Rob Jesudason is leaving Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) to serve as President and Chief Operating Officer at Block.one, a multi billion dollar crypto company based in Hong Kong.
Block.one, the group in charge of the increasingly popular EOS cryptocurrency, has 200 staff globally and plans to roll out a new blockchain project in June.
“Rob has a proven track record of success in global financial services,” said Block.one CEO Brendan Blumer. “His alignment with our organisational priorities of creating compliant, high performance blockchain solutions is an ideal fit for Block.one, and is an exciting conclusion to our thorough search for the right individual.”
CBA’s Alan Docherty will replace Jesudason as the bank’s CFO in an interim capacity.
“I am very please to have someone of Alan’s calibre and experience step in to act as our Chief Financial Officer while we complete an internal and external search for the role,” CBA chief executive Matt Comyn said.
“We are making good progress with the renewal of the Bank’s executive team and I expect to provide an update on appointments to my leadership team in the coming weeks.”
Block.one’ crypto token, EOS, is currently the fifth largest cryptocurrency in the world with a market capitalisation of over $US12 billion.
The company is currently developing the EOSIO project, which it calls “the first performant blockchain platform for developers”.
The EOSIO project is scheduled to launch in June 2018, and will be underpinned by the delegated-proof-of-stake (DPOS) developed by EOSIO chief engineer Dan Larimer.
When speaking about why he’s leaving the traditional financial sector to work at a blockchain company, Jesudason said, “Blockchain will have a transformative impact on most industries in the coming years and will redefine operating models by streamlining businesses, while also reducing cost and risk.”
“The market’s strong response to Block.one’s approach has resulted in it being one of the fastest growing organisations in the world, and this will inform our operational growth strategies going forward.”
This is yet another piece of news where the traditional financial sector and cryptocurrency collide. Only time will tell how the new hire will impact Block.one’s strategy going forward.
