Ethereum Foundation appoints two co-Executive Directors, with former EF researcher Danny Ryan to lead 'Etherealize' marketing arm

The Ethereum Foundation (EF), the non-profit that stewards development of the world's second-largest blockchain, announced on Saturday two new co-Executive Directors: longtime researcher Hsaio-Wei Wang and Nethermind founder Tomasz Stanczak. 

"Ethereum is evolving into a robust, permissionless, and censorship-resistant base layer for global finance and software," the EF said in its announcement . "The ecosystem will succeed together, and under the leadership of Hsiao-Wei and Tomasz, EF will advance the core values that motivated Ethereum’s existence in the first place."

Wang, a researcher and community organizer based in Taiwan, indicated that the non-profit would maintain its core values. "Just as Ethereum continues to evolve, so does the EF—but the core values we have upheld for years remain unchanged," she said on X . 

Stanczak noted that he will start in the position on March 17th, pending paperwork. "My work continues uninterrupted but I will be stepping down from some of my official functions. I will follow up with more details soon," Stanczak wrote . 

Wang and Stanczak will replace former EF Executive Director Aya Miyaguchi, who recently "stepped up" to the role of president after serving as director for seven years. 

Stanczak responded to criticism of the co-leadership model in a post on X following the announcement. "You should be able to choose whichever Co-ED you want to communicate with based on your style and needs and any of us will have the mandate to execute on the top level," Stanczak said. "Treat it as 2 for 1 rather having to wait for both of us to communicate."

Danny Ryan's return

In addition to the new co-Executive Directors, former EF researcher Danny Ryan will return to the Ethereum ecosystem as co-founder of Etherealize, a new "institutional marketing and product arm" for the ecosystem.

Ryan, who stepped away in September 2024 after seven years of contributions, including serving as lead coordinator for Ethereum's "merge" to proof-of-stake, was the favored choice of some Ethereum holders to lead the EF; recently, wallets holding over $120 million worth of ETH backed Ryan in an informal vote , calling for his appointment as the next sole director of the EF. 

Ryan will join Vivek Raman as co-founder of Etherealize. "Our work at Etherealize sits at the confluence of real adoption, commonsense regulation, ecosystem development, and critical R&D across L1, L2, and the application layer," Ryan said on X . "Where [Raman] serves as a bridge from the real world into Ethereum, I’ll serve as a bridge from Ethereum back into the real world." 

Buterin congratulated the three on their new positions in posts on X . Ethereum is currently down about 1.9% in price over the past 24-hours, according to The Block's ETH Price Page . Buterin and other high-level Ethereum researchers recently discussed Ethereum's "endgame" in a wide-ranging Ask-Me-Anything session on Reddit.