Llew Claasen, a venture capitalist based in Cape Town, South Africa and Managing Partner of Newtown Partners was on Monday appointed as Executive Director of the Bitcoin Foundation, the world’s largest bitcoin organisation, effective July 1.
Llew was elected by a board of directors vote on June 14 and says he’s looking forward to leading the Bitcoin Foundation going forward.
“There is an amazing opportunity for the organization to help the Bitcoin ecosystem,” he said. “In the coming weeks I’ll be working closely with the board, membership, transition team and various stakeholders to create the best plan for success possible.”
The Bitcoin Foundation is a 501c6 organization and the oldest and largest industry group focused on Bitcoin and has a variety of corporate members, individuals and international chapters. The primary focus areas of the Bitcoin Foundation are on increasing adoption, fostering more Bitcoin development such as through the DevCore event series and encouraging global decision makers to seek technical over regulatory solutions for Bitcoin related matters.
Board members include Brock Pierce, of Blockchain Capital (Board Chair), Bobby Lee, of BTCC (Board Vice Chair), Elizabeth McCauley of Coinsecure, Vinny Lingham of Civic, Michael Perklin of C4 and Francis Pouliot of Satoshi Portal.
Llew replaces outgoing Executive Director Bruce Fenton who informed the board of a desire to close out his term, he will remain as a board member. Board Member Vinny Lingham did not vote due to his long business relationship and friendship with Claasen.
Claasen will begin his work on the transition immediately with an official term start date of July 1. He has said that he looks forward to speaking with individual members, corporations, developers and the community as he begins the role.
