Solana Foundation appoints new leaders to boost institutional adoption and payments

The Solana Foundation announced the hiring of two senior executives to accelerate institutional adoption and payment use cases on the Solana network.

New leadership appointments

Rachel Conlan has been named chief strategy officer. She will oversee strategy for institutional partnerships and ecosystem growth. Conlan previously spent three years at Binance and held senior roles at OKX, CAA Sports, and Havas.

Jamal Raees has been appointed general manager of payments. He will work with payment firms, enterprises, and the broader ecosystem to expand Solana’s role as a global payments infrastructure. Raees joins from Polygon Labs.

Strategic focus

Solana Foundation President Lily Liu said the ecosystem is entering the early phase of a “Token Supercycle,” describing a shift of money, assets and ownership onto always‑on internet infrastructure. The foundation aims to make markets faster, more accessible and continuously available.

Network activity metrics

• More than $5 trillion in stablecoin volume processed on Solana this year.
• Real‑world assets on the network have exceeded $4.5 billion.
• Tokenized equity supply has surpassed $620 million.

Recent initiatives

Earlier in the year the foundation partnered with SBI Holdings to develop a Japan‑based on‑chain financial market. It also launched a pay‑as‑you‑go system for AI agents using Google Cloud.