nChain named Hakan Yuksel chief executive officer on October 20, 2021. The announcement, issued from the company's Zug, Switzerland headquarters, described him as a software as a service expert brought in "to drive adoption of commercial data integrity solutions"1.
The third CEO appointment at nChain on the record since 2017
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. 5, 2017 | Nguyen became CEO. Jimmy Nguyen was named Chief Executive Officer of nChain |
| March 7, 2019 | Nguyen left as CEO. Jimmy Nguyen left as Chief Executive Officer of nChain |
| March 7, 2019 | Washburn became CEO. David Washburn was named Chief Executive Officer of nChain |
| Oct. 20, 2021 | Washburn left as CEO. David Washburn left as Chief Executive Officer of nChain |
| Oct. 20, 2021 | Yuksel became CEO. Hakan Yuksel was named Chief Executive Officer of nChain |
Six CEO appointments on the record in 2021
CEO appointments CryptoLately has verified, by year
- 2021: 6
- 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 | 4 |
| 2019 | 8 |
| 2020 | 7 |
| 2021 | 6 |
| 2022 | 18 |
| 2023 | 17 |
| 2024 | 26 |
| 2025 | 35 |
The handoff
Yuksel replaced David Washburn, who moved into an advisory role for several months after the switch1. CityAM's independent report ran on October 20. The report matched the release almost word for word, naming Yuksel's appointment at "the company headquarters in Zug, Switzerland"2.
His own statement framed the job as unfinished work. “Kensei provides a gateway to the BSV blockchain that addresses the technically tricky and challenging nature of building solutions on a blockchain,” Yuksel said. “I am impressed by the depth of technical skills and knowledge within the Company, and look forward to broadening adoption of the BSV blockchain and driving the market for enterprise solutions”1. Stefan Matthews, nChain's executive chairman, explained the hire in a separate line of the same release. "We are pleased to attract someone of Hakan's calibre," Matthews said.
nChain before and after
Yuksel brought more than 20 years in enterprise software, according to the release. He had served as Oracle's country leader in Germany and spent over 15 years at SAP across Europe and South Africa1. A finance degree from the European Business School Paris and Harvard Business School's Advanced Management Program rounded out his credentials. Kensei, the platform at the center of his mandate, had launched three months earlier, in July 2021.
What came next
CoinGeek interviewed Yuksel on July 8, 2022, nine months into the job, at the Global IEEE 5G-IoT Blockchain Summit in Rabat, Morocco. “In my role, I'm creating a company that will really build the [Satoshi] vision. nChain has been around for some time, [and done] a lot of R&D work, but now it's about creating the quality, the skills and the culture,” Yuksel told the outlet3. CoinGeek described nChain by that point as "one of the world's largest enterprise blockchain firms".
Sources
- "nChain Appoints Hakan Yuksel as CEO," GlobeNewswire, October 20, 2021, https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2021/10/20/2317070/0/en/nChain-Appoints-Hakan-Yuksel-as-CEO.html
- "New CEO appointed at nChain," CityAM, October 20, 2021, https://www.cityam.com/new-ceo-appointed-at-nchain/
- Steve Kaaru, "nChain CEO Hakan Yuksel: We're going beyond research and building the Bitcoin vision," CoinGeek, July 8, 2022, https://coingeek.com/nchain-ceo-hakan-yuksel-were-going-beyond-research-and-building-the-bitcoin-vision-video/