Gavin Wood, the co-founder of the Polkadot ecosystem, is stepping down as CEO of blockchain infrastructure company Parity Technologies – the development company behind Polkadot. Wood shared a statement on October 21 stating that he never wanted to take over as CEO, and although he could act like that for a temporary period, it wasn’t a role he saw himself in as finding “eternal happiness,” saying:
The former CEO said that he will remain the company’s majority shareholder and will take on the role of chief architect. Wagner will replace current CEO Jutta Steiner, who will become Parity’s new Executive Chairman. Parity Technologies, the blockchain software company, has announced that its co-founder Björn Wagner will take over as the new CEO. The company was founded in 2015 as EthCore by Wood, Aeron Buchanan, TJ Saw, Ken Kappler and Jutta Steiner with Björn Wagner. Wagner joined as a co-founder a year later. Wood added that he will contribute to making Polkadot and Web 3 more relevant to large swathes of the population.
Wood joins a host of top executives who have recently decided to hand over management, such as Jesse Powell from Kraken and Alex Mashinsky from Celsius.