Brad Garlinghouse

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Bradley Kent Garlinghouse, born February 6, 1971, in Topeka, Kansas, is an American businessman and the CEO of Ripple Labs, a fintech company working with blockchain and cryptocurrency. He has a BA in economics from the University of Kansas and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Garlinghouse has held several leadership roles. He was CEO of Dialpad from 2000 to 2001, and later served as Senior Vice President at Yahoo (2003–2008) where he oversaw the Homepage, Flickr, Yahoo Mail, and Yahoo Messenger. He wrote the “Peanut Butter Manifesto,” urging Yahoo to focus on its core business. He was President of Consumer Applications at AOL from 2009 to 2011, and led Hightail (formerly YouSendIt) as CEO and chairman until 2014. He joined Animoto’s board in 2012.

Garlinghouse joined Ripple as Chief Operating Officer in April 2015 and was promoted to CEO in December 2016. Under his leadership, Ripple raised about $200 million in a December 2019 Series C round. He has said Ripple would lose money without revenue from XRP sales.

Regulatory matters have been part of his public story. In December 2020, the SEC filed a complaint against Garlinghouse, Ripple, and co-founder Chris Larsen. Garlinghouse criticized the SEC’s lack of clarity about its jurisdiction. In July 2023, a judge ruled that Ripple’s XRP offering was not a security, allowing its relisting on exchanges. In November 2023, the SEC dropped all claims against Garlinghouse and Larsen. The crypto regulatory environment has continued to influence politics and policy discussions, including during the 2024 presidential election.