces Volleyball teams for 7 years.
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