People moves: Deutsche, Bitpay, BNY Mellon and more

By Jenita Gandhi

BitPay appoints Glen Braganza CFO

Atlanta-headquartered blockchain payments provider BitPay announced that it has appointed Glen Braganza as chief financial officer. Braganza brings over 15 years of private equity and public markets expertise to the firm. He has extensive knowledge on payment processing and will help high-growth companies to create shareholder value. In his new role, Braganza will be responsible to support BitPay through its next phase as the company expands into a global financial organization.

Speaking on the appointment, BitPay CEO and Co-founder Stephen Pair said: “Over the past few years, BitPay has seen record growth as businesses realize the potential blockchain payments deliver globally. Glen’s experience is a key advantage to BitPay as the team moves the company into the mainstream to help businesses leverage blockchain for fast consumer transactions and easy global payments.”

Ledger appoints new CEO as Larchevêque steps down from role

On April 24, French crypto wallet producer Ledger announced Pascal Gauthier as its new CEO. Gauthier is a seed investor, board member and the former president of the company. In his CEO position, Gauthier will oversee the company’s strategy and delivery of its products. The previous CEO Eric Larchevêque will take over as the executive chairman of Ledger’s board.

Commenting upon stepping down, Eric Larchevêque told Crypto Daily: “When I started Ledger in 2014 with my seven co-founders, I could never have imagined the extraordinary growth trajectory we have had in the last couple of years. 2017 and 2018 have been crazy, forcing us to scale the company at an intense pace. Pascal Gauthier, seed investor and board member, joined us as president and helped to build an organization fit to face the many challenges we have encountered.”

Deutsche Bank exec joins Founders Bank Project as CEO

Malta-based provider of blockchain and other emerging technologies the Founders Bank has recruited Kenan Altunis to the role of chief executive officer, effective of early June 2019. Altunis joins from Deutsche Bank where he served as the global co-head of the institutional client group, running a multi-billion-dollar revenue operation and a team of over 1000 people. At the Founder Bank, Altunis will lead a team of multi-skilled senior executives.

“I’m excited about this segue in my career from managing traditional banking to building a world-class corporate challenger bank. We will focus on servicing technology companies who find accessing and using existing financial services difficult and cumbersome. These will include companies in emerging technologies, such as blockchain and crypto,” said Altunis in a press release.

Blockchain platform Phore appoints Mike Trisko as CEO

London-based blockchain platform Phore has named Mike Trisko its new CEO, the company announced in a press release on April 24. Trisko beings to Phore over 25 years of technology consulting expertise, having worked with Deloitte Consulting’s IT Mergers and Acquisitions practice, PwC and Andersen Consulting. In addition, the former Co-CEO Thomas Ambler has been appointed as the chief operating officer and the former Co-CEO Anthony Alleyne is named the chairman.

Commenting on his appointment, Trisko told Block Tribune: “I’m very excited to join Phore as Chief Executive Officer. I believe Phore has the capability to make a tremendous impact on the industry. The opportunities that lie ahead for Phore as we complete our next-generation architecture, decentralized applications and deliver complete blockchain solutions are enormous. I look forward to leading Phore’s next chapter and delivering the innovation and execution it will take to be successful.”

BNY Mellon appoints new head of blockchain

BNY Mellon has appointed Subhankar Sinha as its head of blockchain, as announced by the company in a press release on May 13. In his new role, Sinha will be responsible to create and extend partnerships with startups, accelerators and other blockchain-related companies. Sinha joins from PwC, where he served as the director. He co-founded and co-lead PwC’s American blockchain consulting practice. Post that, he created a firm offering advice to startups on business models.

Medici Ventures appoints Jeremy Smith CTO

US-based subsidiary of Overstock.com Medici Ventures elevated Jeremy Smith to the role of chief technology officer, the company announced in a press release on May 1. Prior to this, Smith served as the company’s development manager. He has over 20 years of enterprise software solutions expertise. He co-founded the insurance data solutions company Castle Inspection Service (CIS).

“After a long, thorough search, we were pleased to find the best candidate for Medici Ventures right under our nose. Jeremy has provided excellent leadership within the organization over the course of the past year and I’m confident in his ability to guide us through our continued growth,” said Medici Ventures’ COO Joel Weight.

Blockchain firm Tradewind appoints Michael Albanese as chief executive officer

US-based blockchain firm Tradewind has hired Michael Albanese as the chief executive officer, the company announced on May 1.  Albanese brings over 20 years of banking and securities market expertise to the company. Prior to this, he worked with JP Morgan as the global head of agency collateral management.

Commenting upon his appointment, Albanese told Block Tribune: “Clear opportunities exist to improve how physical assets trade, settle, are custodied, and are mobilized as collateral—both in the precious metals space and beyond. Smart deployment of technology can benefit multiple participants in the ecosystem. I am excited to join a company that has already successfully executed on a major asset class.”

TRON CTO/Co-founder resigns, moves to create new TRON over decentralisation issues

On May 11, California-headquartered TRON’s CTO and Co-founder Lucien Chen announced his resignation. Chen will now work on his newly created Volume Network (VOL) in order to rebuild the network. He noted that TRON lacks decentralization and he has “irreconcilable contraditions” with the TRON team. His new project VOL is purely decentralized, and he claimed that he first thought of this project before he joined TRON.

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