Ripple Labs, a blockchain-based payment company, will soon have a new CEO. The impending change of guard was announced earlier today by the company. According to the brief, the chief executive officer and co-founder of Ripple, Chris Larsen will be replaced by the current president and chief operating officer Brad Garlinghouse at the end of this year.
After giving up the mantle, Chris Larsen will continue to serve as one of the platform’s Board of Directors. Larsen’s decision is influenced by his family, as he wants to spend more time with his two sons after moving away from an operational role as a CEO. In the same context, he was quoted by a leading business publication saying:
“We’ve got customers all over the world. The requirements of that as CEO [means] moving in the opposite direction of the balance I wanted to move into.”
The replacement of Larsen comes highly recommended, with rich corporate experience in tech firms. Garlinghouse, who joined Ripple in April 2015 has previously served with Yahoo Inc., where he was known for the “peanut butter manifesto” — pointing out the company’s shortcomings with its expansion plan. Garlinghouse is not expected to deviate much from the vision of Chris Larsen for Ripple.
Ripple has gained widespread acceptance in the banking sector. Many banks, part of R3 global blockchain consortium have recently completed trials of blockchain applications using Ripple’s cryptocurrency. The platform has so far raised funds totaling over $93 million. The largest chunk was raised in September during the platform’s Series B funding round where it received $55 million from Standard Chartered PLC, SBI Holdings, Accenture Ventures, SCB Digital Ventures and the investment arm of Siam Commercial Bank. Other investors in the platform include Banco Santander, CME Group, and Seagate Technology.
Ripple has signed up some of the leading banking majors as its clients and in the coming months, the platform intends to launch few new blockchain products for the fintech industry. With Garlinghouse taking the helm, we will soon know how the company will fare under the new leadership.
Ref: WSJ | Image: Ripple Labs