Banking Veteran Takes Over Stellar Startup as CEO Joins Spin-Out

As reported by CoinDesk, “Adam Ludwin is stepping down as CEO of Interstellar to head a new spin-out.

“The company, which focuses on expanding the Stellar blockchain ecosystem, has named financial industry veteran Mike Kennedy its new CEO, effective Sept. 15.

“Ludwin, who ran blockchain startup Chain before it merged with Lightyear.io to form Interstellar, will lead Pogo, an “app-focused company targeting interoperability between mobile wallets,” according to a press release.

“His successor Kennedy co-founded Zelle, the mobile payments network owned by several large U.S. banks, and is the former president of the North American arm of global money transfer service OFX. Earlier he worked seven years at Wells Fargo in senior roles.

“In a blog post, Interstellar touted Kennedy’s track record with Zelle (originally known as clearXchange), noting that JPMorgan Chase, Citi and Bank of America use the service.

“’Our success was because we were solving a real-world problem,’ said Kennedy, who has been an advisor to the Stellar Development Foundation since 2017, in the post. ‘With Interstellar I see another opportunity to solve a real-world problem.’

“International payments in particular are inefficient and expensive, he said. While the Stellar Development Foundation has built what Kennedy sees as “the best blockchain-based payments network,” there are areas that need to be improved.”

Continue to read the full story at CoinDesk.

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