Intersect Announces Results of 2025 Board Elections

In a landmark election, Intersect is pleased to present the results of the 2025 Board of Directors election, with 269 unique members participating in the vote, representing 22% of all eligible members, four of the seven elected representatives were directly chosen from a pool of 20 initial candidates, a result that exceeded the required threshold of 10% and underscored the strength of member engagement.

Four newly elected members will now take their places on the Board, bringing fresh perspectives and strengthening a member-led, member-backed future for Intersect.

We’re pleased to announce that Adam Rusch, Kavinda Kariyapperuma, Mercy Fordwoo, and Rand McHenry have been elected by their peers. Their election brings meaningful change to the leadership of Intersect, with a majority of Non-Executive Directors chosen directly by our global membership, further strengthening the community’s journey to build decentralized governance at scale.

Let’s take a look at the full results:

Board Member Terms

In the 2025 election, four seats were available for election to the Board. By design, the two highest-voted candidates would receive two-year terms, while the next two would serve one-year terms.

However, re-elected Board members Adam Rusch and Kavinda Kariyapperuma, despite placing among the top two, have chosen to take the one-year seats, serving until October 2026. This decision allows newly elected members Mercy Fordwoo and Rand McHenry to take the two-year seats, which will serve until October 2027.

Meet the New Board Members

Adam Rusch - 'Intersect is essential to Cardano, but it isn’t Cardano. Our role is one of servant leadership: we elevate other organizations, prefer on-chain decision-making, and steward the Treasury according to the will of our voters. I’ll keep strengthening staff–board–member relationships and the ED search so Intersect listens better and serves the community first.'

Kavinda Kariyapperuma  - 'Through hubs, through education, through global workshops, I’ve seen firsthand how powerful this community is when it comes together. I’ve sat with students at universities in Sri Lanka, I’ve listened to developers in Africa, I’ve stood before the President of my own country to talk about the work of Intersect & decentralized governance Cardano brings to the table… and through all of this, one truth keeps coming back to me: there is no community like the Cardano community. So here’s my ask: if you believe in broadening voices, if you believe in building bridges across cultures and regions, if you believe that governance should reflect all of us, not just a few, then I’d be honored to have your vote for re-election.'

Rand McHenry - 'I’ve spent years building events and relationships-RARE Network/RARE EVO, and speaking with founders across ecosystems. Partnerships formed at events can translate into adoption, like Brave’s Cardano integration. I’ll bring planning, outreach, and execution so Intersect listens to the community and delivers visible, momentum-building growth.'

Mercy Fordwoo - '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.'

Verification

Intersect has once again contracted the DQuadrant team to certify the results of the Board election. Dquadrant is a Netherlands-based Web3 and enterprise software firm active in the Cardano ecosystem since 2017, providing QA support most recently for the Vasil and Chang hard forks, GovTools, and the Constitutional Convention voting tool.

Audit Process

Data Integrity - DQuadrant receives vote exports (in CSV & JSON formats) by position and records the corresponding cryptographic hashes.

• Schema Validation: DQuadrant ensures that each vote record for each candidate contains at least the following information: member_id, membership_type, membership_buy_date, and voting_date.
• Eligibility Checks: They verify membership status and confirm purchase dates precede the registration cutoff.
• Timing Verification: They confirm all votes fall within the authorized voting window.
• Tally & Reconciliation: They independently count valid votes by candidate and reconcile with Intersect’s internal results.

A detailed Audit Report can be found here 

What happens next

The Intersect Board now enters a one-month onboarding process, during which current and former Members work closely with those newly elected to ensure continuity in decision-making, problem-solving, and task tracking. At the end of the onboarding process, Board members will join the Intersect team at the Cardano Summit in Berlin, Germany, in November. 

Thank you to all participants

Intersect extends heartfelt thanks to the 20 candidates who put their names forward, many of whom brought energy and insight to the campaign through engaging X Spaces discussions. We also thank our members and everyone who participated in this historic election, which marks the first time that majority control of the Intersect governing board has been placed directly in the hands of the membership. This milestone marks another significant step in Cardano’s journey toward becoming the world's most decentralized blockchain, driven by ordinary people with extraordinary aspirations.