Our partner Neon Labs has just appointed Ivan Bjelajac as their new CEO.

Ivan brings over two decades of leadership experience across deep tech, Web2 infrastructure, and Web3 protocol development. He’s been at the forefront of high-impact blockchain infrastructure projects like Tenderly and Polygon Edge, to launching and exiting six startups across his career.

Now, he’s joining Neon Labs to help lead the next chapter of our journey: bringing Ethereum developers and liquidity into Solana at scale, without compromise.

A Builder with Range: From Founding Startups to Scaling Protocols

Ivan’s career started in engineering, but quickly evolved into one of the most well-rounded track records in Web3. He’s worked across R&D, GTM, fundraising, and execution - and always with a focus on solving real infrastructure bottlenecks.

As VP of Strategy at Tenderly, he helped grow a platform that now supports over 100+ EVM networks, building developer tooling that touches nearly every corner of the EVM ecosystem.

Before that, he led the core development of Polygon Edge, the modular Ethereum framework that has since powered 300+ public and private network deployments. These roles gave him a unique vantage point: insight into the pain points across the EVM landscape—plus the operational experience to fix them.

Now, he’s bringing that perspective to Neon.

“The Neon ecosystem is not just a link between Ethereum and Solana; it’s the missing execution layer for crypto’s next wave of builders,” Bjelajac said. “Together with Neon Foundation and other partners, we’re building a future where developers don’t have to choose between liquidity and performance. With Neon, you get both.”

A New Chapter for Neon

Neon Labs has always focused on pushing technical boundaries. The company’s mission from day one has been to create a high-performance Ethereum execution layer within Solana - one that allows developers to deploy existing Solidity apps with zero code changes, while tapping into Solana’s parallel execution and ultra-low fees.

With Ivan stepping into the CEO role, Neon Labs is doubling down on that vision. The priorities ahead include:

• Enhancing Solana’s Internet Capital Markets vision through smart network extensions
• Integrating ZK technology to push Solana’s technical limits and unlock new composability models
• Simplifying onboarding for both Solidity and Solana-native developers
• Building public goods infrastructure that supports open standards and decentralization
• Establishing Neon as the default Ethereum experience on Solana

Ivan’s arrival marks a strategic inflection point - not just for Neon Labs, but for the broader Neon ecosystem, which is rapidly becoming foundational infrastructure for projects building across Ethereum and Solana.

A Thank You to Marina Guryeva

We also want to express deep appreciation to Marina Guryeva, Neon Labs’ co-founder and outgoing CEO. Marina helped shape Neon Labs from an idea into one of the most ambitious interoperability efforts in crypto today.

She’ll continue to support the project as a board member and advisor, and we’re incredibly thankful for her vision, leadership, and persistence in getting us to this point.

“Ivan brings a rare combination of visionary leadership and operational excellence,” said Marina. “He understands how to scale infrastructure with integrity and impact. I’m excited to support him as he takes the company to a new level.”

What’s Next?

This is just the beginning - expect more in the coming months.

If you’re building at the edge of performance and composability, we want to hear from you.

Stay tuned. We’re just getting started.