Tezos Foundation, a non-profit, educational wing of the smart contract and Dapp platform, announced Roman Schnider, co-creator of PricewaterhouseCoopers Switzerland’s blockchain initiative, to supercede Eelco Fiole as Chief Financial Officer.
Schnider’s appointment to the Zug based firm will begin summer 2019, about six months after investment executive and adjunct professor of financial ethics Fiole filled the position. Fiole was hired during a period of executive expansion, which Tezos Foundation President Ryan Jesperson called at the time, “an important step forward by strengthening its internal expertise and capabilities.”
A leader within the blockchain community since its record-setting $232 million ICO in July 2017, Tezos has also been wracked by internal and external conflict.
The Etherium-like distributed, peer-to-peer, permissionless network delayed the distribution of its tokens due to internal miscommunication. Additionally, three lawsuits were filed in November 2017 accusing the Tezos Foundation of false advertising and securities fraud, as XTZ tokens were sold but not registered as securities.
Schnider first became familiar with Tezos protocol in July 2018, when he was hired to perform an independent, external audit of the firm, cited as the first time a major U.S. accounting firm worked with a large-scale blockchain organization.
At the time, the Tezos Foundation commented, “We believe that accountability and trust will be central pillars of any successful entity operating in the blockchain space.”
Schnider will join the Tezos Foundation after over 14 years at PwC, where he served as financial director. In 2016, he launched the department for blockchain and cryptocurrency assurance.
“Roman’s experience makes him the ideal finance and operations specialist for our team. He is already familiar with the opportunities and challenges blockchain projects face and has a deep understanding of the Tezos Foundation from his time at PwC Switzerland,” said Jesperson, in a statement.
Before joining the Tezos Foundation, Fiole spent more than twenty years in the financial services industry, including co-founding Alpha Governance Partners, an international risk-governance focused fiduciary services firm. He has not said where he will go next.
“We want to thank Eelco for his contribution to the development of the Foundation and wish him all the best,”Jesperson said.
Tezos currently has a market cap of $812,826,137 and sits at 19 in token rank on CoinMarketCap.