President and CEO

Canton Foundation
Location: US based, NYC preferred, with significant global travel
Type: Full-time
Reports to: Board of Directors
About Canton Foundation
The Canton Foundation’s mission is to foster the development and growth of the Global Synchronizer in the Canton Network and facilitate its governance. The Foundation provides transparency and member engagement in decisions made by the operators (Super Validators) of the Global Synchronizer to ensure a reliable, fair and trusted service for the Canton Network. Blockchain applications in the Canton Network can use the Global Synchronizer to enable atomic transactions across sovereign blockchains without sacrificing privacy or control.
Position Summary
The Canton Foundation is seeking a President and Chief Executive Officer to provide permanent executive leadership for the Foundation and serve as a principal external voice for the Canton ecosystem.
The President and CEO will lead strategy, organizational execution, ecosystem development and external engagement. A central responsibility of the role is to understand activity across Canton, identify opportunities and gaps, connect the institutions and people necessary to address them, and help promising initiatives develop into functioning markets.
This is not primarily an administrative leadership role. The President and CEO must be equally comfortable engaging senior financial executives, technology leaders, regulators, developers, founders and community participants.
The successful candidate does not need to arrive as an expert in every Canton use case. They must have the intellectual curiosity and capability to quickly understand complex financial, technical and regulatory topics, learn from subject-matter experts, connect those ideas across the ecosystem and represent them credibly.
The Board is looking for an entrepreneurial ecosystem builder with strong executive judgment and presence.
Key ResponsibilitiesStrategy & Execution
Work with the Board to establish the Foundation’s strategic priorities, annual objectives and measurable OKRs.
Translate strategy into clear ownership, timelines, resources and results.
Identify the highest-value opportunities and constraints affecting Canton’s growth.
Ensure Foundation programs have defined objectives and measurable outcomes.
Provide the Board with clear reporting on strategic progress, organizational performance and material risks.
Ecosystem & Market Development
Develop a strong understanding of the major use cases and market opportunities developing across Canton.
Identify the participants, infrastructure, standards, regulatory engagement and other components required to move priority use cases toward production and scale.
Convene financial institutions, infrastructure providers, developers, applications and other ecosystem participants around shared opportunities.
Improve ecosystem discovery and make it easier for participants to understand who is building what and where collaboration is needed.
Encourage interoperability, coordination and reuse rather than unnecessary duplication.
External Leadership & Advocacy
Serve as a principal external representative of the Canton Foundation.
Build trusted relationships with senior leaders across financial institutions, market infrastructure, technology and digital assets.
Represent the Foundation at industry events, conferences and institutional forums.
Engage regulators, policymakers and industry organizations in markets important to Canton.
Clearly communicate Canton’s value proposition to institutional, technical, regulatory, developer and community audiences.
Ensure the Foundation has a visible and independent voice representing the broader Canton ecosystem.
Organizational Leadership
Lead and develop the Foundation’s staff and executive team.
Establish the organizational structure, responsibilities and management systems required to execute effectively at scale.
Recruit and retain exceptional talent.
Build a culture of accountability, curiosity, collaboration and execution.
Reduce key-person dependencies and ensure clear ownership across the organization.
Board, Governance & Financial Leadership
Serve as the primary executive liaison to the Board of Directors.
Ensure Board-approved governance and strategic decisions are translated into execution.
Provide the Board with timely information and analysis necessary for effective oversight.
Work with the CFO and leadership team to prepare the annual budget and ensure Foundation resources are aligned with strategic priorities.
Maintain appropriate financial, compliance, governance and internal-control practices.
Ensure the Foundation remains neutral and serves the Canton ecosystem as a whole rather than any individual organization or stakeholder group.
Candidate Profile
The strongest candidate will be an entrepreneurial leader who can see opportunities across a complex ecosystem and organize people around them.
We are looking for someone who demonstrates:
Intellectual agility – able to quickly understand complex financial, technical and regulatory topics.
Systems thinking – able to connect technology, markets, institutions, regulation and commercial adoption.
Entrepreneurial judgment – comfortable operating where there is not yet an established playbook.
Executive presence – credible with senior financial executives, technologists, regulators, founders and community leaders.
Commercial instinct – understands that successful technology requires users, counterparties and functioning markets.
Persuasive communication – able to explain complex ideas clearly and represent Canton credibly without overselling it.
Neutrality and trust – able to operate across organizations that may simultaneously be partners and competitors.
Execution discipline – able to convert strategy into priorities, accountability and measurable results.
Global orientation – comfortable operating across regions, markets and regulatory environments.
Experience
There is no single required career path for this role. Strong candidates may come from financial market infrastructure, institutional finance, fintech, technology platforms, digital assets, high-growth companies, industry organizations or other complex ecosystems.
Relevant experience may include:
Significant senior executive leadership experience with a demonstrated record of organizational or ecosystem impact.
A strong track record of external representation, including public speaking, executive-level presentations, industry forums or media engagement.
Building or scaling an organization, platform or ecosystem.
Financial markets, market infrastructure or financial technology.
Digital assets, blockchain or tokenization.
Strategic partnerships or ecosystem development.
Working with global financial institutions.
Regulatory or public-policy engagement.
Board governance and executive reporting.
Organizational design and talent management.
Budget ownership and financial oversight.
Experience with Canton is valuable but not required. The ability to learn quickly, exercise judgment, connect people and opportunities, and credibly represent the ecosystem is more important than arriving with expertise in every Canton use case.
Education
Bachelor’s degree or comparable professional experience required. Advanced degree welcome but not required.
What Success Looks Like
The successful President and CEO will establish a clear and credible executive voice for the Canton Foundation, focus the organization around a limited number of measurable priorities, strengthen coordination across the ecosystem, help important use cases move toward functioning markets, deepen institutional and regulatory engagement, and build a Foundation organization capable of executing effectively at global scale.

Work arrangement
Yes