Digital Asset named AG Gangadhar to its board of directors on July 18, 20181. Gangadhar had built his career as an engineering executive at Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Uber, Crowdfund Insider reported2. Two more directors joined on July 18, 2018, as well: Blackstone's Tony James and Deutsche Börse Group's Stephan Leithner.
The third board appointment at Digital Asset on the record since 2018
Leadership moves CryptoLately has verified at Digital Asset, by year
- 2018: 5
- 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 2018 | 5 |
| 2019 | 2 |
| 2020 | 0 |
| 2021 | 0 |
| 2022 | 1 |
| 2023 | 0 |
| 2024 | 0 |
| 2025 | 1 |
Three board appointments on the record in 2018
Board appointments CryptoLately has verified, by year
- 2018: 3
- 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 2017 | 1 |
| 2018 | 3 |
| 2019 | 3 |
| 2020 | 10 |
| 2021 | 10 |
| 2022 | 4 |
| 2023 | 4 |
| 2024 | 6 |
The move
Digital Asset framed the three appointments as a scaling move. Blythe Masters, Digital Asset's chief executive at the time, named the goal plainly. “Digital Asset is on an ambitious path to deliver the first DLT solution to power systemically consequential marketplaces. It is now time to scale access to our technology to meet rising demand,” Masters said1. She credited the new directors with experience "in driving scale in private equity, technology and financial industries".
Gangadhar answered with his own read on the company. "The engineering challenges that Digital Asset has already conquered impress me," he told Crowdfund Insider2. He added a line about the field itself. “I'm excited to be part of a team that is defining a category for an entirely new class of distributed applications,” Gangadhar said.
Gangadhar's engineering record
Crowdfund Insider described Gangadhar as holding "a well regarded engineering reputation"2. At Google, he built the company's first cloud infrastructure services. Those included Google Compute Engine, Google App Engine, Google Cloud SQL and Google Container Engine, the outlet reported. Gangadhar ran a robotics company still in stealth mode when he joined Digital Asset's board, Crowdfund Insider reported.
What came next
Gangadhar's board seat became a bigger job in December 2018, five months later. Digital Asset announced on December 18, 2018, that Blythe Masters had requested to step down as chief executive for personal reasons3. The same announcement named Gangadhar chairman and acting CEO. “I'm honored to lead Digital Asset and work alongside the talented management team during this transition,” Gangadhar said. Digital Asset's own release placed his board start in April 2018, three months before the July 18 announcement.
Sources
- "Blackstone's Tony James, Ex-Googler Gangadhar and Deutsche Börse Group's Leithner join Digital Asset Board," Digital Asset, July 18, 2018, https://web.archive.org/web/20200804112834/https://blog.digitalasset.com/press-release/blackstones-tony-james-ex-googler-gangadhar-and-deutsche-b%C3%B6rse-groups-leithner-join-digital-asset-board
- JD Alois, "DLT Provider Digital Asset Adds Big Names To Board Including Blackstone, Former Google, And Deutsche Börse Execs," Crowdfund Insider, July 18, 2018, https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2018/07/136633-dlt-provider-digital-asset-adds-big-names-to-board-including-blackstone-former-google-and-deutsche-borse-execs/
- "Blythe Masters Steps Down As CEO Of Digital Asset," Digital Asset (via Mondo Visione), December 18, 2018, https://mondovisione.com/media-and-resources/news/blythe-masters-steps-down-as-ceo-of-digital-asset-20181219/