Ethereum Foundation Unveils New Executive Directors

The non-profit organization Ethereum Foundation (EF) has finally unveiled its new leadership structure. In a series of posts on X, EF updated the community on a shift from the previous order of a sole Executive Director to a co-executive Director.

The New Ethereum Foundation Directors

According to the announcement, Hsiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz Stańczak have been appointed to serve as co-Executive Directors effective March 17th. Their appointment marks a strategic shift in leadership structure and a move to support Ethereum’s growing ecosystem.

On Monday, March 17, the duo will assume the role of former sole Executive Director Aya Miyaguchi. Interestingly, Miyaguchi has been elevated to serve in a new capacity. The former ED now serves as the president of the Ethereum Foundation.

Until Wang’s appointment as co-Executive Director, she has contributed to community building in Taiwan, as well as to the beacon chain. However, Wang is most renowned for her seven years of research experience at the Foundation.

In an acceptance post, Wang expressed excitement at the opportunity to serve in the new role. She acknowledged that different people have different perspectives on EF, which would not affect the organization’s core values. Wang maintained EF would continue to evolve along with Ethereum while upholding its core values.

Wang’s co-Executive Director, Stańczak, is Nethermind’s founder. He is expected to provide technical expertise and growth to the Ethereum ecosystem. Stańczak’s expertise borders on technical leadership, talent development, and organizational growth. This makes him a strong addition to EF’s leadership.

EF and Further Operational Management Reshuffle

Before the new EDs were appointed, Buterin had a high autonomy over the direction of the chain. While industry figures like Charles Hoskinson criticized this autonomy, the appointment is a major change in course. 

With this development, the Ethereum Foundation’s leadership structure now has two Executive Directors and a president. The former Executive Director, Aya Miyaguchi, has been elevated to serve as president.

Miyaguchi served as Executive Director for seven years before this new promotion. Interestingly, many in the Ethereum community had criticized Miyaguchi’s leadership style, believing she lacked competitiveness.

Meanwhile, in an informal poll, the community overwhelmingly supported Danny Ryan, a former researcher with EF. Ryan received 99% of the support from the community.

However, the new leadership structure has Ryan as co-founder of Etherealize, a new institutional marketing and product division. He is to collaborate with Vivek Raman as co-founder of Etherealize.

Vitalik Buterin has formally congratulated all the newly appointed leaders. Since Buterin teased leadership changes were underway, the community had expected who the new appointees would be.

A New Trajectory for Ethereum

The crypto ecosystem has always been particularly concerned with leadership structure. This is critical to the ecosystem’s development trajectory and the frequency of upgrades on the blockchain.

Hence, Ethereum’s new leadership structure might set the ecosystem on a new trajectory that could transform it. With the Pectra upgrade underway, the leaders have an immediate innovation to oversee.