Ripple is a San Francisco-based company that created and developed the XRP digital currency, which is also known as Ripple. The company was founded in 2012 by Chris Larsen and Jed McCaleb.
Chris Larsen served as CEO of Ripple until 2016 and now serves as executive chairman of the board. Prior to founding Ripple, Larsen co-founded and served as CEO of several other successful technology companies, including E-LOAN and Prosper.
The original concept of the Ripple payment protocol was developed by Jed McCaleb, who was also one of the original co-founders of Ripple. Following his departure from the company in 2013, he co-founded the Stellar Development Foundation, which develops the Stellar cryptocurrency.
Additionally to Larsen and McCaleb, Ripple has been led by a number of notable executives, including Brad Garlinghouse, who is currently serving as CEO.
The current leadership at ripple (February 2023)
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Brad Garlinghouse: Former CEO
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David Schwartz: Chief Technology Officer
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Kristina Campbell: Chief Financial Officer
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Monica Long: President
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Eric Van Miltenburg: Chief Business Officer
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Kiersten Hollars: SVP of People, Places, & Communications
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Devraj Varadhan: SVP of Engineering
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Eric Jeck: SVP of Corporate Development
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Stuart Alderoty: Chief Legal Officer
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Brian Birtwistle: SVP of Marketing and Design
Brad Garlinghouse: CEO at Ripple
Brad Garlinghouse is a technology executive and entrepreneur who serves as the CEO of Ripple. Prior to joining Ripple, he held a variety of senior executive positions at several prominent technology companies, including AOL, Yahoo!, and Hightail.
Garlinghouse is widely regarded as an expert in the fields of consumer technology, media, and e-commerce, and he has been a vocal advocate for the use of blockchain technology to transform the financial services industry.
Garlinghouse oversees the company’s growth and expansion into new markets, including the establishment of new partnerships with major financial institutions around the world. He also played a key role in the development and promotion of Ripple’s flagship product, the XRP digital currency, which is designed to facilitate fast, secure, and low-cost cross-border payments.
Garlinghouse is known for his strong leadership skills and strategic vision, and he has been recognized as one of the most influential people in the cryptocurrency and blockchain industries.
David Schwartz: CTO at Ripple
David Schwartz is a technology entrepreneur and the current Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Ripple, a position he has held since 2013. Schwartz is one of the original architects of the XRP ledger, the underlying technology that powers Ripple’s blockchain-based payment network.
Prior to joining Ripple, Schwartz worked as a software developer and consultant for a variety of companies, including WebMaster Incorporated, America Online (AOL), and the cryptography company, Certicom. He also founded a number of technology startups, including the cloud storage company, iDevelopment Corporation, and the online financial services company, Health Level Seven.
As CTO of Ripple, Schwartz is responsible for overseeing the technical development of the company’s products and services, including the XRP ledger and the Interledger Protocol (ILP). He is also a respected thought leader in the cryptocurrency and blockchain industries and has authored a number of influential articles and research papers on topics ranging from distributed systems to cryptography.
Monica Long: President
Monica Long is the President of Ripple. The company’s two business units are led by her – RippleNet, the company’s flagship product, and RippleX, the open-source blockchain development community.
After joining Ripple in 2013 as the company’s first marketing/communications hire, Monica most recently served as General Manager and SVP of Marketing and Design. She is also the Executive Sponsor of the Women at Ripple Employee Resource Group. In 2020, she was recognized as one of the Bay Area’s Most Influential Women in Business for her contributions to technology companies.
Before joining Ripple, Monica worked in corporate communications at Intuit. Prior to that, she managed public relations for startups in a variety of B2B and B2C sectors, including Fintech, including Prosper. She graduated from UC Berkeley with a BA.
Kristina Campbell: Chief Financial Officer
Ripple’s Chief Financial Officer is Kristina Campbell. With over 20 years of experience in finance operations and business strategy, she specializes in fintech and payments.
Previously, she was CFO at PayNearMe, where both the business and team grew significantly. As General Manager of GoBank at GreenDot, a now $2.5B public fintech company, she also held several roles. Kristina previously worked as a manager at Bain & Company and as an investment banker at Citigroup.
Eric Van Miltenburg: Chief Business Officer
Ripple’s Chief Business Officer is Eric van Miltenburg. As a business development, strategic planning, business operations, and corporate development leader, he has 20 years of experience. Eric has held senior positions at high-growth start-ups and Fortune 500 companies, including Adobe, Yahoo!, Hightail, RedSwoosh, Work.com, and Excite@Home. His expertise lies in solving complex business problems and implementing growth strategies for technology companies.
Kiersten Hollars: SVP of People, Places, & Communications
Kiersten Hollars is Ripple’s SVP of People, Places & Communications. As a partner at The Hatch Agency, Kiersten worked with Ripple for three years to build and grow their communications program. She has also led agency teams for companies such as Ancestry, Dropbox, and Stitch Fix. Kiersten served as a marketing consultant for Andreessen Horowitz in 2012. She previously led award-winning media campaigns, events, and employee communications for Silicon Valley tech companies like Hightail, AOL, Yahoo!, Oracle and Salesforce.
Devraj Varadhan: SVP of Engineering
Devraj Varadhan is Ripple’s SVP of Engineering. Devraj served in various executive roles at Amazon for 15 years, building customer experiences and products across a variety of categories for hundreds of millions of customers worldwide. As Vice President of Delivery Experience, he was responsible for creating global delivery experiences that improve customers’ lives.
Eric Jeck: SVP of Corporate Development
Eric Jeck is Ripple’s SVP of Corporate Development. Over the past 25 years, he has founded, operated, and invested in high-tech businesses with rapid growth. Formerly, Eric served as Chief Strategy Officer of Indigo Ag and Executive Chairman of Outmatch. Formerly, he was a Managing Director at Trident Capital and Wand Partners and the CEO of Perfect Escapes and The Intagio Group. During his career at Wasserstein Perella & Co., he has led dozens of acquisitions and investments and raised billions of dollars in equity and debt. He received a B.S. degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Business.
Stuart Alderoty: Chief Legal Officer
Stuart Alderoty oversees the legal, compliance, and regulation departments at Ripple. Stuart brings more than 30 years of legal experience to the role, including experience in financial services and regulatory affairs. He served as General Counsel and member of the executive leadership teams at CIT Group and HSBC North America Holdings. Previously, Stuart served as Managing Counsel for American Express’ Consumer Card Business, where he served on the President and CEO’s leadership team. His career began as a partner at the international law firm of LeBouef, Lamb, Greene and MacRae where he specialized in complex litigation.
Brian Birtwistle: SVP of Marketing and Design
Ripple’s SVP of Marketing & Design is Brian Birtwistle. In the last 25 years, he has held executive positions at early stage, rapid growth technology companies. In his previous role as Chief Product Officer at Indigo Ag, Brian led product development. In the past, he led Tilt, an Airbnb-acquired social payments startup. Before Zynga’s IPO, he headed up marketing at the gaming giant. Prior to that, he was CEO of WineAccess, which pioneered flash-sale models for high-value, small-production wines. In his early career, he worked at Amazon, ultimately serving as GM for two of its retail businesses. He holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Business School. One of the nation’s largest food banks, Second Harvest of Silicon Valley, currently has him as its Board Chair.
To get the latest on Ripple, please visit their official website at ripple.com
