Ethereum Foundation Splits Board and Management in Leadership Overhaul

TLDR

Ethereum Foundation splits responsibilities between board and management team
Hsiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz K. Stańczak appointed as co-executive directors
Board includes Vitalik Buterin, Aya Miyaguchi, Patrick Storchenegger, and Wang
Foundation’s priorities: scaling Ethereum L1, improving L2 connections, enhancing user experience
Changes follow criticism about foundation’s engagement with ecosystem development

The Ethereum Foundation has announced a major restructuring of its leadership team, creating a clear separation between its board of directors and management operations. The changes, announced in an April 28 blog post, come as the organization seeks to strengthen its focus on key priorities while addressing criticism from community members.

Under the new structure, the board will function as a “security council” that protects the core values of the foundation and sets long-term visions. Meanwhile, the management team will handle day-to-day operations and execute strategic initiatives based on those visions.

Hsiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz K. Stańczak have been appointed as co-executive directors effective April 28. Stańczak will serve a two-year term while continuing his work with Ethereum infrastructure firm Nethermind and a soon-to-be-launched Ethereum-focused venture capital fund. Wang will serve as a bridge between the board and management.

The board consists of four members: Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, foundation president Aya Miyaguchi, Swiss counsel Patrick Storchenegger, and Wang. Buterin will continue providing technical guidance, Miyaguchi will oversee the foundation’s vision while managing external relationships, and Storchenegger will handle legal and compliance matters.

The management team also includes Bastian Aue, who will focus on organizational strategy, hiring and training, and Josh Stark, who will be responsible for project execution, communications, and marketing.

Key Priorities for the Next Year

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.

Ethereum Foundation researchers Dankrad Feist and Sophia Gold have already proposed solutions to address Ethereum’s scaling challenges at the base layer through Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) 9678 and 9698. These proposals aim to raise the gas limit, which could increase Ethereum’s transaction throughput.

The new leadership structure emphasizes core values including censorship resistance, open-source innovation, privacy, and security. The co-executive directors have expressed their commitment to improving mainnet and layer 2 interoperability, enhancing developer experience, and giving applications and layer 2 solutions more visibility.

“We understand that we need to accelerate journeys of developers, founders, institutions through the pathways towards building on Ethereum and adopting Ethereum,” the co-directors stated in their announcement.

Response to Community Criticism

The leadership changes come after criticism from some community members that the foundation wasn’t sufficiently engaged with the Ethereum ecosystem, particularly in areas like decentralized finance.

Synthetix founder Kain Warwick had previously claimed that the foundation “doesn’t care” about decentralized finance innovation. Others in the community have attributed Ethereum’s price performance relative to Bitcoin and Solana to the foundation’s lack of engagement and leadership.

3/ The EF exists to strengthen Ethereum’s ecosystem and uphold its core values. Our role is both to drive forward critical progress ourselves, and to help build up others who help lead the ecosystem.

— Ethereum Foundation (@ethereumfndn) April 28, 2025

The restructuring appears to be a direct response to these concerns, with the foundation taking steps to become more active in guiding Ethereum’s development. By separating board and management functions, the foundation aims to maintain its core principles while improving operational efficiency.

The board was responsible for selecting Wang and Stańczak as executive directors and has the power to terminate those positions if needed. This oversight role helps ensure that the foundation’s operations remain aligned with its long-term goals and values.

Wang and Stańczak’s leadership will focus on improving the technical infrastructure and user experience of Ethereum, potentially addressing the scaling issues that have been a key concern for users and developers.

As Ethereum faces increasing competition from other blockchain platforms, these leadership changes represent an important step in the foundation’s efforts to strengthen the ecosystem and support continued innovation.

The announcement marks a new chapter for the Ethereum Foundation as it works to balance its role as a steward of the Ethereum ecosystem with the need to adapt to changing market conditions and community expectations.