It has indeed been a long and arduous road for those who have invested in Tezos. The blockbuster ICO of last year has faced a great deal of internal strife that has left the project delayed and overstretched.
However, today it has been reported by the foundation that they have unanimously decided to replace Johann Gevers and Diego Fernandez Pons with Ryan Jesperson and Michel Muany.
Ryan Jesperson will be replacing Johann Gevers as the president of the foundation. This is no doubt music to the ears of many in the Tezos community as they viewed Gevers as one of the biggest impediments to the release of the project.
What does this now mean for the project as a whole and how will it impact the roadmap?
A Highly Capable Board
The two new board members will now be joining Lars Haussmann who was appointed on the 31st of January. This was on the back of a move by the foundation to stem the flow of negative news that clouded the project and overshadowed the development.
According to the release, Ryan Jesperson was most recently the Chief operating officer at Divvy which is a Fintech company. He has a BS degree from Brigham Young University as well as an MBA from Duke University. It also stated that
Prior to his work at Divvy, he helped launch the Self-Reliance Services initiative of the LDS Church and was an executive, turnaround specialist and tech entrepreneur in the healthcare industry
Michel Mauny is also quite an accomplished individual. He has a scientific background and holds a PhD from the Paris-Diderot University. He was most recently working at Inria in Paris as a researcher and has designed and developed numerous programming languages.
Implications for the Project
This annoncement could also not have come at a better time for the community at large. It was just a few days ago that Kathleen Breitman stated that the developers were considering going rogue if there was no news from the foundation.
This will no doubt be a relief for the husband and wife team as they saw the maneuvers by Gevers as a massive impediment to the release of the code. Moreover, given that the foundation controls the funds, a willing party can help speed up development with the additional resources.
There is also a hope that now the communication between the foundation and the team working on the code will be greatly improved. This will mean that they can both combat negative rumours and co-ordinate a joint public relations offensive.
What About the Lawsuits?
As the news started breaking last year about the infighting at Tezos, numerous US based investors launched a class action law suit. The lawyers were alleging that the “Tezzies” tokens should have been treated as securities and hence it was an illegal raise.
These lawyers were subsequently denied information related to the SEC case that they had requested through the Freedom of Information Act.
There were many in the community who viewed these actions by some investors as pointless. The Tezos ICO was clearly labelled as a “Donation” and the most of the contributors only invested responsible amounts.
Nevertheless, the positive news that is coming out of the foundation is likely to slow the momentum of any potential legal challenges. The whole community is better off working together to promote the agenda than fighting over spoils.
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