John MacPherson Out At Cardano Foundation
John MacPherson, a beloved Cardano community member, and vocal supporter, announced in a shocking tweet on Wednesday that he and the Cardano Foundation would be parting ways and that MacPherson would be exiting from his role as the Senior CeFi/DeFi Relationship Manager in the Americas for the Foundation. MacPherson served as one of the top executives of the Foundation for nearly three years as an extremely present and vocal figure in the ecosystem who vigorously defended, supported, and expanded the Cardano ecosystem during his tenure.
“After a wonderful journey at @Cardano_CF, it’s with a heavy heart that I announce our parting ways. I had an incredible time growing and supporting the ecosystem for the last 3 years. While moving forward I will be advising the Valkry/Mongrels project and am open to the idea of assisting other projects short term while I transition. Exciting news lies ahead for me, I remain committed to staying in the space as a driving force. Good news from me soon.”- John MacPherson
Before MacPherson joined the Cardano Foundation as the Senior CeFi/DeFI Relationship Manager, he attended the Georgian College in Ontario, Canada to become trained as a police Officer before deciding to pursue a career in the blockchain industry becoming heavily involved and vocally supportive in the space for over twelve years.
MacPherson originally joined the Foundation back in June of 2020 in a joint hiring with his former colleague, Mel McCann; with John being hired initially as the Exchange Relationship Manager and Mel being appointed as the Platform Integration Engineer for the Foundation to further expand the Cardano Foundation’s technological capabilities and relationships with exchanges/businesses as the Cardano Ecosystem prepared for the Shelley Mainnet launch later that year. In an announcement of the hiring, the Foundation stated that “both roles were created as the Foundation assumes more responsibilities for Cardano and as it accelerates its technological capabilities.”
John and Mel both initially worked alongside Frederic Johnson, the Technical Project Manager, and Steve Wagendorp, The Foundation’s Head of Technical Operations, as well as Emurgo and IOHK’s respective teams to collaborate together and implement the best strategy for the ecosystem to prepare for the — at the time — the future ushering in of the Goguen Era. The General Secretary of the Cardano Foundation described their hiring at the time as “appointments [that] will enable the Foundation to serve third parties and exchanges better and are key for the advancement of Cardano.”
MacPherson was one of the more vocal supporters of the Cardano NFT and DeFi space and participated in the community discourse far more often than other members of the Cardano Foundation and had recently elevated his support by utilizing his platform to shed light on the plethora of amazing things occurring within the Cardano NFT space and ecosystem. Just recently other beloved community members like EL, a self-prescribed comedian and a notoriously amazing Twitter space host, and John Rivera, CEO of Uniscroll and CMO of ADAGoats; announced they had communicated with John over the phone about plans to elevate the ecosystem, from NFTs to DeFi, through their respective platforms in the community as well as John’s resources at the Foundation. That is, until just days later, MacPherson was let go from the Foundation.
In response to our request for comment, John stated that he was let go from the Foundation effective immediately in a completely surprising decision to him and that he would be conducting some short-term advising for a few projects “while transitioning into a role within the community where [he] can continue to be a strong voice for Cardano.” Although this was an unfortunate series of events in the eyes of the community, it was peaceful, and no hard feelings are shared on both sides. In MacPherson’s public response, he stated “that exciting news lies ahead for [him]” and that he “remain[s] committed to staying in the space as a driving force.”
MacPherson’s departure from his role as Senior CeFi/DeFi Relationship Manager at the Cardano Foundation came as a saddening shock to many in the Cardano community with the Foundation facing backlash for its decision by a plethora of community members. However, it is without a doubt that MacPherson will inevitably transition into a new and better role that can make even more of an impact than he already has made for the ecosystem. As one of the most notable and vocal proponents of the Cardano ecosystem, John will certainly remain a force to reckon with for years to come.
