Solana Taps Binance Vet for Institutional Push

The Solana Foundation has made two senior hires to accelerate institutional and payments-focused adoption of its network. Rachel Conlan, former chief marketing officer at Binance, joins as chief strategy officer, while Jamal Raees, previously an executive at Polygon Labs, becomes general manager of payments.

Conlan's role will oversee strategy spanning institutional partnerships, ecosystem expansion, and initiatives to bring businesses onto Solana. Her background combines crypto-native experience with broader enterprise and communications expertise.

Raees said his focus will be on deepening engagement with major payments companies and driving adoption of stablecoins and tokenized deposits in global markets.

The hires follow the March launch of the Solana Developer Platform, which features Modern Treasury as a payments infrastructure partner. The platform aims to help teams build payment-related services more quickly.