STO Foundation names Mark Mariampillai executive director

The STO Foundation, also known as the Tokenized Asset Foundation, has appointed Tokuti founder and CEO Mark Mariampillai as executive director. The move brings a capital-markets veteran with exchange, banking and tokenization experience into a role focused on global membership, partnerships and the responsible growth of tokenized capital markets.

Why it matters: - The STO Foundation is putting an active tokenization operator at the center of its leadership as institutional adoption of real-world asset tokenization accelerates. - Mariampillai brings more than two decades of capital-markets experience and current deal flow across tokenized assets, which may help the Foundation speak to both traditional finance and digital asset builders. - The appointment comes as industry groups compete to shape standards, education and market infrastructure for tokenized capital markets.

What happened: - The STO Foundation announced that Mark Mariampillai, founder and CEO of Tokuti, has joined the organization as executive director. - Mariampillai will lead the Foundation's strategy, global membership development, industry partnerships, buy-side initiatives, treasury protocol and programs tied to responsible growth in tokenized capital markets. - Mariampillai continues to lead Tokuti and retains commercial RWA mandates across the Middle East, the Americas and the Caribbean.

The details: - Mariampillai is a former CEO of the Gibraltar Stock Exchange blockchain division. - He also serves as Global Business Development Lead at DigiShares and Strategic Advisor at Valereum Plc. - Over the last eight years, Mariampillai has built and advised real-world asset tokenization platforms, virtual asset service providers and issuers worldwide. - His career in institutional capital markets began in 2004. - From 2004 to 2012, he held roles across Citadel, ING Bank, KBC Hedge Fund, Royal Bank of Scotland, Santander, Reuters and Northern Trust. - Those roles covered both the buy-side and sell-side, along with trading, market infrastructure, operating models, data, financial technology, business analysis and project management. - From 2012 to 2022, he held senior roles at Credit Suisse and HSBC. - At those banks, he led large-scale change programs in regulatory compliance, digital transformation and the implementation of blockchain and distributed ledger solutions. - At the Gibraltar Stock Exchange, Mariampillai built the group's digital financial market infrastructure and led GATENet, which supported compliant issuance and trading of digital securities across multiple asset classes, blockchain networks and marketplaces. - The release describes GATENet as one of the earliest attempts to bring tokenized securities inside a regulated exchange perimeter. - Mariampillai is a frequent keynote speaker, panelist and moderator in the tokenization sector. - In June 2026, he delivered a keynote on Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands at Fintech on the Seas, a digital assets conference curated by BVI Finance under the patronage of the Government of the Virgin Islands (British). - At that event, he outlined a three-pillar digital asset strategy for the territory covering tokenized property deeds, cultural assets as real-world assets and a sovereign digital asset treasury. - Tokuti is an ecosystem partner of BVI Finance, and Mariampillai has maintained ties to the territory since 2006. - Mariampillai's stated areas of expertise include real-world asset tokenization, digital securities, capital-markets infrastructure, buy-side and sell-side engagement, blockchain-based issuance, clearing and settlement, regulatory-aware digital asset strategy, cultural asset tokenization, issuer structuring, investor access, market liquidity, compliant distribution, MENA, Gulf, Caribbean and Latin American market development, and public speaking. - The STO Foundation, also known as the Tokenized Asset Foundation, is a global membership and industry organization focused on advancing real-world asset tokenization, digital securities and tokenized capital markets. - The Foundation's work includes education, collaboration, networking, ecosystem development, market intelligence and professional networking. - The Foundation connects issuers, investors, financial institutions, asset managers, technology companies, legal and compliance professionals, broker-dealers, custodians, transfer agents, exchanges and other market participants. - The Foundation's website is stofdn.com. - Tokuti, founded in 2018, is a digital assets and real-world asset tokenization consultancy registered at Innovation City, RAK DAO, in the United Arab Emirates. - Tokuti works with institutions, governments, exchanges and issuers from strategy through structuring, regulatory positioning and market entry. - Tokuti is also pushing cultural asset tokenization across sports, music and entertainment. - Tokuti is an ecosystem partner of BVI Finance. - The release includes a contact for Randy Goldberg at the STO Foundation and lists the Foundation's social accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube and X.

Between the lines: - The Foundation is signaling a more market-facing posture by choosing a leader who is still active in live transactions, not just policy or advocacy. - Mariampillai's mix of exchange, banking and tokenization work suggests the Foundation wants to bridge regulatory credibility and practical execution. - The emphasis on buy-side initiatives, membership growth and market development points to a push beyond education into ecosystem coordination.

What's next: - Mariampillai is expected to lead the Foundation's next phase of global outreach, partnerships and member engagement. - The Foundation says it will use his leadership to strengthen its role as a platform for education, collaboration, professional standards, buy-side engagement and market development. - The broader test will be whether the Foundation can translate tokenization interest into deeper institutional participation and more regulated market activity.