Chris Larsen
Co-Founder, Ripple
San Francisco, CA
Chris is an entrepreneur and angel investor, having co-founded E-Loan online financial services in 1996, acquired by Banco Popular, and then Prosper Marketplace, and serving as CEO until 2012. From there he co-founded Ripple, which facilitates international payments for banks including Santander and American Express, using XRP blockchain technology. He remains executive chairman and as of July 2025, Forbes estimates his net worth at $11.42B. He has now led a series of successful firms in complex areas of financial technology, serving global client bases. Often those businesses have been pioneers in their specific domain, helping to shape their regulatory environment in order to thrive.
Chris Larsen was born in San Francisco, CA. His father was an aircraft mechanic at SFO and his mother was an illustrator. Larsen attended San Francisco State University and graduated in 1984 with a B.A. in international business and accounting. Larsen then went to Stanford for his MBA, graduating in 1991. After college, he worked for Chevron, performing audits in Brazil, Ecuador, and Indonesia. Chris and his spouse Lyna Lam are major supporters of civic life, public safety, criminal justice reform, psychedelic science, climate change mitigation, and Buddhist and Khmer cultural institutions.