Key Highlights
- Rachel Conlan has been appointed as chief strategy officer at the Solana Foundation after serving as Binance's global CMO for three years.
- Jamal Raees has joined as general manager of payments, transitioning from Polygon Labs.
- These new roles coincide with Solana's initiative to reduce block times, with the latest cut implemented last week.
The Solana Foundation has announced the hiring of Rachel Conlan, previously Binance's global chief marketing officer, as its chief strategy officer. Additionally, Jamal Raees from Polygon Labs has been appointed as general manager of payments. These strategic moves are part of the Foundation's effort to enhance institutional adoption and payment systems.
Conlan brings three years of experience from Binance and has also held significant positions at OKX, CAA Sports, and Havas. Her responsibilities will include fostering institutional partnerships, driving ecosystem growth, and executing market strategies, according to the Foundation.
Raees, who will oversee payment operations, comes from Polygon Labs and has a background with the stablecoin firm Bridge and the payments company Wyre. His role will focus on collaborating with payment providers and businesses to broaden Solana's application as a payment infrastructure.
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As of 2026, the Solana Foundation reports that the network has handled over $5 trillion in stablecoin transactions, with real-world assets on the platform exceeding $4.5 billion and tokenized equity surpassing $620 million.
The Foundation refers to this transition as a "Token Supercycle," describing the movement of financial resources, assets, and ownership onto continuous infrastructure. This initiative lays the groundwork for what the Foundation calls Internet Capital Markets, where assets are issued, traded, and settled directly online. In July 2025, Solana developers unveiled a roadmap aimed at optimizing the market structure to support highly liquid markets.
Lily Liu, president of the Solana Foundation, stated, "The question is no longer whether markets move onchain, but how quickly and on whose infrastructure they will do so."
The timing of these appointments aligns with ongoing enhancements to the network. Last week, Solana reduced its target slot time to 250 milliseconds, marking a nearly 17% increase in block production frequency and representing the third of four planned reductions, alongside a separate overhaul of the consensus mechanism being tested to minimize the time frame for payment reversals.
Conlan and Raees join Michael Coates, who was appointed as chief information security officer earlier this year, bringing experience from Mozilla and Twitter.