Immutable hired Katherine Rau from Culture Amp as its first chief people officer on December 9, 2021. The hire was one of three Immutable announced on December 9, 2021, each one tied to its fast growth. “Katherine Rau joins Immutable as its Chief People Officer, another newly created role as the company looks to rapidly scale up,” Immutable said1. Investing.com matched the release on December 9, 2021, too2. Rau came from Culture Amp, where she had served as Global Vice President of People and Experience.
The second executive hire at Immutable on the record since 2021
Every move CryptoLately has verified there, by the day it became public
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Dec. 9, 2021 | Findlay became COO. Gill Findlay was named Chief Operating Officer of Immutable |
| Dec. 9, 2021 | Rau became Chief People Officer. Katherine Rau was named Chief People Officer of Immutable |
| March 8, 2023 | Bicknell became CFO. David Bicknell was named Chief Financial Officer of Immutable |
| March 8, 2023 | Ferreira became CMO. Devon Ferreira was named Chief Marketing Officer of Immutable |
27 executive hires on the record in 2021
Executive hires CryptoLately has verified, by year
- 2021: 27
- 2018, 2019, 2020, 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 | 8 |
| 2019 | 11 |
| 2020 | 12 |
| 2021 | 27 |
| 2022 | 37 |
| 2023 | 20 |
| 2024 | 39 |
| 2025 | 59 |
The move
Immutable grouped Rau with two other new hires. Gill Findlay took the chief operating officer job, and John Boris became chief growth officer. Immutable framed all three around time its founders would gain back. “The appointments allow founders, James and Robbie Ferguson to continue their focus on developing innovative applications for Immutable X,” the release said1. Ferguson, Immutable's chief executive, named Rau directly in his own quote. “We are delighted to welcome Gill, John and Kath to Immutable. Their experience and insights will be key as we rapidly scale one of the fastest growing companies in crypto and capture the growing global demand for NFTs,” Ferguson said.
The hire landed inside a specific moment for Immutable. Its release said the company's IMX token had just reached an estimated US$12 billion token value. That jump, Immutable said, made it the fastest Australian company to reach unicorn status1. Investing.com's report on December 9, 2021 repeated that figure. It called all three hires support for Immutable's "rapid global expansion"2.
Rau's record before Immutable
Rau brought a run of talent and culture roles at Australian tech companies into the new post. Culture Amp, her prior employer, builds software that companies use to measure staff engagement and run performance reviews, and Immutable's release credited her there with "extensive experience building and developing leading teams in the tech sector"1. Before Culture Amp, she had led talent acquisition and culture work at Unlockd and Catch.com.au, two more Australian companies the release named directly.
What came next
The Australian Financial Review's May 26, 2025 report on executive departures at Immutable named four people. Gill Findlay, David Bicknell, Ed Bunting and Jason Suen all left the company between August 2024 and May 2025, the newspaper reported3. The newspaper described that stretch as "a tumultuous year behind the scenes" for Immutable, as the company cut more than a third of its staff and leaned harder on artificial intelligence tools. Rau's name is absent from that list. The newspaper's May 2025 report leaves her status at Immutable unstated.
Sources
- Immutable, "Immutable Appoints Senior Executive Team With Extensive Tech Scale-up Experience to Support Global Expansion," ACCESS Newswire, December 9, 2021, https://www.accesswire.com/676730/Immutable-Appoints-Senior-Executive-Team-With-Extensive-Tech-Scale-up-Experience-to-Support-Global-Expansion
- "Immutable Appoints 3 Senior Executives to Support Global Expansion," Investing.com (CoinEdition), December 9, 2021, https://www.investing.com/news/cryptocurrency-news/immutable-appoints-3-senior-executives-to-support-global-expansion-2705956
- Amelia McGuire, "Executives head for the door at unicorn crypto start-up Immutable," The Australian Financial Review, May 26, 2025, https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiqAFBVV95cUxOZzFHTXNOWlpfMk5fMFllSjg3U055THVYcVJfek9GU1NFYUdINUYwWEhNUk1iUGRzQTdBSWhvZk10UTY1dXZUZmw1LU1yR0pBYlE3VXBoS3BmaDJzNmZLSmRSemppT01wdWUyaUNtLTA5N2Nuckc2YktOektCSm1OUVFTblowNDhrTVMtVGJYUGk2R2M1LUJrdWtGSHFueW9kOUE4alZ1SmM?oc=5