Raja Ramachandran
Executive Management
Larkspur,CA
Summary
Accomplished Start-up CEO well-versed in assessing risk, developing solutions and implementing positive changes to achieve sustainability and growth in challenging market conditions. Adept at building and strengthening business and customer relationships.
Overview
33
33
years of professional experience
2
2
years of post-secondary education
Work History
Co-Founder, CEO
Ripe.io
San Francisco, CA
01.2017 - Current
- Raised over $6.5MM in private and institutional capital
- Pioneered first “blockchain of food” customer implementations
- Customers included Mars, JBS, Sweetgreen, Dairy Farmers of America, Aleph Farms, Gordon Foods, Meat Livestock Australia
- Generated up to $2MM in sales by year 2
- Hired and developed industry leading, multi-disciplinary staff of 20
- Consistent speaker at multiple industry conferences
- Won various awards including Forbes Best new start up (etc)
- Cited in numerous mainline and industry publications ie Forbes, AgFunder
- Engaged industry wide data standards pilot via GS1 including Walmart, IBM, Wholechain, FoodLogicIQ, Bumble Bee.
Managing Director, Product
R3
San Francisco, CA
03.2015 - 11.2016
- Created and managed first of kind distributed ledger product development for R3 bank members.
- Originated and managed global blockchain use cases on FX and fixed income securities for 42 banks on new distributed ledger platform.
- Enthusiastic early team member that marketed and secured over 42 major global financial institutions as members of R3.
Co-Founder, Partner
Balboa Maple Advisors
San Francisco, CA
01.2013 - 02.2015
- Consulting, business and financial advisory for emerging companies in Fintech and blockchain/distributed ledger technology.
Program Manager
Wells Fargo
San Francisco, CA
11.2010 - 11.2012
- Successfully implemented Dodd Frank regulations in FX Group.
- Managed program to migrate legacy FX transaction system to current web based technologies on budget, on time.
- Provide senior level implementation solutions for banking, enterprise technologies.
FX Global Strategy Manager
Silicon Valley Bank
Santa Clara, CA
04.2008 - 10.2010
- Responsible for global electronic trading initiatives and FX trading.
- Strong FX team member helping generate over $40MM in net trading revenues.
- Successfully implemented and operated new global trading platform, 360T, on time and on budget.
VP
Citi
New York, NY
05.2005 - 03.2008
- Managed algorithmic trading platform for customer benchmark FX transactions generating $80MM net trading revenues
- Managed several multi bank trading platform including Bloomberg.
- Project manager in technology group revamping and modernizing customer trading platform current web technologies.
Principal, Founder
Formation Advisors, LLC
Boston, MA
01.2003 - 04.2005
- Technology advisory, startup management, capital raise.
Co-Founder, CEO
ChooseEnergy
Newton , MA
12.1999 - 12.2002
- Start up company that provided data transaction processing and web-based customer management for energy companies preparing to transition in a deregulated environment.
- Managed technology development raised over $15MM venture capital, high level customer acquisition, partnerships, and developed team of 15 people.
- Privately sold.
Co-Founder, COO
PFN, Inc.
Boston, MA
04.1995 - 08.1999
- Created innovative product and start up on applied networking technology for proprietary content exchange for institutional financial banks to their trading partners such Salomon Brothers, Vanguard.
- Managed capital raise of $4MM, operations, customer sales, and strategic partnerships.
- Sold to Cisco.
North American Manager
Thomson Reuters
Boston , MA
08.1992 - 09.1994
- Managed $2MM P/L and product, Forex Watch for North Americas
- Managed staff, oversaw technology upgrade and focused on content quality and sales performance.
- Introduced two new content services
Foreign Exchange Trader
Bank Of America
Boston , MA
06.1987 - 08.1991
- Institutional trading of foreign exchange and currency options.
- Consistently met financial trading goals set by management.
Education
MBA - Business, Finance
Boston University
Boston, MA 09.1985 - 05.1987
Skills
Entrepreneurship: Doer-in-Chief to Company-Builder-in-Chief
Creating Purpose and Alignment
Creating and Nurturing Company Culture
Mission, Strategy and Metrics
Highly Skilled Negotiator
Innovation Passion
Accomplishments
- Successfully started, and formed products that generated multiple startups and exits.
- Lead multiple venture capital raises of over $25MM.
- Strong innovative focus leveraging technologies from early web to blockchain and Web3
- Hiring leadership team and making sure they work and grow together well.
- Created and managed multiple large partnerships with entities like Cisco, IBM, TCS, CapGemini.
- Companies won awards including Forbes 25 Most Innovative Ag-Tech Start Ups, AgFunder Most Innovative Supply Chain Startup, Rabobank Emerging Leadership in Innovation, Red Herring Top 100, FoodTech 500, The Index Project, Disruptor Daily, Business Intelligence Group.
- Cited in Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Bloomberg, BBC, Fortune, BI.
- Passionate about creating equality and opportunities for all team members.
Patents US 5,884,035 Mar 16, 1999, US 5867665 Feb 2, 1999
- Dynamic distributed group registry apparatus and method for collaboration and selective sharing of information
- Domain communications server
Timeline
Co-Founder, CEO
Ripe.io
01.2017 - Current
Managing Director, Product
R3
03.2015 - 11.2016
Co-Founder, Partner
Balboa Maple Advisors
01.2013 - 02.2015
Program Manager
Wells Fargo
11.2010 - 11.2012
FX Global Strategy Manager
Silicon Valley Bank
04.2008 - 10.2010
VP
Citi
05.2005 - 03.2008
Principal, Founder
Formation Advisors, LLC
01.2003 - 04.2005
Co-Founder, CEO
ChooseEnergy
12.1999 - 12.2002
Co-Founder, COO
PFN, Inc.
04.1995 - 08.1999
North American Manager
Thomson Reuters
08.1992 - 09.1994
Foreign Exchange Trader
Bank Of America
06.1987 - 08.1991
MBA - Business, Finance
Boston University
09.1985 - 05.1987