Financial settlement solutions provider Ripple announced that the company’s chief executive officer Chris Larsen has decided to step down to take the role of executive chairman of Ripple’s board of directors and the company will see Brad Garlinghouse as new CEO of Ripple, effective from January 1, 2017.
According to the press release, as the executive chairman, Larsen will be responsible for leading the board of directors, strategic oversight of the business and identifying strategic partnership opportunities. He will be the controlling shareholder of Ripple, while Garlinghouse will take the chair of CEO after more than a year as Ripple’s president and chief operating officer.
“I’m grateful for the decades-long career I’ve had in Silicon Valley and look forward to taking a break from the day-to-day while staying highly involved in Ripple’s strategic direction. I feel good about making this change next year – the business is stronger than ever and we have such an obvious and capable choice for CEO in Brad Garlinghouse. Brad was central to driving the focus and rigor in our organization that’s fueled Ripple’s ascension,” Larsen stated.
Larsen has been a successful serial fintech entrepreneur, dedicated to democratizing access to financial systems for people and businesses. He co-founded Ripple in 2012 and has served as CEO and chairman of the board since. He also previously co-founded E-Loan and Prosper Marketplace.
Garlinghouse was previously CEO of Hightail, where he proved his excellence. As a COO in Ripple before, he established operational excellence, led more than 3.5 times growth in customer adoption and has shown his leadership in various milestones.
“I’m honored to step into the role of CEO of Ripple and am grateful to work so closely with a visionary like Chris. I look forward to continuing to work with Chris and the board to set the strategic direction of the company,” Garlinghouse said. “I continue to be impressed by what this team has accomplished and look forward to taking Ripple to the next phase of growth.”
The change comes following unprecedented growth in Ripple’s business, which recently announced a successful trial of banks in R3’s consortium using XRP, $55 million in series B funding and more than 4 times growth in XRP average daily trade volume.
