Hsiao-Wei Wang has stepped down as co-executive director of the Ethereum Foundation, making her the latest senior figure to leave a management post at the organization over the past year. According to the foundation’s announcement, she will remain a board member and continue to take part in parts of the Ethereum ecosystem, but she will no longer handle the foundation’s day-to-day management.
Wang has been closely involved in Ethereum’s core research and protocol development for years, with major work tied to the consensus layer and Proof of Stake. The source says she took the executive director role in 2025 alongside Nethermind founder Tomasz Stańczak, with responsibilities centered on operations and organizational coordination. Her resignation quickly drew attention across the Ethereum community and developer circles.
Restructuring remains in focus
The departure comes as the Ethereum Foundation continues to adjust its internal structure. Over the past year, the organization has gone through role reshuffles, personnel rotation, and management reforms, while several core members have either changed positions or left earlier responsibilities. That pattern has kept attention fixed on how stable the foundation’s governance structure is becoming.
As Ethereum has grown, the foundation’s challenges have expanded well beyond protocol development. Community governance, resource allocation, public goods support, and ecosystem coordination now carry more weight than they did in earlier stages. The source notes that some community members have questioned decision-making transparency, the efficiency of fund use, and the design of the governance structure, prompting the foundation to reconsider its future positioning and operating model.
The foundation’s role keeps changing
Ethereum’s development model has gradually shifted away from one organization leading every major effort. A broader set of developer teams, research groups, Layer2 projects, and community organizations now share that work. Many important upgrades and infrastructure efforts are already being pushed forward by separate teams with divided responsibilities.
That has changed the foundation’s place in the ecosystem. It is moving from a direct operator toward a supporter of research, a coordinator of resources, and a backer of public goods. Earlier this year, Vitalik Buterin said the Ethereum Foundation should keep decentralizing power and resources so that more decisions and innovation can come from across the ecosystem. In that context, some observers see the latest management change as part of a larger organizational transition.
Roadmap unchanged, governance questions remain
Ethereum is still advancing work on Layer2 scaling, account abstraction, data availability improvements, and later protocol upgrades. The foundation has not said that Wang’s departure will alter the existing technical roadmap. Development work is still moving.
Even so, repeated leadership changes have pushed governance issues back into the spotlight. Some investors and developers want a clearer picture of how the future management team will preserve decision stability, and how responsibilities will be divided between the foundation and the wider ecosystem. As Ethereum continues to operate as one of the world’s largest smart contract platforms, that question remains central.