Roberto Mancona, a charismatic COO of the we.trade trading platform, is leaving the company.
Mankone, one of the co-founders of we.trade, said he was proud to head the platform, becoming a legal entity, and spread it from seven banks to 14.
However, he said that his personal vision leads to the need to “study the next steps” of what the blockchain technology can achieve, and “go ahead”.
He said:
“I have not yet seen something that would show the ultimate benefit of technology. We create solutions that are perceived as valuable by solution providers, not users. ”
During his time at the helm of the IBM-based Mankone platform, we.trade became one of the first corporate blockchain projects, surpassing all of its competitors in the field of the busy distributed trading book (DLT).
Mankone praised IBM member banks and we.trade member banks for their progress.
“I admire the courage of the banks for entering into something so innovative in a strictly regulated environment,” he said.
He also reiterated that, in his opinion, corporate blockchains are evolving and include a number of companies from intersecting industries – he drew attention to this last year when he hinted that we.trade can join forces with IBM, as well as with Maersk Tradelense and other supply chain platforms.
When all stakeholders belong to the same industry (as in the case of a group of banks, all of which are focused on receivables financing), they do not fundamentally change the business model, Mancona said, they are just trying to make things more efficient than before. .
He explained:
“For me it was the first step. I can see how this technology can change the business model, but for this you need to come from different industries, not from one industry. Thus, the end user (company or corporation) will receive remuneration, not a group of employees. ”
Mankone will be replaced by we.trade at the end of April by Siaran McGowan, who will take the position of general manager. McGowan is not a specialist in trade finance or banking, having previously held technical supply management positions at Alcon / Novartis, Retail inMotion, Pharmapod, Bank of Ireland, KBCBank, Fineos and Eontec.
