Circle Internet Financial has welcomed a new Chief Legal Officer, Gus Coldebella into the company’s senior leadership team after a four-year stint at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) where he became the organisation’s General Counsel.

Announcing the new hire in a blogpost on September 6, Circle stated that Coldebella will be responsible for all of the company’s legal, compliance, regulatory and government affairs. As the company intensifies its scaling efforts, Coldebella’s expertise is expected to help Circle navigate the legal complexities surrounding the regulatory environment around crypto finance.

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The company nodded toward his strong network in government circles as a key asset, stating that it believes that its vision for a new global economic order can only take place in partnership with governments and the evolution of law.

In his role as General Counsel at the DHS, Coldebella oversaw more than 1,700 lawyers in the course of several complex, high-risk legal situations. He also brings decades of experience in private legal practice in areas such as government regulation and enforcement, corporate technology risk, litigation and corporate governance.

An excerpt from the announcement blog reads:

“Gus is widely respected by his former colleagues as a hands-on, practical and entrepreneurial leader. He brings a rare combination of keen intelligence, intense integrity, unflappable composure and a genuine and enjoyable disposition. Gus’s leadership will be critical in our mission to work with legislators and regulators around the world to promote smart legal frameworks that encourage growth of the Internet of Value, all while we also work tirelessly with government partners to thwart those bad actors who seek to abuse the freedoms created by technical innovation or undermine confidence in our financial system.”

Coldebella will be overseeing a high-value team of recent Circle recruits including Robert Bench, a former compliance leader at Santander, PwC and the US Treasury, Carla Carriveau, an 18-year veteran at the SEC and FINRA, and Charles Heenan, former securities and commodities lawyer at Swiss Re and Citigroup.

Other recent high profile additions to the Circle team include Blair Halliday, former compliance officer at ICE and PaySafe, and Lisa LoGerfo who joined the team as a Senior Legal Counsel.

In July, CCN reported that the company, which is backed by Goldman Sachs hired Benedicte Nolens, a former Goldman Sachs executive director, as its new head of global regulatory affairs and head of compliance for Europe and Asia operations, as the company expands into global crypto securities trading.