Giorgio Zinetti to Leave Cardano Foundation CTO Role
Cardano Foundation CTO Giorgio Zinetti will leave the organization on August 31. No successor has been announced, while the Foundation says its enterprise strategy and technical work will continue through its executive, engineering and business development teams.
By SongMarketCap
Giorgio Zinetti will step down as Chief Technology Officer of the Cardano Foundation on August 31, 2026, ending a tenure that began in May 2024.
Zinetti said he plans to take several weeks off to welcome his daughter before beginning a new professional chapter in September. He did not disclose his next role. The Cardano Foundation did not provide a separate reason for his departure or name a replacement.
Zinetti Led Cardano Foundation Technology Since 2024
The Cardano Foundation appointed Zinetti CTO on May 8, 2024, placing him in charge of the organization’s technical leadership, the expansion of its project and product pipeline, and the use of open-source development for enterprise blockchain technology.
Before joining the Foundation, Zinetti co-founded and served as CTO of Swiss digital identity company Procivis and previously worked as a software engineer at UBS.
During his tenure, the Foundation expanded several enterprise and technical initiatives, including Reeve, its platform for verifiable financial reporting, and Veridian, its decentralized identity infrastructure.
Zinetti provided executive-level technical oversight, while individual products and engineering areas operated under dedicated leads.
Reeve, Veridian and IBC Have Dedicated Leadership
Several initiatives developed or expanded during Zinetti’s tenure remain under their existing operational and engineering leadership.
Reeve connects enterprise accounting systems with Cardano to create verifiable on-chain records of financial events. The Foundation has used the platform for its own financial reporting and in July announced a pilot with Germany-based Reef Data eG covering payment flows and member reward distribution. Cleopatra Martins serves as Finance Product Lead for Reeve.
Veridian, the Foundation’s open-source decentralized identity platform, sits within its identity organization led by Thomas A. Mayfield, Head of Decentralized Trust and Identity Solutions.
Cardano interoperability work also operates under a separate engineering function. In early August, Cardano Preprod was connected with the Injective testnet through IBC infrastructure. Fabian Bormann, Head of Ecosystem Engineering, has publicly led the Foundation’s engineering work around the initiative.
The structure places day-to-day responsibility for these initiatives within specialized teams rather than directly under a single product owner at the CTO level.
Cardano Foundation Has Not Named a New CTO
The Cardano Foundation has not announced a permanent successor, interim CTO or new structure for its highest technical executive role.
In announcing Zinetti’s departure, the Foundation said its Board and Executive team would continue working closely with technical and senior business development leaders while maintaining a direct focus on enterprise adoption.
Reeve therefore continues under its product leadership, Veridian remains within the Foundation’s identity organization, and IBC development continues through ecosystem engineering.
Zinetti’s tenure formally ends on August 31. At the time of the announcement, the Cardano Foundation had not identified who will assume the executive-level technical role he has held since 2024.