WEN Acquisition Corp

Julian M Sevillano has served as our Chief Executive Officer and Chairman since inception. Mr. Sevillano has worked in the digital assets industry for several years. Most recently, from March 2022 to September 2024, Mr. Sevillano served as a Partner and Global lead of McKinsey & Company’s digital assets advisory. Prior to McKinsey, from September 2018 to February 2021, Mr. Sevillano served as Managing Director and founder of IBM Promontory’s digital assets advisory services, and Head of Fintech and West Coast Advisory Services. Mr. Sevillano has worked with many large traditional financial institutions, digital asset native firms, and regulatory agencies, including the Wyoming Division of banking, among others, on a range of strategy, go to market, licensing, risk and compliance, partnership and policy initiatives. Mr. Sevillano led several groundbreaking engagements, including helping Anchorage Digital obtain the first national trust license from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for a digital assets’ custodian, and drafting Wyoming’s division of banking first of a kind rules and supervisory guidance for digital assets banking and payments activities. Prior to his time as a consultant, Julian held several leadership positions over a 15-year career at Visa in risk, finance, strategy, corporate development, and in Visa’s IPO readiness team. He was at Visa from 1999 to 2015 and his last role was Global Head of Enterprise Risk, which included leading due diligence for all of Visa’s acquisitions and investments, and reporting to the Chief Risk Officer and to Visa’s Audit and Risk Committee of the Board. Mr. Sevillano started his career at American Express Bank from 1994 to 1998 in corporate and private banking based in Miami, Florida and Santiago, Chile. We believe that Mr. Sevillano’s extensive industry experience in payments, financial services and digital assets, and deep expertise in strategy, financial and risk management qualified him to serve as the chairman of our board of directors.

Jurgen van de Vyver has served as our Chief Financial Officer since inception. He has been a Partner at Launchpad Capital since May 2021, where he co-leads early-stage fintech investments and manages the firm’s finance and business operations. He is currently Chief Financial Officer of Launch One Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: LPAA), a blank check company that raised $230.0 million in its initial public offering in July 2024 and is currently searching for a business combination target in the healthcare or healthcare related industries and, in particular, life sciences. He is also currently Chief Financial Officer of Launch Two Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: LPBB), a blank check company that raised $230.0 million in its initial public offering in October 2024 and is currently searching for a business combination target among technology and software infrastructure companies whose products and services target financial services, real estate and asset management companies. He served as the Chief Financial Officer of Newcourt Acquisition Corp (Nasdaq: NCAC) from June 2023 until January 2024, overseeing NCAC’s merger with Psyence Biomedical (Nasdaq: PBM). Mr. van de Vyver was the head of finance and operations at Propel Venture Partners, a venture capital fund backed by BBVA Group, from 2017 to 2021. Mr. van de Vyver also served as a consultant from 2015 to 2017 for CrossCountry Consulting, where his clients included Lending Club (NYSE: LC), Danaher (NYSE: DHR) and Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corp (NYSE: VAC).

Josh Fried will serve as an independent director and Co-Vice Chairman of the board of directors immediately upon the commencement of trading of our securities on Nasdaq. Mr. Fried has nearly 25 years of technology, media and product experience as an executive, general manager and investor.

Mr. Fried currently leads the Solana Foundation’s growth effort focused on commerce, loyalty, merchant payments and ticketing, a post he has held since January 2023. The Solana Foundation is a non-profit foundation based in Zug, Switzerland, dedicated to the decentralization, adoption, and security of the Solana blockchain ecosystem. Prior to this role, from July 2021 to January 2023, Mr. Fried held a business development role at Solana Labs, a commercial entity based in San Francisco which builds products, tools and reference implementations on the Solana blockchain.

At Solana Labs, he co-led the launch of the Solana Pay protocol, an open-source framework for merchant payments using stablecoins. During his decade-long tenure at Google, from 2011 to 2021, Mr. Fried led the launch and growth of Waze Carpool across all 50 U.S. states, Israel, Brazil and Mexico, and led a Google Shopping business development team focused on brands and manufacturers. From 2007 to 2011, Mr. Fried built and managed digital properties for NBCUniversal (acquired by Comcast), including several leading destination websites. Mr. Fried’s career began on the content side of the media business, holding editorial and production jobs at STANFORD magazine from 2001 to 2004. He also worked for CNN (2000), the San Francisco Giants baseball club (2005), and Time Inc.’s Sports Illustrated magazine (2006). Mr. Fried earned a BA in Comparative Literature from Stanford in 2001 and an MBA from the Yale School of Management in 2007. We believe that Mr. Fried’s experience in the blockchain and consumer internet sector qualifies him to be a member of our board of directors.

Sheraz Shere will serve as an independent director and Co-Vice Chairman of the board of directors immediately upon the commencement of trading of our securities on Nasdaq. Mr. Shere has over 25 years of financial services and technology experience as a founder, executive and investor. Mr. Shere is the General Manager of the Payments vertical at the Solana Foundation, a role he has held since January2023. Prior to his role at the Solana Foundation, from July 2021 to January 2023, Mr. Shere held a leadership role at Solana Labs, a commercial entity based in San Francisco which builds products, tools and reference implementations that can be used on the Solana blockchain. At Solana Labs, Mr. Shere led the launch of the Solana Pay protocol, an open source framework for merchant payments using stablecoins. Prior to his work in the Solana ecosystem, from July 2018 to June 2021, Mr. Shere worked at Google, where he led an AI services team in the Google Cloud division, focused on digital transformation for Fortune 50 companies; Mr. Shere led large teams of technology professionals working with the largest telecom companies in the world to transform their contact centers with AI In 2014, Mr. Shere co-founded a fintech data company, Commerce Signals, and served as its COO, leading the product, go-to-market and sales functions. Commerce Signals was acquired by Verisk (NASDAQ: VRSK) in December of 2019. Prior to founding Commerce Signals, from 2008 to 2014, Mr. Shere worked at Google, where he led all of sales and business development for the Google Checkout product. From there, he joined the founding team of Google Pay and led the merchant business development efforts to enable the launch of an Android based mobile payments ecosystem in the U.S.

Drew Glover will serve as an independent director immediately upon the commencement of trading of our securities on Nasdaq. Mr. Glover brings over 15 years of experience at the intersection of financial services, technology, and venture capital as a founder, executive, and operator. Mr. Glover is currently the General Partner at Fiat Ventures, a venture capital firm he co-founded in August 2021, dedicated to supporting early-stage companies in fintech and adjacent sectors. Mr. Glover is also a Co-Founder of Fiat Growth, a performance marketing and consulting agency launched in January 2019, helping mission-driven companies such as Chime, Lemonade and Copper Banking achieve scalable growth and build consumer-focused financial products. Mr. Glover also serves on the Board of the David E. Glover Emerging Technology Center, a nonprofit focused on advancing technology equity and inclusion. Previously, Mr. Glover was a board member of the Tennis Coalition SF, where he contributed to efforts promoting community access to sports and recreation. Mr. Glover has held key roles in technology and growth-focused organizations. At Steady IQ, from 2016 to 2018, Mr. Glover served as VP of Marketplace, overseeing growth for the financial empowerment platform. During his tenures at Namely, from 2014 to 2016, and Accenture (NYSE: ACN), from 2012 to 2013, he led business development and sales efforts, helping businesses optimize their workforce solutions. Earlier in his career, Mr. Glover was Head of Business Development at Portal A, where he drove strategic partnerships in digital media, and a Social Advocacy Campaign Manager at PolicyLink, where he worked on technology equity initiatives. Mr. Glover holds a BA and MA in Political Science and American Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. We believe that Mr. Glover’s extensive expertise in venture capital, fintech, and growth marketing, along with his leadership on nonprofit boards, makes him an invaluable addition to our board of directors.

Ryan Gilbert, one of our advisors, is currently the General Partner of Launchpad Capital, a financial services focused venture capital firm that he founded in 2020, and a senior advisor to Castle Creek Capital. Mr. Gilbert is also the chairman of the board of Launch One Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: LPAA), a blank check company that raised $230.0 million in its initial public offering in July 2024 and is currently searching for a business combination target in the healthcare or healthcare related industries and, in particular, life sciences, and an advisor to Launch Two Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: LPBB), a blank check company which raised $230.0 million in its initial public offering in October 2024 and is currently searching for a business combination target among technology and software infrastructure companies whose products and services target financial services, real estate and asset management companies. Mr. Gilbert has over 25 years of global financial services and technology expertise as an entrepreneur, investor and advisor. His public company exits include Eventbrite and Square. Mr. Gilbert has extensive SPAC experience as a Board member, executive and investor. He served as President, Chief Executive and a director of FTAC Olympus Acquisition Corp. until its business combination with Payoneer Inc. (Nasdaq: PAYO) in June 2021. He was also an advisor to the sponsor of each of Phoenix Biotech Acquisition Corp., which completed its business combination with CERo Therapeutics (Nasdaq: CERO) in February 2024, Newcourt Acquisition Corp., which completed its business combination with Psyence Biomedical (Nasdaq: PBM) in January 2024, and Locust Walk Acquisition Corp, which completed its business combination with eFFECTOR Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: EFTR) in August 2021. From 2016 to 2021, Mr. Gilbert was a General Partner of Propel Venture Partners Fund 1, a venture capital fund backed by BBVA Group, and currently serves on the board of directors of Guideline, Inc. As entrepreneur-in-residence at venture capital firm Venrock, Mr. Gilbert co-founded BillFloat Inc. (dba SmartBiz Loans), a small business lending marketplace, and served as the Chief Executive Officer from 2009 to 2016, and executive chairman from 2016 to 2022. Since 2008, Mr. Gilbert has been an independent director of River City Bank, a community bank based in Sacramento, CA. He co-founded and served as Chief Executive Officer of real estate payments company PropertyBridge from 2003 to 2007 when it was acquired by MoneyGram International. Mr. Gilbert graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, and is an inactive member of the State Bar of California.

Shami Patel, one of our advisors, is currently a Managing Director at Launchpad Capital. He has over 25 years of global experience in financial services and capital markets as an executive, board member and investor. Mr. Patel is also an advisor to each of Launch One Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: LPAA), a blank check company which raised $230.0 million in its initial public offering in July 2024 and is currently searching for a business combination target in the healthcare or healthcare related industries and, in particular, life sciences, and Launch Two Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: LPBB), a blank check company which raised $230.0 million in its initial public offering in October 2024 and is currently searching for a business combination target among technology and software infrastructure companies whose products and services target financial services, real estate and asset management companies. His SPAC experience includes being the Chief Operating Officer of FTAC Olympus Acquisition Corp. which completed its business combination with Payoneer Inc. (NASDAQ: PAYO) in February 2021, an advisor to Phoenix Biotech Acquisition Corp., which completed its business combination with CERo Therapeutics Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: CERO) in February 2024, an advisor to Newcourt Acquisition Corp. which completed its business combination with Psyence Biomedical Ltd. (NASDAQ: PBM) in January 2024, and an advisor to Locust Walk Acquisition Corp, which completed its business combination with eFFECTOR Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: EFTR) in August 2021. Mr. Patel was also active in origination, due diligence and execution of SPACs as a director of FinTech I, which completed its business combination with CardConnect LLC (NASDAQ: CCN) in August 2016, and FinTech II, which completed its business combination with Intermex Holdings II, Inc. in July 2018., with the post-business combination company being renamed International Money Express, Inc. (NASDAQ: IMXI); In addition, Mr. Patel served as a board observer of International Money Express, Inc. following its business combination, until March 2020. He also served as an advisor to FinTech III, which completed its business combination with Paya Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: PAYA) in October 2020, and FinTech IV, which completed its business combination with Perella Weinberg Partners (NASDAQ: PWP) in June 2021. From 2015 to 2025, Mr. Patel was a managing director at Cohen Circle, LLC. Aside from his experience with SPACs, from 2010 to 2015, Mr. Patel served as the Vice Chairman of the board of directors and Chair of the compliance committee of Golden Pacific Bancorp, Inc., which was acquired by SoFi Technologies (NASDAQ: SOFI) in February 2022. From 2012 to 2014, he served as a venture partner at Clean Pacific Ventures Management, LLC, a venture capital firm specializing in early stage investments. Mr. Patel was also a partner at, and served on the executive committee of, Hexagon Securities, LLC, a credit focused investment bank and securities firm from 2010 to 2012. From 2001 to August 2009, he served as Managing Director and Senior Partner at Cohen & Company, helping to launch Alesco Financial, Inc. (NYSE: AFN), where he served as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Investment Officer from 2006 to 2009. From 1999 to 2000, he served as Chief Financial Officer for TRM Corporation (NASDAQ: TRMM), a consumer and financial services company. In 2000, Mr. Patel co-founded iATMglobal.net, a middleware software business where he served as Chief Executive Officer and which was sold to NCR Corporation in 2001. Mr. Patel also served on the Board of Visitors of Duke University School of Law from 2011 to 2023 and where he was a Senior Lecturing Fellow. Mr. Patel received a Juris Doctor with honors and Master of Business Administration from Duke University and Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Economics from Trinity University.