The Cardano Foundation strengthens its Council with two new Members

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(Written by Bakyt Azimkanov (@Bakyt_CF), Global PR, Communications and Marketing Director)

ZUG, 4 DECEMBER 2019. The Cardano Foundation – in line with its goal to strengthen and diversify its highest supervisory body – has appointed Tamara Haasen and Nicolás Javier Arqueros Rojas as new Council Members, effective immediately. The latest addition comes as the Foundation set to assume more responsibilities ahead of the transfer of custody of Cardano and smart contracts rollout in 2020.

Tamara is the first woman to hold the post and Nicolás is the first South American national to become a Council Member. Together they will focus on advancing the Foundation’s mission.

Tamara and Nicolás join the existing Council – Nathan Kaiser, Chairperson, Manmeet Singh, Vice Chairperson, and Domino Burki, Treasurer – to further bolster the Foundation’s objectives as the project heads into the Goguen era. Both new Council Members come from within the Cardano ecosystem: Tamara is a Chief of Staff at Input Output HK based in Toronto, Canada, and Nicolás is a Chief Technology Officer at EMURGO based in New York, United States.

The appointments are a direct response to the Foundation’s priorities of timely and orderly transfer of full custody of Cardano next year, acquire additional expertise and skillset, and formalize and solidify structural relationships within the ecosystem, as well as maintain robust operational links between the three entities.

Nathan Kaiser, Chairperson of the Cardano Foundation, says:

"This year has been transformational for the Cardano Foundation on multiple accounts and 2020 promises to be even more monumental. We have built our team and grown our collective skillset. To continue our expansion, the new Council Members will empower the Foundation to have even more holistic decision-making, provide additional expertise and bring new perspectives.

“Tamara brings business development and growth, systems integration and talent acquisition experience to the Foundation. Nicolás will provide his technical expertise based on his entrepreneurial engineering, startup, app development and emerging markets knowledge. Both Tam and Nico will be key for the progression of Cardano.”

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Tamara, a native of Toronto, Canada, has a Juris Doctor degree from the Bond University in Queensland (Australia) and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Toronto in Ontario (Canada). She is also a certified audio engineer and holds theater credentials.

Watch @Tamara_Haasen’s conversation with @Bakyt_CF:

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Nicolás, a native of La Serena, Chile, has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Electronic Engineering with a minor in Business and Economics from the Federico Santa María Technical University in Valparaíso (Chile).

Under the current Council’s leadership, the Cardano Foundation expanded its team to 16 locations across 12* countries, and has strengthened its communications, legal, technical, operational, administrative and community management functions by bringing new talent in key departments.

As a result, the Foundation has increased its presence across the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Europe with a diverse set of individuals representing 18** nationalities, of which women make up almost a third, with more hires and geographic expansion planned for 2020.

This year, the Foundation also became a member of leading industry bodies and will continue to do so going forward.

*Canada, China, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the United States.
**American, Austrian, Belgian, Brazilian, British, Canadian, Chilean, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Indian, Korean, Kyrgyz, Portuguese, South African, Swiss and Taiwanese.

Read the formal announcement here.

About the Cardano Foundation: The Cardano Foundation is an independent body based in Zug, Switzerland, with core responsibilities to help oversee and supervise the development of Cardano, the world’s first third-generation blockchain, and its ecosystem. The Foundation is committed to protecting and promoting Cardano, the first blockchain platform developed for smart contracts using a scientific philosophy, and to advocate on behalf of the users and community of the protocol. The Foundation works alongside Input Output HK (IOHK), who are contracted to design and build Cardano, and EMURGO, the for-profit arm working to boost the Cardano ecosystem through commercial ventures. The three entities are wholly separate in governance, ownership and leadership. Find out more: www.CardanoFoundation.org

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These appointments, of people already known to the community, are great for CF and Cardano I’m sure!

However, can anyone explain, or point to an explanation, what this is about?

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Congrats both, and excellent seeing the foundation moving from strength to strength! :cardano::trophy:

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Transfer of Cardano (blockchain) to the custody of the Cardano Foundation once it is built. CF outsourced the development of Cardano to IOHK, and once it is complete the blockchain will be transferred to CF.

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Congratulations to CF and the new board members. I believe both are strong additions.

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Congratulations to CF! Good additions. We will see better future of Cardano!

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Why does a decentralized blockchain have to be under “custody” of 1 organisation? Isn’t the whole point of a decentralized blockchain is that no one organisation has power over the blockchain.

Besides that, the CF seems like a really shady organisation to me and it is unclear to me what their role is?

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Congratulations for both of you!! Charles mentioned that community will be very happy about the announcement and he was rigth, as usual! :muscle: :pray:
Awesome!

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A number of cryptocurrency projects have formed foundations (like the Ethereum Foundation) to support development and adoption. I think the word custody refers more to custodianship rather than asserting ownership. When Shelley, and later Voltaire, launches, Cardano will be one of the most decentralised cryptocurrency projects.

Taken from the cardano.org site:

The Cardano Foundation’s core mission is to standardise, protect and promote the Cardano Protocol technology.

Goals

  • To Study and Propose Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Regulation
  • To act as a Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Standards Body
  • To Protect, Enhance and Evolve the Cardano Ecosystem
  • Aggregate, Educate and Grow the Cardano Community
  • To Serve as an Objective Organization for Enterprises to Join
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Does anybody else think that in building this board the Foundation ought to emulate established entities such as Microsoft, Coca-Cola, WWF, 3M, Texas Instruments and basically bring in amazing people who have a track record of shepherding giant organizations successfully throughout the decades?

I for one genuinely think they need not be from the ‘crypto-space’ – this, after all, is barely nascent and as such much more unprofessional and ‘untested’ than, say, the traditional business world, especially when we’re talking elite organizations. My thinking is give me a Bill Gates, give me a Brian Krzanich, a Jeff Weiner, a Mary Barra, whoever as long as they are someone established, someone who’s played the game at the highest level.

I have absolutely nothing against these two appointments, just looking to hear other folks’ point of view.

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I couldn’t agree more, and one of my first tasks is to help lead the expansion of the council to represent other industries and areas outside of the cryptocurrency and blockchain space.

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Thanks so much for your support. I am truly here to serve the community and to enable the success of Cardano.

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Congrats to @Tamara_Haasen and Nico!

On the CF Council, generally speaking, I am wondering:

  1. Who chooses the council? Who approves appointments?
  2. Why are only IOHK & Emurgo employees on the council?
  3. Why are there no community or outside leadership on the council?
  4. Are these type of appointments going to be ‘vote-able’ on the blockchain once governance is in place?

Seems like basic conflict of interest to have CF ‘only’ represented by paid employees from two other Cardano entities, isn’t it supposed to be independent of each other with separation of powers?

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What is explained here is that:
CF outsourced development of Cardano to IOHK (and emurgo), and once complete, transferred back to CF.
But now it seems the CF is run by IOHK/Emurgo, not independently.

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It is not untypical for independent boards to have members from companies they serve or are served by. But they tend not to be a majority of such boards and they have to handle any conflicts of interest. I think CF is still a work in progress but I stand by my words these two board members are a great addition to CF.

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I’m not concerned with the new appointees, I think they are both well qualified for the job! My comments were regarding the structure of the council and blend of leadership.

The CF website says on the front page “The three entities are wholly separate in ownership and leadership.”

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I was going to write something like your post, so thank you for beating me to it!
Like you said, I am also a bit surprised to see IOHK employees get seats on the Council, and I don’t find it healthy. Of course there should be a community member.
Hell I am going to apply and some of you should too.

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And so was my comment as well. I think best man or woman (Caitlin Long does come to mind) should fill roles in such an organisation and serve the community. But yes not uncommon for community organisations to have community members either in leadership positions or as part of being for the community by the community. (For example the awesome adatainment guy or for that matter you as well cryptovisor) Dont get me wrong I think we will (and should) see more from the community in CF. It is a work in progress.

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You know that that @adatainment guy is currently working for the Cardano Foundation, right? :wink:

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Kinda was my point yeah with linking to the CF pr.