Eight Questions: Haley Hughes, Head of Talent, People Team
Welcome to Eight Questions, where we profile individual members of the Anchorage Digital team, diving into their career paths, what brought them to crypto, and what makes them tick. Why eight? Because it’s the number of decimal places a bitcoin can be divided into. It’s also the last single digit number in a Fibonacci Sequence, and we like that.
Leslie Ankney
Next in our series, meet Haley Hughes, who joined Anchorage Digital as Head of Talent on the People team this month. Prior to Anchorage, Haley served as Head of Talent at institutional crypto finance company, NYDIG, and Stone Ridge Asset Management. Haley is passionate about concerts and aerial fitness in her spare time.
- You’ve done some incredible work scaling teams for institutional crypto, what are some of your proudest achievements?
At my last company, NYDIG, we scaled the engineering organization by 6x, built out compliance from scratch, and created better hiring and onboarding processes.
This experience lends itself really well to our hiring priorities here at Anchorage. Right now, we are expanding to hire at a more rapid pace. At the same time, we are establishing our global presence as a place where high caliber talent wants to work. Attracting software engineers who are pursued by large companies with competitive salaries like Apple, Google, and Facebook is always challenging, but I’m grateful to have the experience navigating that competitive market.
2. With a Series D this year from some of the biggest names on Wall Street, Anchorage is poised for massive growth over the next year. What will you be focusing on to scale talent and recruitment efforts?
I’ve learned a lot over the years about building scalable recruiting teams, processes, and programs, and will apply what I’ve learned to support our high growth over the next few years. The key is striking the right balance between scaling a system while refusing to sacrifice standards for the right talent, and I have a couple priorities to ensure we get it right.
3. Yes, it’s essential for a high-growth company like Anchorage to scale in a way that keeps standards and our unique culture intact. How do you balance between rapidly scaling and maintaining high standards?
First, we need to scale our processes across the board internally and externally to make sure we’re targeting talent that is additive to the chemistry of Anchorage as a whole. From a recruiting standpoint, we need to double the talent team’s size. With a robust talent team and strong processes, we’re able to be a high-scale recruiting machine.
We’ll also be expanding our brand as an employer and sharing what’s different about Anchorage. There’s a ton of fintech and crypto companies a candidate could join, but we want them to know what’s specifically unique about Anchorage.
We also need to scale a best-in-class candidate experience. To do this, we’ll build processes that ensure all candidates have the same quality interview experience. We will also put the right tools in place to revisit candidates who may have not been a fit at the time but are now.
Finally, we also need to ensure we’re equipped to accomplish all this as we continue to grow into global markets. We want to extend opportunities, and tailored experiences for all candidates.
4. What brought you to Anchorage? Do the same reasons you join also speak to the talent you hire?
I’m passionate about crypto. Anchorage has a highly reliable institutional product, incredible team, and great founders.
The leading factor that brought me to Anchorage was the culture — and I don’t just mean the work environment. As a talent leader, it’s important for me to be aligned with our recruits and our vision for growth. Diversity is really prioritized here, and that’s key for a company to be a global leader. The more diverse group of perspectives we have across our team — the more perspectives we have to get it right. That focus on diversity is about being part of an inclusive, welcoming environment, but most importantly, it’s about building a culture of ideas and iteration to make the best products and services possible.
5. Crypto hiring is highly competitive right now, what do new hires, particularly engineers, need to know about Anchorage?
It’s a great time to join Anchorage because we’re in high-growth mode and we have a well-established product. At this stage, there’s vast potential to make an impact in what you do, and also for you to grow personally as the product evolves, but you don’t have to start from scratch.
For engineers, Anchorage is particularly appealing because we don’t silo our engineers here, instead they are thought leaders within the company. Rather than finance leading and tech following, we are a company rooted in technology and a belief in blockchain.
6. What’s it been like joining the team remotely? How do you see Anchorage culture perpetuated in the remote environment?
I’ve been very impressed with how successful our remote environment is, including the onboarding process. It can sometimes be really difficult to immerse yourself in a team in a fully remote environment, but it’s amazing how quickly one can feel a part of the team and build deep collegiate relationships.
We’re highly transparent and communicative, which eliminates any barriers from a remote environment. In our weekly team-wide meetings, people engage in chat like old friends. It’s okay to be new and throw out a question, because all kinds of SMEs and even the founders will respond. Everyone gets to know new employees at a human level and empowers one another.
7. As a company that’s poised to scale, how do you approach maintaining and evolving the Anchorage Village culture that attracted you and so many of us to the company?
The key to successfully evolving our culture is to ensure we’re always making time for the culture in our day to day, which is something our founders and leadership team are committed to doing.
This starts during our hiring process, where the founders meet all the candidates, which speaks to their level of investment in maintaining and enhancing our culture. From there, new hires join cohort groups, and go through learning sessions together to get a sense of team even on day one — not just your direct working team but across geographies. Things like the Eight Questions blog and our Talk Chain chats, where employees interview each other in front of the firm at our weekly meetings, help everyone get to know each other better. These kinds of things are easy to sacrifice when we scale but important to preserve.
8. What are some things you enjoy doing when you’re not working? Tell us about something you’re learning right now outside of work.
I’m expecting my first child in June! That was actually important in my journey coming to Anchorage, because as an expecting mother, it can be difficult to change jobs. Most of my time right now is preparing to be a mom for the first time.
I’ve also always enjoyed yoga and I love live music! In 2019, pre-Covid, I saw over 30 artists live, including Willie Nelson and the Wu Tang Clan.
Interested in learning more about what it’s like to work at Anchorage? Anchorage is hiring for a variety of roles, check our job opportunities here.
Disclaimer: Holdings of cryptocurrencies and other digital assets are speculative and involve a substantial degree of risk, including the risk of complete loss. There can be no assurance that any cryptocurrency, token, coin, or other crypto asset will be viable, liquid, or solvent. Nothing in this communication is intended to imply that any asset held in custody by Anchorage is low-risk or risk-free. Digital assets held in custody are not guaranteed by Anchorage Digital Bank National Association and are not FDIC-insured.
