I did some research on the entirety of Ripple's board members and compiled in list form their employment history, accolades/awards, and other board relationships. I know most of this info is on Rippple's Board site, but having it in list form is sometimes easier for me to read and process.
I put this together for my own research, hoping this will be helpful to others. Seeing the many accomplishments and powerful connections Ripple's board has made me even more confident of my investment in XRP. To me, XRP is an investment in people, not just a currency or a technology. If I can trust the people running the show, it gives me more faith in XRP's future.
Most interesting person to research was Susan Athey. She is also on the Board at Expedia.com, who owns HomeAway, an AirBNB competitor. I know people have been guessing what those two household names are, and I've seen AirBNB including in the discussion. If people are speculating that AirBNB is one of the names, I think it makes sense that a competitor like HomeAway/Expedia should be considered as well. But this is just pure speculation.
If you're interested, Susan Athey also held a Quora session back in Jan 2016. She answered a couple questions on the future of Bitcoin and Ripple.
Anyways, here's the list:
Gene Sperling
*President, Sperling Economic Strategies (Present)
*Director of the National Economic Council (2011-2014)
*Counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner (2009-2011)
*Chief Economic Adviser for Hillary Clinton's 2008 Presidential Campaign
*Director of the National Economic Council for the Clinton Administration (1996-2001)
*Deputy Director of the National Economic Council for the Clinton Administration (1993-1996)
Founder and Director of the Center for Universal Education at the Council on Foreign Relations and the Brookings Institution.
Named one of the 100 Most Powerful People in Finance worldwide in 2013 by Worth Magazine.
Named one of the 50 Most Powerful People in Washington by GQ in 2012.
Takashi Okita
*CEO, SBI Ripple Asia (2016-Present)
*Co-founder and CEO, econtext Asia, leading provider of online payment services and e-Commerce solutions (2012-2015)
*Co-CEO, SBI Research Co.,Ltd (2009-2015)
*Co-founder and CEO, VeriTrans, leading online payment solution provider in Japan (2005-2015)
Non Executive Director of SOFTBRAIN Co,.Ltd. (2014-2017)
Non Executive Director of Clara Online, Inc. (2015-2017)
Council member for the Financial Agency of Japan (2014-2015)
Named one of the “100 People to Change Japan” in 2014 by Nikkei Business
Anja Manuel
*Co-founder and Managing Partner, RiceHadleyGates LLC (2009-Present)
*Lecturer and Fellow, CISAC, Stanford University (2009-Present)
*Counsel, WilmerHale (2007-2009)
*Special Assistant to the Under Secretary for Political Affairs, Nicholas Burns, U.S. Department of State (2006-2007)
*Associate, WilmerHale (2001-2005)
*Investment Banker, Salomon Brothers International (1996-1997)
Board member:
Overseas Shipping Group, Inc.
Flexport Inc.
Center for a New American Security
The Crown Prince of Bahrain
The American Ditchley Foundation
Governor Brown’s California Export Council
Benjamin Lawsky
*CEO, The Lawsky Group (2015-Present)
*Superintendent of Financial Services, Department of Financial Services, New York (2011-2015)
*Chief of Staff for Governor Andrew Cuomo, New York (2011)
*Special Assistant to the Attorney General (2007-2010)
*Assistant United States Attorney, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York (2001-2006)
*Chief Counsel to Senator Charles Schumer, US Senate Judiciary Committee (1999-2001)
*Trial Attorney, US Department of Justice (1997-1999)
Ken Kurson
*Senior Managing Director, Teneo Strategy (2017-Present)
*Editor in Chief, Observer Media (2013-2017)
*Columnist, Esquire Magazine (1996-2016)
*Executive VP, Jamestown Associates (2008-2012)
*COO, Rudy Giuliani Presidential Committee (2006-2008)
*Deputy Communications Director , Giuliani Partners (2002-2006)
*Editor at Large, Money Magazine (2000-2002)
*Guest Analyst, CNN (1995-2000)
*Editor of GreenMagazine.com, Bankrate, Inc. (1998-2000)
*Staff Writer, Worth Magazine (1995-1997)
*Associate Editor, United Media (1995-1996)
Named 2014's Journalist of the Year by Algemeiner magazine.
Brad Garlinghouse
*CEO, Ripple (2017-Present)
*President and COO, Ripple (2015-2016)
*CEO and Chairman, Hightail, formerly YouSendIt (2012-2014)
*President, Applications and Commerce, AOL (2009-2011)
*Sr. Adviser, SilverLake Partners (2009)
*SVP Communications, Yahoo (2003-2008)
*CEO, Dialpad Communications (2000-2001)
*General Partner, @Ventures (1999-2000)
*Bus Dev, @Home Network (1997-1999)
Board Member:
Ancestry.com (2013-2016)
Tonic Health (2011-2016)
Animoto (2012-Present)
Zoe Cruz
*Senior Advisor, Promontory Financial Group, LLC (2016-Present)
*Independent Non-Executive Director, Old Mutual (2014-Present)
*Founder and CEO, EOZ Global (2013-Present)
*Founder and CEO, Voras Capital Management LP (2009-2012)
*Co-President, Morgan Stanley (1982-2007)
On Forbes' Most Powerful Women list for three years, 2005 (#16), 2006 (#10) and 2007 (#34).
Susan Athey
*Professor, Stanford Graduate School of Business (2013-Present)
*Professor, Harvard (2006-2012)
*Professor, Stanford University (2001-2006)
Member, Board of Directors at Expedia, Inc. (2015-Present)
Advisor, Nyca Partners (2014-Present)
Consulting Economist, Microsoft (2007-Present)
Advisor, XSeed Captial (2014)
Member, President's Committee for the National Medal of Science (2011)
Executive Committee Member, American Economics Association (2008-2010)
Numerous accolades, including:
John Bates Clark Medal (2007)
Elaine Bennett Research Prize (2000)
Elected to National Academy of Science (2012)
Chris Larsen
*CEO and Co-Founder, Ripple (2012-Present)
*CEO and Co-Founder, Prosper.com (2005-2012)
*CEO and Co-Founder, E-LOAN (1992-2005)
Advisor, Distilled Analytics, Inc. (2016)
Links used:
https://ripple.com/ripple_press/form...-of-directors/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Sperling
http://www.econtext.asia/
https://www.bloomberg.com/research/s...vcapId=7713659
https://www.linkedin.com/in/takashi-okita-ba03822b/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/anja-manuel-26805023/
http://anjamanuel.com/anjamanuelbio/
http://ricehadleygates.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Lawsky
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-lawsky-6aa97014/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ken-kurson-919a7a8/
http://www.teneoholdings.com/leaders/ken_kurson
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradgarlinghouse/
https://ripple.com/company/board-of-directors/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoecruz/
https://ripple.com/insights/zoe-cruz...ard-directors/
https://www.oldmutualplc.com/people/zoe-cruz.jsp
https://www.forbes.com/lists/2007/11...en_Rank_2.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbes...Powerful_Women
https://www.forbes.com/lists/2005/11/Name_2.html
http://www.expediainc.com/about/leadership/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanathey/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Athey
https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-larsen-7721772/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Larsen
Compare this with any other team in the blockchain space.