Blockchain startup Ripple has announced that Benjamin Lawsky, the former New York superintendent of Financial Services has joined its Board of Directors (BoD) and Ron Will as chief financial officer (CFO).

Lawsky will bring over than 20 years of experience in every branch of government to Ripple. He is widely recognized as the architect of the BitLicense, New York’s industry-leading regulation for digital asset businesses operating in the state. Lawsky served as New York State’s superintendent of financial services from 2011-2015, where he regulated all New York State-chartered banks, the majority of U.S.-based branches, and U.S. subsidiaries of foreign banking institutions in New York.

“Ripple is the leading enterprise blockchain company in the world today and is one that truly understands the importance of regulation-enabled innovation,” said Lawsky. “The company and its leadership are passionate about making our global financial system more efficient, more secure and more fair. I share those same goals and am thrilled and humbled to work side by side with their incredible team as they continue to pave the way for the growth and accelerating adoption of blockchain and digital assets in the years ahead.”

Will is joining Ripple with nearly three decades of experience as a senior financial executive and investment banker. He has served as CFO in a number of firms including Mainsail Partners; BrightRoll, until it was successfully acquired by Yahoo!; and more recently TubeMogul, leading to their acquisition by Adobe this past year. Previously, Will served as vice president of finance and treasurer of Yahoo! for seven years, working with many leading technology and financial pioneers including current San Francisco 49ers' co-owner and former Facebook and YouTube CFO, Gideon Yu. Will also spent 12 years as an investment banker.

“Throughout my career, I’ve been most excited when working with hyper-growth companies, and as Ripple keeps bringing on customers like American Express and over 100 other financial institutions, it’s clear that this is one of those rare opportunities,” said Will. “The problem that Ripple is solving around cross-border payments is something that I understand the pain of first-hand as treasurer at Yahoo!, and I know that corporate customers are going to keep driving demand for this much-needed overhaul of the payments system.”