Starknet CEO, Diego Olivia resigns

• A statement released by the Starknet Foundation announced a change in leadership after the foundation’s exiting CEO, Diego Olivia, was replaced by James Strudwick, who came in as the Executive Director. According to SNF, Olivia left a legacy of strong leadership, dedication to doing the right thing, and a clear vision.

The SNF snowballed under Diego’s guidance, and the team multiplied from two part-time employees to thirty full-time professionals. Notably, the SNF confirmed that its team had achieved the launch of the Seed Grants and DeFi Spring projects in a very short time. The SNF also pointed out that it had partnered with over 100 organizations and created programs to support developers.

Diego Olivia lays the foundation for the Starknet Foundation

We would like to share the news of a change happening @StarknetFndn.@jdiegooliva who has served as the first CEO of the Foundation since March 2023, will be stepping down after successfully establishing a strong team and structure.@strjd87, who has been with the Foundation… pic.twitter.com/LmRNavbxII

— Starknet Foundation (@StarknetFndn) August 6, 2024

The SNF confirmed that Diego was hand-picked in 2023 as the Foundation’s CEO based on the strength of his character and experience. Starknet praised Olivia for his entrepreneurial experience following his involvement in starting, running, and scaling successful businesses. Under his tenure, the SNF asserted that the Foundation was built on the right values owing to Olivia’s vision, commitment, and integrity.

The Foundation disclosed that, under Diego’s leadership, it had jump-started and executed multiple ecosystem development projects, such as the Catalyst and Propulsion programs, Seed Grants, and DeFi Spring. According to the statement, the Starknet Foundation entered into signed collaborations with infrastructure teams through Developer Partnerships to scale programs like Hacker Hose and Basecamp.

Starknet disclosed that Diego had remained in the Foundation to help with the transition and ensure all activities continued without disruptions. Now that structure and team had been established, the Foundation claimed it was time to hand over the baton to Strudwick.

James Strudwick prepares to lead the way forward

With a team already in place, the Foundation declared that Strudwick would take over from Olivia as the SNF changed leadership. Strudwick, who joined SNF in January 2024, took over as the Executive director under Diego’s mentorship.  

The Starknet Foundation mentioned that Strudwick brought a wealth of experience in Web3 technology. According to the Foundation’s statement, he had previously worked on various successful projects in the blockchain and DeFi space. The SNF confirmed that Strudwick showed good knowledge of the ecosystem and leadership skills.

“Since the start of 2024, @Starknet’s TVL has experienced a 7x growth. Unlike many other protocols these days, its flagship DEX @EkuboProtocol  has 100% of the supply released from day 0, with $10M FDV and $56M TVL.” 

–Stacy Muur

The CEO and co-founder of StarkWare Ltd., Eli Ben-Sasson, thanked Olivia for integrity in jump-starting the Foundation and welcomed Strudwick as the Executive Director. He disclosed that he was glad to witness the leadership transition.