Interstellar, an enterprise company focused on growing the Stellar network, has appointed Mike Kennedy as Chief Executive Officer effective September 15th.
Interstellar has also formed and is spinning-out a new company which current CEO Adam Ludwin will lead.
“We are thrilled to have Mike lead Interstellar through its next phase of growth,” said Jed McCaleb, Interstellar board member and founder of the Stellar Development Foundation. “Mike’s record of success founding and growing Zelle [fka clearXchange], his innovation in mobile payments, FX and banking, and his history as a high-impact advisor to Stellar make him the perfect fit to lead Interstellar.”
As CEO Mike will oversee all aspects of Interstellar, with the primary focus of helping facilitate the adoption of the Stellar network for international payments. Mike is an accomplished executive with significant payments experience. He founded, led and sold Zelle (fka clearXchange), one of the largest P2P payments systems in the US. Mike was recently President of North America for international payments provider OFX, getting in depth FX experience, and leading North America to be the fastest growing region in the company. Mike was also Executive Vice President of Payments for Wells Fargo. Further, Mike has been on the Stellar Development Foundation for the past 2 years. This combination will allow Mike to guide Interstellar in achieving its vision. “I am excited about leading Interstellar, helping solve the real-world problems of making international payments faster, cheaper and more efficient,” said Mike Kennedy.
Also at this time, Interstellar is announcing the formation and spin-out of a new app-focused company targeting interoperability between mobile wallets around the world. Adam Ludwin will lead this spin-out. “In my new role leading the spin out, I look forward to collaborating closely with Mike and the team to leverage the world class infrastructure Interstellar continues to build for the Stellar ecosystem,” Adam Ludwin said. This new entity is an example of the types of apps Stellar is uniquely positioned to enable, thanks to the network’s ability to create low friction, highly liquid, and real time corridors for FX settlement between financial entities.