Mario Di Dio became chief executive of Nova Labs, the company behind Helium, on June 4, 20261. Founder Amir Haleem moved to chairman on June 4 as well. Di Dio announced his own appointment on Helium's blog that Thursday. “Hello Helium community. My name is Mario Di Dio and today I'm honored and humbled to step in as CEO of Helium,” he wrote. The Defiant reported the handover came days after Nova Labs sold its consumer mobile carrier business to Andrew Yang's Noble Mobile2.
18 CEO appointments on the record in 2026 so far
CEO appointments CryptoLately has verified, by year; 2026 through Oct. 2, 2026
- 2026: 18
- 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 |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 8 |
| 2020 | 7 |
| 2021 | 6 |
| 2022 | 18 |
| 2023 | 17 |
| 2024 | 26 |
| 2025 | 35 |
| 2026 | 18 |
Trading Venues & Brokerage led CEO appointments in 2026, with three
CEO appointments CryptoLately has verified in 2026, by the sector of the company
- Layer 1s & Infrastructure: 1
- Trading Venues & Brokerage, Wallets & Consumer Apps, Capital Markets & Treasury, Stablecoins & Payments, Protocol Research
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 |
|---|---|
| Trading Venues & Brokerage | 3 |
| Wallets & Consumer Apps | 2 |
| Capital Markets & Treasury | 2 |
| Stablecoins & Payments | 1 |
| Protocol Research | 1 |
| Layer 1s & Infrastructure | 1 |
The move
Di Dio's post gave his own background inside the company before naming what he planned to do with the job. “I've been at Helium for several years running the Network side of the business across carrier partnerships and Wi-Fi infrastructure. Before that, I spent all of my career in enterprise telecom. I came to Helium because I saw what this Network could become, and the opportunity is bigger than any of us expected,” he wrote1. He framed the appointment as a continuation of Haleem's work rather than a break from it. “I'm grateful to Amir as he transitions to Chairman while I focus on executing a refreshed vision for Helium,” Di Dio wrote.
The Defiant's report named the carrier sale as the backdrop to the appointment: “The Helium co-founder moves to chairman as Mario Di Dio takes the top job, days after Nova Labs sold its consumer mobile carrier to Andrew Yang's Noble Mobile”2.
Nova Labs before and after
Haleem had led Nova Labs through the buildout of the Helium Network, which Di Dio's post credited with growing into "a Network that millions of people rely on every day"1. Di Dio took the title with Nova Labs already narrowed to one business. Noble Mobile had acquired the Helium Mobile Carrier unit two days earlier, on Tuesday, June 2, 2026, leaving the company "entirely focused on its Network platform," his post said. That same post, on June 4, 2026, also announced a governance proposal to replace Proof-of-Coverage rewards with payouts tied to carrier traffic and to add a seven-seat advisory council with five community-elected members.
What to watch
Di Dio tied his own mandate to that proposal's passage. He wrote that "HNT holders govern this decision" and that the plan would determine "how that network rewards the people who build and maintain it"1. Two facts would answer whether his tenure moves past the carrier sale that preceded it: a vote on the proposal, and whether Noble Mobile's subscribers register as carrier traffic on Helium's network.
Sources
- Mario Di Dio, "The Next Era of the Helium Network," Helium (Nova Labs, Inc.), June 4, 2026, https://www.helium.com/blog/the-next-era-of-the-helium-network
- The Defiant Team, "Amir Haleem Steps Down as CEO of Nova Labs as HNT Falls 99% From Peak," The Defiant, June 5, 2026, https://thedefiant.io/news/people/amir-haleem-steps-down-nova-labs-ceo-hnt-99-percent