Coinbase Adds Ex-Clinton Aide, Supreme Court lawyer to Board

Coinbase adds three directors to its crypto exchange board, including a top OpenAI executive who was President Clinton’s political strategist in the 1990s.

While one of the new directors has a wealth of experience in the management consultancy sector, the other two have served as US presidents.

Coinbase announced on July 25 that Chris Lehane had been added to the board as one of ten directors.

Shortly before Clinton took office in 1992 and began his two-term run for US president between 1993 and 2001, Lehane worked as his Democratic strategist.

Additionally, he was instrumental in enabling the home-sharing platform Airbnb to operate lawfully in all 50 US states and other countries. Lehane works with OpenAI as the Vice President of Public Works.

The company said that Chris will give strategic advice to Coinbase’s leadership as the business strives to make on-chain the new online. “Countries worldwide are developing new rules that embrace crypto’s potential to update the financial system,” Coinbase said.

Before becoming a board member, Lehane was a member of Coinbase’s Global Advisory Council.

Paul Clement, a former solicitor general for the Bush administration and partner at Clement and Murphy, and Christa Davies, a former chief financial officer of management consulting firm Aon, are the two more directors joining the board.

Davies will help the financial operations and sit on the audit and compliance committee. Davies was the chief financial officer of Microsoft’s platforms and services group.

With nearly 100 cases argued, Clement, whose prior law firm focused on litigation, is among the attorneys appearing before the US Supreme Court most frequently this century.

His expertise might be helpful in ongoing legal dispute with the US securities authority.

Between 2001 and 2009, Clement was President George W. Bush’s US Solicitor General for his two terms in office.

Along with Davies, he will support audit and compliance committee.

Digital assets, according to the three new Coinbase board members, can increase financial inclusion for all people, significantly underrepresented groups. Lehane continued, saying:

“I am excited to support Coinbase as they continue to advocate for the 52 million Americans who own crypto (over-indexing on young people of color) and work to democratize the benefits of capitalism so more people can keep their fair share of the economic pie.”