Solana Foundation Bolsters Institutional Push with Key Hires

The Solana Foundation has made two key hires to drive its institutional and payment business forward. Rachel Conlan, former Binance executive, is now the foundation's chief strategy officer. She will oversee institutional partnerships, ecosystem growth, and efforts to bring more companies and users onto Solana. Jamal Raees, previously of Polygon Labs, is the new general manager of payments. He will focus on payment companies, enterprises, and ecosystem participants building payment services around Solana.

Both Conlan and Raees have extensive experience in their respective fields. Conlan spent three years at Binance as global chief marketing officer and has held senior roles at OKX, CAA Sports, and Havas. Raees joins from Polygon Labs after working at Bridge and Wyre. Their appointments come as Solana processes more than $5 trillion in stablecoin volume this year.

Solana's institutional adoption has expanded significantly in 2026. The network has attracted $348 million in net distributed real-world asset flows over a 30-day period, with the value of distributed RWAs reaching approximately $4.23 billion. Tokenized equities have also become a part of this activity, with Ondo Finance bringing hundreds of tokenized U.S. stocks and exchange-traded funds to Solana earlier this year.