VISA Europe/Amex Exec Joins BTL Board

Blockchain solution provider BTL Group has added Jon Downing to its advisory board. He is a former vice president of VISA Europe and executive at American Express.

Downing was a key member of Visa Europe’s Innovation Hub, Visa Collab, where he set up and led the blockchain practice. Prior to Visa Europe, Downing worked in the Legal & General department of American Express and at JP Morgan, where he designed and implemented new technologies.

“I am joining BTL because I passionately believe in the transformational potential of blockchain and distributed ledger technologies,” said a statement from Downing. “BTL have correctly identified and solved for the privacy and scalability challenges through the innovative design and architecture of their Interbit solution – which I directly experienced during the Interbank Settlement pilot. I look forward to working with BTL’s leadership team and board of directors to help realise the company vision of bringing the world’s critical systems into consensus.”

“We believe Jon’s experience in the finance space will help us accelerate commercialization of our Interbit platform,” said BTL CEO Guy Halford-Thompson. “Jon’s domain expertise, as well as his experience growing and managing large teams, are critical skills which BTL will greatly benefit from as we continue to expand this year.”