Ethereum Foundation co-executive director and board member Hsiao-Wei Wang announced on Thursday that she is leaving her role effective immediately, following a period of sabbatical.

Wang said the time away helped her reflect on her priorities and led her to conclude this is the right moment to step back.

“Serving as EF co-executive director let me see the bigger picture of how the Ethereum community collaborates. I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished, not only at the EF, but across the builders, researchers, educators, node operators, validators, users, and many other contributors who have helped build, maintain, secure, and use the infrastructure and applications on top of it,” she shared on X.

A longtime Ethereum contributor

Since joining the Ethereum Foundation in 2017, Wang has been involved in some of Ethereum’s key milestones. Her work on the Beacon Chain helped establish the network’s proof-of-stake foundation.

Wang played a key role in The Merge, which moved Ethereum away from proof-of-work and cut energy consumption by approximately 99.95%. She later contributed to both the Shapella and Dencun upgrades.

One of her most recognized contributions was authoring EIP-4844, also known as proto-danksharding. The proposal introduced blob transactions and reduced costs for layer 2 users. She also contributed to sharding research and data availability sampling, both critical to Ethereum’s scalability plans.

Wang also helped strengthen collaboration between developers and Ethereum’s global research community. She helped oversee the Ethereum Foundation Grants Program, supporting projects across the ecosystem.

An active member of the Women in Ethereum Protocol (WiEP), Wang became the first ethnic Chinese leader with a technical background to serve on the Ethereum Foundation board. In 2025, she was promoted to co-executive director, becoming the first Taiwanese contributor to rise from the Foundation’s technical ranks to its highest leadership position.

Ethereum Foundation faces mounting departures

Wang’s resignation comes amid an ongoing wave of departures from the Ethereum Foundation. At least 10 senior researchers and leaders have left the organization this year, including key figures like protocol coordinator Tim Beiko, consensus researcher Carl Beekhuizen, operations lead Josh Stark, and ecosystem organizer Trent Van Epps.

While stepping away from her executive responsibilities, Wang said she still considers herself part of Ethereum as she figures out her next steps and spends more time at home.

“Ethereum has always been bigger than any one role, any one organization, or any one moment. Its strength comes from those who keep building permissionless infrastructure across the ecosystem to unlock freedoms that didn’t exist before,” she stated. “I’m still working out what comes next, though I expect to spend more time closer to home. I remain a proud member of this community, whether contributing from inside the EF or beyond it.”