About Valkyrie Funds
Valkyrie Funds LLC is a specialized alternative financial services firm at the intersection of traditional finance and the emerging cryptocurrency sector whose affiliates aim to offer asset management, research and other services. Headquartered in Nashville, Valkyrie Funds aims to provide exposure to the emerging digital asset class through traditional financial vehicles. Valkyrie Funds is led by seasoned asset managers who have previously launched multiple ETFs, publicly traded funds and ETPs, including digital asset funds with backgrounds across Guggenheim Partners, UBS, Chicago Board of Trade, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and The World Bank.
Why Invest in Valkyrie
Digital Asset Focus
Valkyrie is a digital assets focused investment firm. We are committed to expanding access to this emerging asset class.
Deep Traditional Experience
The Valkyrie team has deep expertise in traditional asset management with extensive backgrounds in building, launching, and scaling financial products with major financial firms.
Education First
We believe that education allows for more responsible investing and are committed to leading and expanding resources for investors.
Executive Team
Leah Wald
Chief Executive Officer
Leah Wald is the CEO of Valkyrie Funds. She is an economist with an expertise in asset management focused on value investing. As a direct report to the CEO of Vital Financial, Wald spearheaded investment strategies for multi-billion dollar asset managers on global macro strategy.
Read BioLeah Wald
Chief Executive Officer
Leah Wald is an economist with an expertise in asset management focusing on value investing. As a direct report to the CEO of Vital Financial, Ms. Wald spearheaded investment strategies for multi-billion dollar asset managers on global macro strategy.
Prior, Ms. Wald was a Partner at Lucid Investment Strategies, an asset management firm specializing in cryptocurrency investments. Ms. Wald worked at the World Bank Group and co-founded Veterati, a mentorship platform assisting unemployed and transitioning US veterans to secure meaningful employment.
Ms. Wald is a contributing writer for Forbes and co-authored the book Hyperwave Theory: The Rogue Waves of Financial Markets. Ms. Wald has a BA in International Political Economy and a MSc in Management specialized in International Business from IE Business School.
She studied at University of Beijing, University of Haifa, and served as a research assistant to the Director of University of Cambridge's Lauterpacht Centre for International Law where she researched and coded algorithms for a dataset examining the role of arbitrator background for outcomes in international investment arbitration.
Steven McClurg
Chief Investment Officer
Previously, Mr. McClurg was a Managing Director at Guggenheim Partners, where he was a portfolio manager and responsible for portfolio construction and strategy for fixed income and private equity. Most recently, Mr. McClurg founded Theseus Capital...
Read BioSteven McClurg
Chief Investment Officer of Valkyrie Funds
Steven McClurg is the Chief Investment Officer of Valkyrie Funds. He has considerable traditional finance and Fintech experience, ranging from insurtech and payments to blockchain.
Previously, Mr. McClurg was a Managing Director at Guggenheim Partners, where he was a portfolio manager and responsible for portfolio construction and strategy for fixed income and private equity. Most recently, Mr. McClurg founded Theseus Capital, a blockchain-powered asset management platform which was acquired by a merchant bank, Galaxy Digital, where he continued as Managing Director, building their asset management and public funds businesses. He also co-founded payments company, Paydrop. He also has experience in leadership roles in technology companies such as Electronic Arts and Crowdfunder. Mr. McClurg holds a Master of Science and an MBA from Pepperdine University, where he has served as an adjunct professor.
Nick Bonos
Head of Fund Operations
Nikolaos (Nick) Bonos has been in the financial services industry for more than 32 years. He has worked in various senior operational roles for State Street, JP Morgan Chase, Rydex Investments, Security Benefit Corp., Guggenheim Investments, and MUFG Investor Services (US), LLC.
Read BioNick Bonos
Head of Fund Operations
Nikolaos (Nick) Bonos has been in the financial services industry for more than 32 years. He has worked in various senior operational roles for State Street, JP Morgan Chase, Rydex Investments, Security Benefit Corp., Guggenheim Investments, and MUFG Investor Services (US), LLC. He also has held various senior officer roles for the Rydex Funds, Rydex ETF’s, Rydex Specialized Products LLC, Security Funds, Guggenheim Funds, and Guggenheim ETF’s throughout the years.
He also assisted in the transaction of Rydex Investments to Security Benefit Corporation in 2006.
He was President of Rydex Fund Services when it was sold to MUFG in 2016.
Nick graduated with a BSBA cum laude from Suffolk University in 1986.
Scottland Keefer
Chief Compliance Officer
Scottland Keefer has worked in the financial services industry for over 10 years and is a licensed attorney in the state of Illinois. He began his career at Deloitte Tax, advising large trading firms and hedge funds. After moving to the in-house Legal and Compliance practice, Scottland has worked...
Read BioScottland Keefer
CCO
Scottland Keefer has worked in the financial services industry for over 10 years and is a licensed attorney in the state of Illinois. He began his career at Deloitte Tax, advising large trading firms and hedge funds.
After moving to the in-house Legal and Compliance practice, Scottland has worked at large investment advisory firms such as Neuberger Berman, gaining broad-based experience in the sector. As a Vice President at Northern Trust, he advised several large fund complexes on regulatory and governance matters. Most recently, he was tasked with building a U.S. compliance operation for a U.K.-based asset manager seeking to expand their global operations.
Scottland graduated from Indiana University with a B.S. in Finance and DePaul University with both a J.D. and M.B.A. in Finance.
Lori Tiernan
Chief Marketing Officer
Lori Tiernan brings over a decade of experience launching and growing financial brands. Since 2013, she has run Innovative Asset Growth where she served in an outsourced CMO capacity to several emerging and niche asset managers and FinTech brands. She was an early employee...
Read BioLori Tiernan
Managing Director of Marketing
Lori Tiernan brings over a decade of experience launching and growing financial brands. Since 2013, she has run Innovative Asset Growth where she served in an outsourced CMO capacity to several emerging and niche asset managers and FinTech brands.
Prior to launching her own firm, Ms. Tiernan ran Marketing and Investor Relations for a long only equity hedge fund. She was an early employee in Institutional Distribution and Marketing at Guggenheim investments and helped the firm expand their footprint globally and raise billions in new assets.
Ms. Tiernan is a speaker and advocate for women in the technology and financial services sector and runs a non profit in New Hampshire that provides Pro Bono marketing service to local businesses. She is a graduate of the University of Richmond.
John Key
Managing Director
John is the Managing Director of Valkyrie Funds. Key is the Principal/Founder of Key Strategic Advisors, LLC, a strategic advisory and consulting firm specializing in advising asset managers on their growth strategies and corporate development initiatives.
Read BioJohn Key
Managing Director
John is the Managing Director of Valkyrie Funds. Key is the Principal/Founder of Key Strategic Advisors, LLC, a strategic advisory and consulting firm specializing in advising asset managers on their growth strategies and corporate development initiatives. Most recently, John was a Senior Managing Director in UBS Investment Bank’s Global Financial Institutions Group focused primarily on working with asset management and related companies. He has extensive experience in the origination, structuring and capital raising of investment products on behalf of asset management companies, launching over 145 investment vehicles raising in excess of $100 billion in new assets. John was also head of the Fund Advisory and Shareholder Services Group that is responsible for providing clients and fund Boards with comprehensive market analysis.
John joined PaineWebber in 1992 and occupied a variety of roles in different areas within the Private Client Group before joining the Investment Bank.
John holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and History from Stony Brook University.
John Mulroy
Head of Capital Markets
John is a Senior-Level Capital Markets Executive with 25+ years of experience specializing in ETF creation and distribution, with more than 35 years of experience in the Financial Industry as a whole. John managed the ETF team at Guggenheim Investments in Chicago...
Read BioJohn Mulroy
Head of Capital Markets
John is a Senior-Level Capital Markets Executive with 25+ years of experience specializing in ETF creation and distribution, with more than 35 years of experience in the Financial Industry as a whole. After graduating Cum Laude from CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice, John began his career at Spear Leeds & Kellogg in 1982 managing the NYSE Major Market Index (XMI). In 1989 John joined Hull Trading Company/Goldman Sachs, managing the New York office and their trade operations, in addition to being the floor official on the American Stock Exchange. John is an experienced market maker in several options and ETF products including SPYDERS, DIAMONDS and QQQQ’S, in addition to advising and orchestrating the launch of Barclays iShares products. More recently, John managed the ETF team at Guggenheim Investments in Chicago and oversaw 77 ETFs including the BulletShares ETFs, raising $40 billion in AUM before selling the Guggenheim ETF franchise to Invesco in April 2018.
Bill Cannon
Head of ETF Portfolio Management
Bill Cannon is the Head of ETF Portfolio Management as a Managing Director at Valkyrie. Prior to joining Valkyrie, Bill was a Managing Director at Guggenheim Partners Investment Management, where he was member of the insurance portfolio management division...
Read BioBill Cannon
Head of ETF Portfolio Management
Bill Cannon is the Head of ETF Portfolio Management as a Managing Director at Valkyrie. Prior to joining Valkyrie, Bill was a Managing Director at Guggenheim Partners Investment Management, where he was member of the insurance portfolio management division responsible for $80 billion of assets under management. Before that, Mr. Cannon worked at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board Of Options Exchange as a derivatives broker for equity index and interest rate futures and options. Mr. Cannon earned a BA in Chemistry from the University of Vermont and an MBA from the Quinlan School of Business at Loyola University Chicago.