Digital Asset Names New CEO to Succeed Blythe Masters

Enterprise blockchain startup Digital Asset (DA) has named co-founder Yuval Rooz as the company’s new chief executive officer.

Rooz, who has served as both COO and CFO at the firm, takes over from acting CEO AG Gangadhar, who stepped in when its iconic leader Blythe Masters left last December.

Digital Asset’s board of directors unanimously voted to name Rooz chief executive and a board member, according to an announcement on Tuesday. Gangadhar remains the executive chairman of the board.

In an email to Digital Asset’s employees announcing Rooz as CEO, Gangadhar wrote:

“Along with the rest of the board, I feel very strongly that Yuval's strategic agility, business acumen, mission-driven orientation and deep belief in our people and products make him uniquely qualified to lead Digital Asset successfully into the future.”

Since Masters’ departure, DA has seen a slew of employees leave the firm including Sofus Mortensen, product manager for DAML, the firm’s smart contract programming language; Gavin Wells, head of Europe; and James Powell, CIO and CTO of engineering.

Powell’s responsibilities at DA were assumed by Shaul Kfir, CTO of architecture and a member of the founding team. The company also brought in Zohar Hod, a trading technology veteran, as chief strategy officer reporting to Rooz.

Digital Asset is still busy replacing the Australian Securities Exchange's (ASX) CHESS clearing and settlement system. Although the deadline for that project has been pushed back to early 2021, the ASX told CoinDesk in an interview last year that Masters’ departure would not affect its timeline.

Before helping to found DA back 2014, Rooz managed an algorithmic trading desk at DRW Trading, the Chicago-based trading firm run by Don R. Wilson, a co-founder and board member of Digital Asset.

Yuval Rooz image courtesy of Digital Asset