Intersect Announces First Majority-Elected Board in Governance Leap for Cardano ($ADA)

Intersect, a Cardano members organization, today welcomes its four new Board members - directly elected by Intersect members. These are Adam Rusch, Kavinda Kariyapperuma, Mercy Fordwoo, and Rand McHenry. 

This marks the first time Intesect brings a majority-member-led Board into its governance structure, meaning members now have strong representation in driving the direction and future of Intersect.

Intersect’s new majority-elected governance board marks another shift in Cardano’s evolution as the most community-controlled and decentralized blockchain among the top 10. 

12 PM (UTC) Tuesday, 30th of September: Intersect, a Cardano member-based organization, marks an important step in its growing maturity as it supports Cardano’s long-term vision and strategy through coordination and consensus building, with the announcement of its first majority-elected governance board. Elected by its members, Adam Rusch, Kavinda Kariyapperuma, Mercy Fordwoo and Rand McHenry will join current serving board members Gerard Moroney, Nikhil Roshi and Professor Steven Lupien, and lead as the inaugural majority-member Board - making a significant milestone in Intersect’s internal governance by putting members at the heart of its legal structure. The result is the culmination of a month-long process that included candidate proposals, community deliberation, and member voting.

This milestone is set to strengthen Cardano’s (marketcap $28.45B) position as a community-centric and transparent network, highlighting how every voice holds value with power being distributed, accountable, and responsibly maintained. By participating, members have helped ensure that the board reflects the diversity and priorities of the global Cardano community. 

Intersect exists to support members in coordinating and delivering on the most important challenges and opportunities facing the ecosystem and network. This has focused on five core areas: stewarding the core Cardano Haskell node, strengthening open source infrastructure, coordinating the product and ecosystem roadmaps, serving as Administrator for Treasury-funded initiatives, and helping optimize and improve both on-chain and off-chain governance processes. 

As a growing coordinating body, this result comes as Intersect increases the size of its board to seven members, with four now being elected seats. In doing so, Intersect aims to strengthen the community's voice in Cardano’s future, acting as a champion for increased participation. This structural shift marks a pivotal move for members, giving them more influence than ever before over the organization's running and direction. 

These figureheads are set to support Intersect’s executive team in upholding the organization’s mission and purpose, as well as its core commitments to transparency and accountability, while serving as the voice of Cardano’s community for the next one to two years, depending on their elected term period. 

With Mercy Fordwoo being announced as a new member on the board, she informed, “I focus on practical decentralization. Since 2018, I’ve worked to make it real on the ground - building channels to the edges of the world through WADA and allied efforts. We need patience, tangible progress, and to put resources back into communities so more voices can shape Cardano’s direction.”

With Rusch being reelected to run for the second year of his two-year seat, in his recent X space, he highlighted how “Intersect is essential to Cardano, but it isn’t Cardano. Our role [as the board] is servant leadership: elevate other organizations, prefer on-chain decision-making, and steward the Treasury according to voters’ will. I’ll keep strengthening staff–board–member relationships and the ED search so Intersect listens better and serves the community first.”

Regarding the overarching impact of this electoral process, Intersect’s Interim Executive Director, Jack Briggs, commented, “This election shows what can be achieved when a global community commits to open and transparent participation. Cardano’s strength has always come from its permissionless foundations, and Intersect’s role is to help members coordinate and build consensus around the challenges and opportunities we face together.

It’s another step toward ensuring decisions are anchored in the collective will of the community, and much less so in any single authority.”

This Board result marks the first of many amidst Intersect’s current election period,  with October seeing the Committee elections taking place as the next frontier in devolving further governance powers to ada holders. 

Starting October 1st, members can put themselves forward as candidates in the Intersect committee elections - with every seat filled directly by the community’s vote. These committees seek to identify the most significant challenges or opportunities facing Cardano, making recommendations for the ecosystem to consider on-chain and providing rigor through technical development, building budgets, safeguarding security, and shaping community growth.

Just as the Board results mark a historic milestone in Cardano’s evolution, these elections are equally critical. Intersect members must utilize their voting power again to secure Cardano’s self-governing future and protect participation. Join Intersect here, vote, and drive Cardano’s future forward.