Polygon Labs has promoted its chief legal officer Marc Boiron to chief executive officer in a new position.
Boiron’s promotion comes nearly a year after he joined Polygon Labs last August from dYdX, a DeFi protocol. Boiron is an “ideal” person for the CEO role given his extensive involvement in shaping Polygon Labs’ strategy and successfully managing multiple departments over many months, Polygon’s nine co-founders said in a joint statement shared with The Block. Boiron will report to the co-founders.
Boiron’s appointment as CEO of Polygon Labs comes a year and a half after the Polygon Foundation said in December 2021 that it could no longer hold C-suite positions because the project is decentralized. At that time, Polygon co-founder Jaynti Kanani was also the CEO and Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal was also the chief operating officer of the Polygon Foundation.
When asked why it created the CEO role, a Polygon Labs spokesperson told The Block that the organization is founder-led and that Boiron, as CEO, will lead both the tech and business teams.
Sandeep Nailwal becomes Executive Chairman
With today’s management realignment, Nailwal has now become the executive chairman of Polygon Labs, where he will continue to actively shape day-to-day business operations.
“I am very proud and happy about community building,” Nailwal said in the statement. “This role allows me to continue in a full executive role to continue shaping the future of the entire space, guided by the invaluable guidance and direction of the Polygon community.”
With Boiron taking on the role of CEO, Polygon Labs chief policy officer Rebecca Rettig will now serve as the company’s chief legal officer.
Meanwhile, Ryan Wyatt, president of Polygon Labs, will leave his role at the end of the month and remain an advisor to the company. Last month, Wyatt testified before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Innovation, Data, and Commerce on Energy and Commerce after the Polygon blockchain’s native token MATIC was deemed safe by the Securities and Exchange Commission in its actions against crypto exchanges Binance, Binance. US and Coinbase.
Polygon Labs responded to the SEC’s allegation at the time, saying it developed the project “outside the US, deployed outside the US, and to this day is aimed at the global community that supports the network,” adding that “MATIC was a necessary part of the Polygon technology from day one, ensuring the network was secure – and remains so to this day.”
Updates to the headline and throughout to indicate that the Polygon Foundation has previously relinquished its CEO role.
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