Ex-Citigroup Chair Dick Parsons Joins Crypto Firm Celo’s Board

Ex-Citigroup chair Dick Parsons will be joining the board of crypto firm Celo which will bring extensive experience as a senior bank executive to the company as we can see more in our latest crypto news today.

Parsons’ arrival at Celo is very important because of his experience in the field since he is the first major banking executive to jump into the crypto sector. His experience includes being the CEO of Time Warner and the LA Clippers. Parsons serves as a chair of the Rockefeller Foundation. Dick Parsons who served as the Chair of Citigroup in the wake of the financial crisis in 2009 and is joining the board of the company which is a startup that specializes in blockchain services for mobile phones.

Parsons is a prominent figure in the business space as a result of his successful tenure at Citi but also known for blazing a trail as one of the first Black CEOs in America in the early 2000s. The Ex-Citigroup chair took the top job at Time Warner back in 2001 and served as the CEO of the LA Clippers. According to a Celo spokesperson, Parson joined the startup because he wanted to be here for the next best thing which is crypto and because it will provide a new outlet for philanthropic work. Parsons sees crypto as an important new tool for financial inclusion.

“The Celo Foundation and its 130 global member organizations are addressing a critical need, especially for the bottom billion who don’t have access to traditional financial services and tools.”

Celo which this week raised $20 million from venture capital firms and aspires to be a blockchain rival to Venmo. The company’s boosters say it offers major breakthrough technology in the form of letting users access crypto payments by using a phone number which is a level of simplicity that will lower the barriers to use crypto in developing countries. Katie Haun from Andreessen Horowitz which is a company that backs Celo said that the company offers a “full-stack global payments platform” with lower fees than other money transfer services.

The addition to its board with Dick Parsons who has philanthropic experiences includes leading the Rockefeller Foundation as well as the Jazz Foundation of America which will help CELO in “building a financial system that creates the conditions for prosperity for everyone.”