The Solana Foundation has strengthened its senior leadership team with the appointment of Rachel Conlan as Chief Strategy Officer and Jamal Raees as General Manager of Payments, as the organization continues to expand its institutional and payments-focused strategy.
Conlan joins the Foundation after serving as Global Chief Marketing Officer at Binance, where she played a key role in global brand and market strategy. Her previous experience also includes roles across the technology, sports and communications sectors.
In her new position, Conlan will focus on the Foundation’s broader strategic direction, including institutional partnerships, ecosystem development and go-to-market initiatives. Her appointment comes as Solana continues to deepen its engagement with financial institutions, enterprises and other organizations exploring blockchain-based infrastructure.
Raees, meanwhile, joins from Polygon Labs and will lead Solana’s payments strategy. His role will focus on expanding the use of Solana as payment infrastructure and supporting collaboration with payment companies, financial institutions and enterprises.
He also brings previous experience from companies including Bridge and Wyre, giving him a background across blockchain infrastructure and digital payments.
The appointments come during a period of increasing financial activity across the Solana ecosystem. According to the Solana Foundation, the network has processed more than $5 trillion in stablecoin volume during 2026, while real-world assets on Solana have surpassed $4.5 billion and tokenized equity supply has exceeded $620 million.
The two appointments reflect the Foundation’s wider push to strengthen institutional adoption and expand the role of Solana in global financial and payments infrastructure.
