Libra, developer of blockchain and smart contract application software, has announced a multitude of management personnel additions, including the hiring of Jeremy Drane as the Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) effective July 16, 2016.
Jake Benson, Founder & CEO of Libra, said: “Jeremy joins the Libra team from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) where he was the first Blockchain-focused employee and established PwC’s distributed ledger (DLT) practice. His expertise in setting commercial strategy, engaging with the start-up ecosystem, and positioning blockchain solutions with global financial institutions further enables Libra to deliver on its strategy to be the management information layer for blockchain inspired systems. We are excited to have him join the team”
Drane was recently U.S. Blockchain & Smart Contract Leader at PwC. Prior to this role, he held multiple leadership positions across each of PwC’s lines of service: tax, assurance and advisory. Jeremy holds a BA from the Pennsylvania State University and an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh.
Chief Commercial Officer, Drane commented: “Libra fills a critical market niche by offering an enterprise solution that sits on top of any blockchain or smart contract-based solution and has been specifically designed for non-technical business users such as auditors, regulators, and P&L owners as well as risk, compliance, and tax officers. Libra Enterprise includes three mutually exclusive layers. The first layer offers integration to any blockchain-based protocol or legacy application. The second includes a set of management information tools allowing business users to interact and report on combined blockchain and non-blockchain data in a single, synchronized environment. The third layer includes interface options, both API and GUI, so business users see data in a way that’s meaningful to them. Essentially, Libra is focused on reducing the cost, time, and risk associated with executing blockchain experiments and implementations while increasing the probability of funding and executive support as POC’s move through enterprise software evaluation”
In addition, Libra’s Executive Management Team and Advisory Board has grown with the following additions:
COO, Dave Albert - coming to Libra from BNY Mellon with 17 years of experience across multiple product and functional management roles to include working closely with senior risk, compliance, audit, and executive management leaders on key strategic initiatives for the bank.
VP Product Strategy, Deepak Rao comes from Visa with over 15 years of experience in financial technology specializing in consumer payment and back office systems. While at Visa, Deepak was Product Manager with prior roles in software engineering.
The Advisory Board is joined by Dr. David Lee Kuo Chuen who is currently a Professor at SIM University, Vice President of the Economic Society of Singapore, and Founder of Ferrell Asset Management. Prior endeavours include Professor of Quantitative Finance at Singapore Management University, Visiting Fulbright Scholar at Stanford University, Director of Sim Kee Boon Center for Financial Economics, Group Managing Director of OUE Limited, Auric Pacific Limited, and was the Non-Executive Chairman MAP Technology Limited. He is a passionate advocate of distributed ledger technology and frequent speaker at global Fintech and Blockchain events. Dr. Lee has also authored “Handbook of Digital Currency: Bitcoin, Innovation, Financial Instruments, and Big Data” which is widely used in academia and has received an “Outstanding” designation by a division of the American Library Association.
