Coinbase Hires Ex-COO of Nerdwallet to Succeed Emilie Choi in VP Role

Coinbase has hired a new a vice president of business and data to replace Emilie Choi, who was elevated to chief operating officer earlier this year. 

The San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange picked up Dan Yoo, formerly the chief operating officer of personal finance site Nerdwallet and earlier a vice president of business operations and analytics at LinkedIn, where he worked with Choi.

At Coinbase, Yoo will oversee business operations, business development, corporate development and the data team. 

“Coinbase is a very data-driven company,” Yoo said. “As part of this role, I’ll be making sure that internally and externally Coinbase and its customers have the data they need to make better decisions.”

Yoo has been “peripherally following” the crypto industry with a Coinbase account since 2013, he told CoinDesk.

“I would not consider myself a crypto expert by any means,” he said. “I’ve been in and around financial services for my entire career, though.”

Yoo founded a number of startups prior to working for LinkedIn, including ReliaQuote, one of the first online term life insurance brokerages, which bank tech vendor Fiserv acquired in 2003. 

In his new role, Yoo plans to help tie together Coinbase's operations.

“At Linkedin, I was on a similar team and we helped be the connective tissue for the organization,” he said. “With the hypergrowth at Coinbase, I hope to use my experience of scaling teams and getting them to work effectively together.”

Dan Yoo image via Coinbase