- Sam Bankman-Fried's psychiatrist was also employed as FTX's in-house performance coach, according to the Journal.
- Dr. George Lerner didn't just focus on careers, but the dating lives of FTX employees as well.
As swaths of FTX staffers exited the crypto exchange last year, one of the last remaining employees was Sam Bankman-Fried's psychiatrist — also known as the firm's performance coach.
Dr. George Lerner has over 15 years of experience as a psychiatrist, according to his LinkedIn profile. The 46-year-old graduated from Baylor University in 2004 and finished his residency at a top-ranked program at the University of California, San Francisco in 2008.
After serving as a psychologist for Bankman-Fried and other tech execs in San Francisco, he joined FTX in early 2022, with the goal to create "a more sustainable work environment," according to the Wall Street Journal. (FTX was known for its brutal work hours, with employees working late at night and throughout the weekend.)
"They were amazing people — driven, brilliant, wanting to make a positive impact on the world," Lerner told the Journal. "Conflict resolution was the toughest as most of my work has historically been with individuals."
To some, he was the "company therapist," according to a glowing Sequoia profile of Bankman-Fried, which also described Lerner as the "person who knows SBF the best." The venture capital firm was an FTX backer, but took a $150 million loss on the exchange after it lost $8 billion of customer funds and filed for bankruptcy in November.
"Lerner strikes me as an excellent shrink," the now-deleted article from August of 2022 reads.
He later told Motherboard that the Sequoia profile did not accurately describe his job responsibilities because he was not employed as a doctor at FTX.
He coached roughly 100 of FTX's 300 staff and provided psychiatric services to about 20 employees through his private practice on the side.
Lerner didn't just focus on careers, but the dating lives of FTX employees as well. He would try to plan various social events for staff because he was "always looking for dating options for FTX people," he previously wrote in a text message, reported by Motherboard.
"They were working way too much," he told the New York Times in mid-November. "It would have been healthier if they did have more healthy dating relationships."
His relationship with FTX staff also may have extended to an unhealthy side.
In a December Twitter thread, a former FTX employee slammed Lerner for being a way for company staff to obtain drugs.
"In true FTX tradition, the shrink's experience consists of befriending the Bankman-Fried household a decade prior and the ability to be a bridge between affluent kids and their insatiable amphetamine dependency," the employee wrote.
—Dani Cloud (@daniiicloud) December 14, 2022
Lerner did not respond to Insider's several requests for comment.