Copper Appoints Mike Kuehnel as Chairman and John Meserve as Non-Executive Director

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 14, 2026--

Copper Technologies (“Copper”), a leading digital asset infrastructure provider, today announced a series of board changes to support the company’s next phase of institutional growth and its strategic global expansion. These appointments further strengthen Copper’s governance as the company advances its regulatory engagement and institutional presence in the United States, where it is pursuing regulated status.

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Mike Kuehnel has been appointed Chairman, succeeding Lord Hammond; in addition, John Meserve has joined the Board as a Non-Executive Director, succeeding Jim Turley.

Lord Hammond said, “ It has been a privilege to lead Copper as Chair for the last three years during its transition from an early-stage fintech to a trusted provider of market infrastructure to institutional participants in digital asset markets. The company is now ready to pursue substantial opportunities emerging in the US. I am delighted to be handing over to a Chair of Mike Kuehnel’s caliber, whose expertise across digital assets and financial market infrastructure will be highly valuable to Copper as it enters its next phase of growth.”

Jim Turley, outgoing chair of the Audit, Risk, and Compliance Committee, added, “I am proud of the resilient and robust controls that we have implemented at Copper over the last three years, setting standards for the institutional custody and collateral mobility of blockchain-based assets. I am also happy that Copper will continue to build on this strong foundation with John Meserve’s leadership of the ARC Committee.”

Strengthening leadership to support institutional growth in the US

Mike Kuehnel brings extensive leadership experience across global financial markets, strategy, and technology. He previously served as Chief Executive Officer of Flow Traders, one of the world’s leading publicly listed electronic liquidity providers, and held senior roles at Bain & Company and Goldman Sachs.

He stepped down from Flow Traders to focus on the transformative role of artificial intelligence in reshaping financial markets and market infrastructure, particularly in advancing innovation, efficiency, and the future architecture of institutional financial markets. As a longstanding advocate of digital assets and the technological evolution of financial market infrastructure, he has built deep relationships across the US institutional ecosystem, including with leading market participants, regulators, and investors.

Kuehnel added:

“Copper has established itself internationally as a trusted provider of secure and efficient digital asset infrastructure for institutional clients. As market structure continues to evolve, there is a significant opportunity to build on that position in the United States. I look forward to working closely with the Board and management team to support Copper’s next phase of institutional growth and further broaden its presence in this market.”

Meserve joins the Board with more than four decades of experience in banking infrastructure, corporate trust and custody, including senior leadership roles at The Bank of New York. Based in the United States, he will support Copper’s engagement with regulators, investors, and institutional clients, while helping to strengthen key governance pillars including audit, risk, and compliance.

Meserve added:

“As institutional adoption gathers pace, the focus must be on building resilient, scalable market infrastructure that institutions can rely on. Copper has taken a disciplined approach to building institutional-grade infrastructure and I look forward to supporting its continued expansion in the US.”

Amar Kuchinad, Chief Executive Officer of Copper, said:

“I want to thank Philip and Jim for their contributions over the last three years to make Copper the industry benchmark in blockchain-based collateral mobility solutions. Personally, I am deeply appreciative for their advice and insights over the past year and a half since I joined Copper. While I will miss their involvement in the leadership of the company, I am happy that they will remain as stakeholders in Copper’s success.

I am also excited to welcome Mike and John to Copper. Their appointments reflect a deliberate move to align Copper’s governance and leadership with the opportunities we see ahead. Institutional adoption of blockchain and digital assets is moving from exploration to implementation, and the US is becoming the defining jurisdiction for that shift. Mike’s knowledge of global markets across asset classes, experience leading a major publicly listed electronic liquidity provider, strong connectivity on Wall Street, and conviction in the long-term role of blockchain infrastructure will be instrumental in supporting our next phase of growth. John's experience at BNY and relationships with many traditional financial market infrastructure providers will also be invaluable to Copper as we continue to develop products and services that provide our institutional clients and partners with seamless access to the fragmented landscape of blockchain-based assets and protocols.”

Mike Kuehnel, Chairman, Copper

ARLINGTON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 14, 2026--

To help secure the backbone of U.S. energy and defense, Accenture Federal Services will lead a high-velocity engineering and integration sprint to deliver an early capability for the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Genesis Mission. This sprint will focus on advancing the Critical Mineral and Materials to Unlock Supply (CM2US) initiative, which is led by DOE’s National Laboratories in partnership with Accenture.

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In a powerful alliance with all U.S. Department of Energy National Laboratories and commercial leaders like Databricks Federal, Accenture Federal Services is building a scalable digital infrastructure to accelerate the delivery of the American Science and Security Platform.

This early capability will operationalize AI-powered workflows together with DOE mission data for the Genesis Mission’s Critical Mineral Supply Challenges, allowing CM2US scientists and engineers to collaborate on real-world data and research challenges – using advanced technologies – as soon as early summer to secure the nation’s most vital supply chains.

“The Genesis Mission is a generational opportunity that demands bold action and Accenture Federal Services is well-positioned to deliver it,” said Ron Ash, CEO of Accenture Federal Services. “Together with our partners, we are rapidly turning vision into reality—standing up a live, secure, AI‑ready environment where researchers can detect risks, model scenarios, and strengthen America’s critical mineral supply chain with unprecedented velocity. When world‑class science becomes real‑world mission advantage at speed and scale, the nation wins.”

“Databricks Federal is proud to support the Genesis Mission and the Department of Energy’s goal to double the pace of American scientific discovery,” said Rory Patterson, Chairman of the Board of Databricks Federal. “As a company founded by researchers, we understand that breakthroughs require more than just compute—they require an open, unified data and AI platform. By bringing data engineering, analytics, and AI into a single governed environment, we are helping the DOE National Laboratories turn massive datasets into mission-critical insights at the speed of innovation.”

“We are laying the groundwork for a scalable solution that will power scientists across the U.S. to deliver insights and outcomes at a pace that I never thought possible. What we have been able to achieve in weeks is something that I didn’t think possible in years—until now,” said Frank Alexander, Senior AI Scientist at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory.

This rapid progress reflects the power of a unified ecosystem of DOE’s National Labs together with top commercial innovators collaborating to build a common platform that advances the Genesis Mission challenge at mission scale to meet the program’s ambitious timelines.

“Energy security starts with visibility, speed and strategic partners,” said Angie Sheffield, Director of AI Strategy for Energy at Accenture Federal Services. “By empowering researchers to connect DOE's world-class instruments and peerless scientific datasets with commercial AI technologies in an integrated platform, CM2US moves beyond automation to intelligence – so we can discover, decide, and deliver faster on a supply chain that powers American industry.”

These efforts mark a decisive step toward delivering the Genesis Mission’s Initial Operating Capability and securing America’s critical mineral future, bringing a new model for American scientific leadership and energy security closer to reality.

About Accenture Federal Services

Accenture Federal Services is a US subsidiary of Accenture LLP that government agencies choose to drive impactful change. Our 15,000 people are committed to powering reinvention for the federal government with the same commercial technology, competitive drive and technical edge that is transforming global industry—ensuring that federal enterprises can be as modern, fast, and efficient as the country it serves. See how we reinvent at www.accenturefederal.com.

About Accenture

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) is a leading solutions and services company that helps the world’s leading enterprises reinvent by building their digital core and unleashing the power of AI to create value at speed across the enterprise, bringing together the talent of our approximately 786,000 people, our proprietary assets and platforms, and deep ecosystem relationships. Our strategy is to be the reinvention partner of choice for our clients and to be the most client-focused, AI-enabled, great place to work in the world. Through our Reinvention Services we bring together our capabilities across strategy, consulting, technology, operations, Song and Industry X with our deep industry expertise to create and deliver solutions and services for our clients. Our purpose is to deliver on the promise of technology and human ingenuity, and we measure our success by the 360° value we create for all our stakeholders. Visit us at accenture.com.

Accenture Federal Services to Deliver Early Operating Capability for DOE’s Genesis Mission CM2US