Ripple Labs built a world-class leadership team that blends deep experience in technology, finance, law, and global business strategy. At the helm are visionaries who not only steered the company through rapid growth but also positioned it as a leader in blockchain innovation and cross-border payments.
The Ripple Team
Bradley Kent Garlinghouse — Ripple CEO
Bradley Kent Garlinghouse was born on Feb. 6, 1971, in Topeka, Kansas, and is the dynamic CEO of Ripple Labs. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Kansas and subsequently completed his MBA at Harvard Business School in 1997.
Early in his career, Garlinghouse gained experience at Home Network and venture capital firm Ventures before stepping into the CEO role at Dialpad in 2000. From 2003 to 2009, he served as Senior Vice President at Yahoo!, overseeing flagship products like Flickr, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger, and the Homepage—as well as penning the now-famous “Peanut Butter Manifesto,” a call for the company to focus on its core strengths. He continued his executive journey as President of Consumer Applications at AOL (2009–2011), then led Hightail (formerly YouSendIt) as CEO until a board disagreement in 2014.
Garlinghouse joined Ripple as COO in 2015 and assumed the CEO role in December of 2016, guiding the company through its Series C funding round in 2019 and navigating high-profile regulatory challenges with the US SEC. He is recognized not only for his strategic leadership but also for his advocacy of digital assets.
Chris Larsen — Co-Founder & Executive Chairman, Ripple Labs
Chris Larsen, born in 1960 in San Francisco, California, earned a B.S. in International Business and Accounting from San Francisco State University in 1984 and later completed his MBA at Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1991.
Early in his career, he worked at Chevron by conducting financial audits across Brazil, Ecuador, and Indonesia—an experience that shaped his understanding of global finance systems. In 1996, he co-founded E‑Loan, one of the first online mortgage lenders in the US, pioneering open access to consumers’ FICO credit scores and pushing transparency in the financial industry. During his tenure, E‑Loan went public and reached a market valuation of around $1 billion.
In 2005, Larsen co-founded Prosper Marketplace, the first peer-to-peer lending platform in the US, which introduced an innovative model for matching borrowers and investors and facilitated hundreds of millions in loans. In 2012, he co-founded OpenCoin (which was later renamed Ripple Labs), creating a blockchain-based protocol and digital asset (XRP) that enables instant, low-cost international payments—an ambition at the heart of Ripple’s.
Larsen describes himself as “radically pro-consumer,” and even co-founded the coalition Californians for Privacy Now and personally backed financial privacy initiatives. He’s not just an entrepreneur but also a vocal advocate for consumer rights, digital privacy, and financial inclusivity—values that still influence Ripple’s ethos and direction.
Monica Long — President, Ripple Labs
Monica Long, President of Ripple Labs since January 2023, was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Development Studies (which is also referred to as Political Economy and Journalism) from the University of California, Berkeley.
Her professional journey began in strategic marketing and communications—initially in PR roles for startups across B2B and B2C sectors (including fintech firms like Prosper), and later as a PR manager in Intuit’s Small Business Group, where she managed public relations for QuickBooks.
Monica joined Ripple in 2013 as the company's first marketing and communications hire and quickly became a central figure in shaping Ripple’s brand, messaging, and product communications. Over the years, she advanced through leadership roles including SVP of Marketing and Design and General Manager of RippleX, steering developer platforms, user experience, and public messaging. As President, she now leads Ripple’s Business, Product, and Engineering teams, overseeing innovations like stablecoins, CBDCs, tokenization strategies, and global remittance solutions—and champions inclusive company culture as Executive Sponsor of Ripple’s Women Employee Resource Group.
She was recognized as one of the Bay Area’s Most Influential Women in Business in 2020, she is still a pivotal driver of Ripple’s transition from startup to institutional innovator in blockchain-enabled financial infrastructure
David Schwartz — Ripple CTO & Chief Cryptographer
David Schwartz, widely known in crypto circles by his pseudonym “JoelKatz,” is the Chief Technology Officer and Chief Cryptographer at Ripple. He was born in the early 1970s in the United States, and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Houston, graduating in 1990.
Schwartz founded David Schwartz Enterprise in 1988 after inventing a hierarchical distributed computing system and securing patents. In 1991, he joined Re/Max as a software developer and built systems to identify over-assessed homes for property tax reductions. Between 1992 and the mid‑1990s, he co-founded Cardiophonics, which developed non-invasive medical devices for detecting heart murmurs, and later joined Worldwide Internet Solutions as a senior network manager, overseeing complex network implementations.
From 1998 to 2011, Schwartz ascended at WebMaster Incorporated—based in Santa Clara—from Director of Software Development to CTO—where he developed encrypted cloud storage and secure enterprise messaging systems for high-profile clients including CNN and the NSA. In 2011, he joined Ripple as Chief Cryptographer, later being named CTO in July 2018.
He played a pivotal role as one of the original architects of the XRP Ledger and led technological innovations across Ripple’s blockchain-based infrastructure, including tools like xCurrent and xRapid. Schwartz is a respected thought leader in blockchain, cryptography, and DeFi, and is well known for his contributions to secure, scalable global payments systems, as well as his active engagement with the crypto community.
Jon Bilich — Ripple CFO
Jon Bilich is Ripple’s Chief Financial Officer, a position he has held since January of 2024. An MIT MBA (2012–2014) and Bucknell alumnus in Mechanical Engineering and Economics, Jon's career commenced in global capital markets at Morgan Stanley where he focused on mergers, acquisitions, and financing.He then transitioned to solar energy pioneer Sunrun, overseeing financial planning and forecasting across sales, marketing, and operations.
Bilich joined Ripple in 2016, and he steadily rose through the ranks—from Senior Director to VP, then to CFO. His deep expertise in FP&A, financial modeling, Anaplan, and Bloomberg have been instrumental in guiding Ripple’s strategic decision‑making. His promotion to CFO was formally acknowledged in late 2023, with recognition of his strong financial leadership and dedication to the company’s values.
Eric van Miltenburg — Senior Vice President, Strategic Initiatives, Ripple Labs
Eric van Miltenburg serves as Ripple’s Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives, a role that he assumed in July of 2022. He holds an MBA from Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business and a B.A. from Pomona College.
Eric brings over 25 years of leadership across startups and Fortune 500 firms, including Adobe, Yahoo!, Hightail, RedSwoosh, and Work.com. Since joining Ripple, he has helmed corporate strategy, global operations, strategic partnerships, business development, and marketing, all while consistently delivering growth and operational excellence.
Kiersten Hollars — Senior Vice President, Corporate Marketing and Communications, Ripple Labs
Kiersten Hollars is Ripple’s Senior Vice President of Corporate Marketing and Communications, also overseeing People and Workplace strategy. She joined Ripple in 2018 and has since led communications, HR, and marketing functions.
Previously, she was a partner at The Hatch Agency, where she helped develop Ripple’s early communications strategy, and also advised firms like Ancestry, Dropbox, and Stitch Fix. Her prior experience includes shaping award-winning media campaigns and managing crisis communication efforts for Hightail, AOL, Yahoo!, Oracle, and Salesforce.
Eric Jeck — Senior Vice President, Corporate and Business Development, Ripple Labs
Eric Jeck holds the position of Senior Vice President of Corporate and Business Development at Ripple. His career spans 25 years across high-growth tech companies as a founder, operator, investor, and executive.
Previously, he served as Chief Strategy Officer at Indigo Ag, Executive Chairman of Outmatch, Managing Director at Trident Capital and Wand Partners, and was CEO of Perfect Escapes and The Intagio Group. He began his career in M&A at Wasserstein Perella & Co.
He earned a B.S. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Harvard Business School. At Ripple, he leads strategic partnerships, acquisitions, and growth initiatives to drive global development.
Stuart Alderoty — Ripple CLO
Stuart Alderoty, Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer, joined the company in January of 2019 and reports directly to the CEO Brad Garlinghouse. He holds a B.A. from Rutgers University and a J.D. from Rutgers Law School–Newark.
Stuart comes with over 30 years of experience in litigation, regulatory affairs, and financial services law. Some of his prior roles include Managing Counsel at American Express (2002–2010), General Counsel at HSBC North America (2010–2016), and General Counsel at CIT Group (2016–2019).
At Ripple, he oversees global legal, policy, and compliance teams, including Bank Secrecy Act responsibilities, and has been a key figure in navigating the company’s regulatory challenges—especially during the SEC lawsuit, offering strategic legal leadership through pivotal court victories.
Mariel Kelley — Senior Vice President, People and Places, Ripple Labs
Mariel Kelley is Ripple’s Senior Vice President of People and Places. She holds a B.S. in Organizational Communication from Western Michigan University.
Before her promotion, she served as Vice President, People & Places at Ripple starting in June of 2020. Her prior HR leadership includes roles at Lyft (scaling the company to over 6,000 employees through IPO), Tesla, and Stryker, focusing heavily on mergers, cultural integration, and organizational effectiveness.
At Ripple, she leads diverse functions including Total Rewards, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, and Learning & Development, and serves on Chief’s executive women’s network—championing inclusive culture and strategic HR growth for Ripple’s global teams.
