BTL GROUP LTD. (TSX Venture: BTL) (“BTL”) is pleased to announce the addition of Jon Downing to BTL’s advisory board. Over the last 25 years, Jon has successfully delivered innovation, business and technology services at some of the largest and most respected global companies, including Visa, J P Morgan, HP Enterprise Services & American Express.

Over the last two years, Jon was a key member of Visa Europe’s Innovation Hub, Visa Collab, which was responsible for identifying and testing the most exciting, revolutionary ideas in payments and developing them into commercial realities. Jon setup and led the blockchain practice at Visa Collab and was responsible for leading multiple high-profile proof of concept initiatives with key start-up companies including BTL, testing ideas for new products and services across the whole payments eco-system, with specific focus and thought leadership in the blockchain and crypto-currency domain.

“I am joining BTL because I passionately believe in the transformational potential of blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies,” commented Jon Downing. “BTL have correctly identified and solved for the privacy and scalability challenges through the innovative design and architecture of their Interbit solution – which I directly experienced during the Interbank Settlement pilot, along with BTL’s focus on excellence, meeting and exceeding client expectations, along with building a compelling vision for the future.  I look forward to working with BTL’s leadership team and board of directors to help realise the company vision of bringing the world’s critical systems into consensus.”

“BTL has had a strong start to the year with the launch of our European energy pilot and continuing work in the interbank-settlement space,” said Guy Halford-Thompson, BTL’s Chief Executive Officer. “We believe Jon’s experience in the finance space will help us accelerate commercialization of our Interbit platform. Jon’s domain expertise, as well as his experience growing and managing large teams, are critical skills which BTL will greatly benefit from as we continue to expand this year.”