CBA CFO leaves bank for role at blockchain firm

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s chief financial officer, Rob Jesudason, has resigned and will join Block.one as group president and chief operating officer.

The bank this morning confirmed the CFO’s resignation, which is effective immediately, and the appointment of Alan Docherty as aching chief financial officer.

Docherty joined CBA in 2003 and is currently CFO, institutional banking and markets.

Block.one describes itself as a “Cayman organization employing over 200 people globally, with offices in Hong Kong, California, and Virginia”

It publishes EOS.IO, which it describes as a blockchain protocol.

The EOS.IO technical whitepaper states that the software “introduces a new blockchain architecture designed to enable vertical and horizontal scaling of decentralized applications”.

“This is achieved by creating an operating system-like construct upon which applications can be built,” the whitepaper states.

“The software provides accounts, authentication, databases, asynchronous communication, and the scheduling of applications across many of CPU cores or clusters. The resulting technology is a blockchain architecture that may ultimately scale to millions of transactions per second, eliminates user fees, and allows for quick and easy deployment and maintenance of decentralized applications, in the context of a governed blockchain.”

"Rob has a proven track record of success in global financial services, where he has been involved in industry innovation and facilitated regulatory advancement enabling the adoption of new technologies,” Block.one CEO Brendan Blumer CEO said in a statement.

“His alignment with our organizational priorities of creating compliant, high performance blockchain solutions, is an ideal fit for Block.one, and is an exciting conclusion to our thorough search for the right individual.”

 “Blockchain will have a transformative impact on most industries in the coming years and will redefine operating models by streamlining businesses, while also reducing cost and risk,” Jesudason said.

“Block.one’s technological innovation enables fast, low-cost, and scalable blockchain performance and is laying the groundwork for mass adoption of these new technologies.”

In March, CBA revealed that that group chief information officer David Whiteing, HR chief Melanie Laing and the bank’s head of institutional banking and markets, Kelly Bayer Rosmarin would leave as part of an executive shakeup ahead of Matt Comyn assuming the group CEO role last month.