Helena Tholander (Heli), as the head of ecosystem growth at the Solana Foundation, continues to lead Solana's global expansion in 2025, showcasing her strong belief in the future of the ecosystem through leading developer expansion and deepening strategic collaborations.

Tholander is a seasoned builder bridging the traditional technology and crypto worlds. Her career began as a product manager at Google, where she gained a deep understanding of the global technology ecosystem's logic, and then transitioned into the blockchain space, focusing on the promotion of decentralized applications. Since joining the Solana Foundation in 2020, she has led the ecosystem team, establishing it as the core engine for ecosystem growth and becoming one of the few successful female leaders to bridge both domains.

In driving ecosystem development, Tholander clearly states: "Solana's high performance and low fees will define the next generation of decentralized infrastructure." She believes that as the market's demand for blockchain practicality increases, scalable smart contract platforms are approaching a critical opportunity. This judgment is based on her long-term interactions with the global community, having previously nurtured early ecosystem foundations through hackathons and educational programs.

Her strategy has been concretely implemented: the team she leads supports hundreds of developer projects and startups globally; organizes key events such as the annual Solana Breakpoint to enhance community engagement and innovation exposure; and builds compliant bridges for traditional enterprises and crypto projects to access Solana, accelerating ecosystem diversification.

Tholander has always been a long-term advocate for Solana, emphasizing that its high throughput, scalability, and active community will play a core role in the DeFi and Web3 transformation.