Asheesh Birla is the GM of RippleNet at Ripple, which he first joined in 2013 to lead the development of its product suite. Asheesh is an industry expert on blockchain and a frequent contributor, speaker, and advisor on blockchain and cryptocurrency. Asheesh started his career as an entrepreneur over 15 years ago in Silicon Valley, where he founded a content management company that he later sold to Thomson Reuters, becoming its VP of Global Technology in 2005. After leaving Thomson Reuters in 2010, he advised and led product design at a number of startups in Silicon Valley. Asheesh currently serves on the boards of Bitso and MoneyGram, and was featured in Fortune Magazine's The Ledger 40 under 40 in 2018.