The Switzerland-based Cardano Foundation, which is charged with developing the Cardano ecosystem and its ADA cryptocurrency, just announced a major addition to its leadership team. As the Foundation continues to scale up its operations, changes are bound to happen if the organization wants to succeed.
Open Source Developer And Asian Finance Sector Star Joins The Leadership Team
The new change comes to its leadership team. The Cardano Foundation announced the newest member of its Board of Directors, Fernando Luis Vasquez Cao, in a Thursday press release. His professional career has been both diversified and quite impressive.
Fernando worked at Japanese telecom giant NTT, straight out of college. After spending over 10 years there, he joined SBI where he held several leadership positions.
He will bring over 20 years of experience to the board in sectors such as governance, regulation, open-source technology, fintech, and capital markets. Given he was in Japan for the majority of his career, Fernando has unique knowledge of the Asian financial services sector, which could give Cardano a real advantage in the Asian markets.
Fernando’s appointment comes at a time when the Foundation is expanding its core operations to bolster crucial infrastructure and enterprise markets. The Enterprise Technology department of the Foundation is responsible for ensuring Cardano’s crucial infrastructure needs are satisfied to the best standards.
Cardano Foundation CEO Frederik Gregaard had this to say regarding the addition of Fernando to the board:
“The board plays an integral role in providing guidance and oversight for the Cardano Foundation. Fernando has a distinguished track record in business and software development and his expertise adds another layer to our prestigious board… He will be an invaluable asset to us as we continue to advance our efforts and scale our operations.”
With Fernando joining, the Foundation now has a four-person board of directors. He will be sitting alongside Mary Beth Buchanan, Andreas Eschbach, and Jillian MacNab who all have a diverse range of expertise.
Cardano’s Bright Future
Like Ethereum, Cardano is a blockchain that supports smart contract capability. Cardano promises better scalability, cheaper fees, and a higher transaction throughput than what the second-largest cryptocurrency currently offers.
Yet, critics abound. Mike Novogratz, for instance, told Yahoo Finance’s Zack Guzman last year that the Cardano community has “done something to create this weird cult”. Earlier this month, a partner at Placeholder, Chris Burniske, dismissed ADA as “vaporware”.
ADA has continued to thrive despite skepticism about its utility from these big industry names. According to a report recently published by the research team at Kraken cryptocurrency exchange, 2022 could prove to be Cardano’s best year yet as it looks poised to be the leading Layer 1 blockchain in the market.
With a market capitalization of just over $33 billion, Cardano is currently the industry’s seventh-most valuable network. If the flurry of activity around the blockchain and Fernando’s appointment are any indication, Cardano is looking at a very bright future ahead.
