New CEO to bring visionary leadership, business and technical expertise to role

Durrant Pate/Contributor

Toronto fintech company Blockstation has announced the appointment of co-founder and CTO, Jai Waterman, as its new chief executive officer (CEO).

The appointment became effective on August 2022, after co-founder and former CEO Marko M. Hafez stepped down from his role. This news comes as Blockstation prepares for a new capital raise, as well as growth and expansion into new business verticals.

Blockstation is the company that is bringing to Jamaica live trading in digital assets and security tokens in a regulated and secured environment.

In 2019, the company signed an historic agreement with the Jamaica Stock Exchange to provide one of the first end-to-end digital assets trading platform for the stock exchange network.

The new CEO brings visionary leadership, business and technical expertise to this role, which puts him in the best possible position to lead the company’s future growth and development. Since the company’s founding in 2014, Waterman has served as the primary architect and builder of Blockstation’s blockchain-enabled stock exchange ecosystem.

In doing so, he worked with regulatory bodies around the world to ensure the platform not only satisfies, but enhances their requirements for all stakeholders in the capital markets life cycle.

Waterman energised by company successes

Commenting on the appointment, Waterman said: “I am incredibly energised by our success in tokenised securities as well as our entry into lucrative markets such as mortgage-backed securities and carbon credits. We will deliver tremendous value to our shareholders, strategic partners and customers as we continue to accelerate the development of the company’s core technology, introducing new levels of security, transparency and efficiency to regulated trading marketplaces.”

He acknowledged his predecessor for the tremendous efforts and accomplishments over the last seven years.

“We worked closely together to build Blockstation into what it is today,” Waterman said in concluding.

Since the company’s inception, Hafez and Waterman established Blockstation as a globally trusted fintech for the listing and trading of blockchain-based tokenised assets, boasting agreements and strategic partnerships with nearly a dozen exchanges. Today, it maintains a strong presence across the Caribbean, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, Central Eastern Europe, North America, and Oceania.

“When we began, very few people recognised the potential for blockchain technology to transform the world of capital formation the way we knew it could,” said Hafez, adding that, “the confidence shown in us by so many stock exchanges since then is the best possible proof that we were on the right track, and I believe Jai will be instrumental in leading Blockstation into the future”.

Blockstation is a complete ecosystem solution for the blockchain-enabled tokenisation, listing, trading, clearing and settlement of digital assets within regulated marketplaces. It serves all stakeholders in multiple business verticals including stock exchanges, carbon credits and mortgage-backed securities, offering turn-key, end-to-end, fully compliant functionality for financial institutions, issuers, and investors.