TLDR

Table of Contents

Ethereum Foundation restructured leadership, separating board and management responsibilities
Hsiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz K. Stańczak appointed as co-executive directors on March 2
Board consists of Vitalik Buterin, Aya Miyaguchi, Patrick Storchenegger, and Wang
Key focus areas for next 12 months: scaling Ethereum layer 1, scaling blobs at layer 2, improving user experience
Leadership changes come amid criticism about the Foundation’s engagement and Ether’s price performance

The Ethereum Foundation has implemented a major overhaul of its leadership structure, creating a clear separation between its board of directors and management team. The restructuring, announced in an April 28 blog post, aims to strengthen the ecosystem and provide more focused leadership.

The Foundation has appointed Hsiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz K. Stańczak as co-executive directors, with their roles officially taking effect on April 28. Stańczak will serve a two-year term focused on addressing Ethereum’s most pressing challenges while balancing his work as founder of Ethereum infrastructure firm Nethermind and involvement with a soon-to-be-announced Ethereum-focused venture capital firm.

6/ The job of the co-executive directors is to both achieve the EF’s objectives and to champion our values: censorship resistance, open source innovation, privacy, and security.
— Ethereum Foundation (@ethereumfndn) April 28, 2025

The new management team also includes Bastian Aue, who will handle organizational strategy, hiring, and training, and Josh Stark, who will focus on project execution, communications, and marketing. This team will be responsible for day-to-day operations and executing the strategic vision set by the board.

Board’s New Role as “Security Council”

The board of directors will now function as what the Foundation calls a “security council to protect the heart and soul” of the organization. Its primary responsibilities include setting the vision for Ethereum and safeguarding its core values.

The board consists of four key members: Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum Foundation President Aya Miyaguchi, Swiss counsel Patrick Storchenegger, and Hsiao-Wei Wang, who will serve as a bridge between the board and management team.

Buterin will continue to provide technical and intellectual guidance for the Ethereum ecosystem. Miyaguchi will oversee the Foundation’s vision while managing external relationships. Storchenegger will handle legal and compliance matters to ensure the Swiss non-profit maintains proper regulatory standing.

The board was responsible for selecting Wang and Stańczak as executive directors and retains the power to terminate these positions if needed.

Strategic Focus on Scaling and User Experience

The Foundation has outlined three main focus areas for the next 12 months: scaling the Ethereum layer 1, scaling blobs at the layer 2 level, and improving user experience.

Efforts to address Ethereum’s scaling challenges are already underway. Ethereum Foundation researcher Dankrad Feist and protocol support Sophia Gold have proposed solutions to improve the network’s scaling capabilities at the base layer through Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) 9678 and 9698.

Both proposals aim to raise the gas limit, which could theoretically increase Ethereum’s transaction throughput by the same magnitude. These technical improvements align with the management team’s goals of enhancing the network’s performance.

The restructuring also emphasizes the Foundation’s commitment to championing censorship resistance, open-source innovation, privacy, and security. These core values remain central to the Ethereum ecosystem’s development strategy.

The leadership changes come after criticism from some members of the Ethereum community. Synthetix founder Kain Warwick had previously claimed that the foundation “doesn’t care” about decentralized finance innovation.

Others in the community have attributed Ether’s price performance relative to Bitcoin and Solana to what they perceive as a lack of engagement and leadership from the Foundation. The current price of Ether stands at approximately $1,830, significantly behind Bitcoin at $94,902 and trailing Solana at $148.60.

The Foundation’s more active approach signals a response to these concerns while maintaining its role as a steward of the Ethereum ecosystem. The organization aims to support growth without becoming a centralized authority, balancing leadership with Ethereum’s decentralized ethos.

Wang and Stańczak have committed to improving connections between layer-1 and layer-2 networks while making the network more accessible to both developers and users.

The management team’s two-year initial term provides a timeframe for addressing these challenges and implementing the strategic vision set forth by the board.

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