The Zcash Foundation has appointed longtime security executive and Zcash contributor David Campbell as its new Executive Director. Campbell succeeds Alex Bornstein as the organization responsible for Zebra development, infrastructure work and several community and governance initiatives within the broader Zcash ecosystem.
According to the Foundation’s October 20 announcement, Bornstein will remain with the organization in a transition role through the end of January 2027. The extended handoff is designed to preserve operational continuity rather than create an abrupt leadership change, with Campbell taking responsibility for a team he has already worked alongside as a technical consultant for roughly two years.
Bornstein had served as interim Executive Director beginning in March 2025 before receiving the permanent appointment effective November 1 that year. His tenure followed almost four years as the Foundation’s Chief Operating Officer, giving the organization continuity during an important period of technical and governance change.
Campbell Brings Security and Zcash Experience
Campbell arrives with nearly three decades of experience building and securing technology systems. His previous roles include founding security firm Electric Alchemy, co-founding JumpCloud as its first CEO and serving as Chief Security Officer at SendGrid through the company’s IPO, giving the Foundation a leader with an extensive infrastructure-security background.
His relationship with Zcash also predates the appointment by several years. Campbell entered the ecosystem in 2018 as an adviser to the company that became Electric Coin Company and later spent four years as its Chief Operating Officer, before moving into technical consulting work with the Zcash Foundation.
That background is increasingly relevant as responsibility for Zcash infrastructure becomes more distributed across independent development teams. Campbell has identified Zebra performance, security and reliability among his immediate priorities, alongside making privacy-oriented technology easier for ordinary users to access.
Zebra is the Foundation’s Rust implementation of a Zcash full node and has become an increasingly important component of the network’s infrastructure. Its development continues alongside broader technical work such as proposals to improve Zcash transaction fees, meaning the Executive Director oversees an organization involved in protocol infrastructure without unilaterally controlling Zcash development.
Leadership Change Comes During Broader Coordination
The appointment also arrives during an active period for Zcash governance. Earlier this year, the Foundation expanded the Zcash Community Advisory Panel ahead of community polling and grant-related activity. ZCAP remains an advisory mechanism rather than a governing body with unilateral protocol authority, reflecting the ecosystem’s increasingly distributed approach to decision-making.
That coordination will be visible again at Zcon7, scheduled for October 27-29 in Cancún. The recently published Zcon7 technical and governance program brings developers, researchers and community participants together around privacy technology, protocol development and governance questions. Campbell therefore takes the role immediately before one of the Foundation’s primary ecosystem coordination events of the year.
Bornstein’s continued involvement through January provides several months for institutional knowledge and responsibilities to transfer. The Foundation has framed the appointment around continuity and security expertise rather than a change in organizational mandate, with Campbell inheriting existing engineering, infrastructure and community programs.
The leadership change therefore does not signal a restructuring of Zcash governance or development authority. It changes who leads one of the ecosystem’s major institutions while leaving Zcash’s multi-organization development model intact, with Campbell’s first measurable responsibilities centered on the reliability of Zebra, Foundation infrastructure and coordination across teams.