Good morning Polymarket turns uncertainty into a business. Now the company is providing more security in its own finances by hiring experienced CFO Warren Jenson as its first chief financial officer.
Jenson, who served as CFO of Amazon, Electronic Arts, Delta Air Linesand NBC (then a General Electric company) and Nielsen will lead Polymarket’s financial organization, setting financial and capital strategy, strengthening planning and building the infrastructure for the next phase, the company announced Thursday.
Shayne Coplan, founder and CEO of Polymarket, said Jenson led finance at “some of the most significant companies in the world, and his experience will be critical to everything we build from here.”
Jenson’s hiring also comes at a crucial financial time: Polymarket is raising about $1 billion, led by venture firm 1789 Capital, where Donald Trump Jr. is a partner, at a valuation of about $1.5 billion 21 billion dollarswhich represents a 40% increase from the $15 billion mark reached just a few months ago.
Jenson’s most recent CFO position was at Nielsenwhere he also served as president and led the company’s modernization and analytics business. Previously, he was president at LiveRamp, where he led finance and international efforts.
“I join Shayne and the leadership team to set the capital strategy and operational discipline to move quickly at scale and continue to push the boundaries of this industry,” Jenson said in a statement.
Polymarket is a six-year-old crypto-native prediction market. The company announced in March that it was acquiring Brahma, a startup specializing in crypto and DeFi infrastructure for companies and individuals managing digital assets. Assets previously reported.
Instead of hiring someone from the crypto or fintech space, Polymarket chose Jenson, who has extensive experience at established large companies. But Shawn Cole, president and co-founder of Cowen Partners Executive Search, said he sees certain synergies in Jenson’s background.
Nielsen and Polymarket had some things in common, Cole told me. “Both are data-driven businesses based on measuring, interpreting and monetizing information at scale, with significant technological, regulatory and institutional market complexity,” he said.
Polymarket is working to scale its CFTC-regulated US exchange and expand its global platform. Compliance roles are also being hired that point to experience with SEC regulation, which could potentially be a clue to future filings, Cole said. “A CFO like Jenson brings credibility, public market experience and potentially valuable market relationships,” he said.
However, Cole points out that Polymarket differs significantly from Nielsen in terms of risk. The company operates in relatively new and evolving regulatory territory, with the potential for sweeping controls that could become political and involve agencies such as the Justice Department.
“That makes this a much harder task than joining a company like his previous employers,” Cole said.
Polymarket, Kalshi and others Prediction markets allow participants to bet on likely outcomes, with contract prices typically ranging from 1 to 99 cents. The sector is certainly growing in popularity. Four-time NBA champion LeBron James has partner with Polymarket on a campaign focused primarily on football.
Trading in the election season, including this fall, is booming. But losses can be costly. A recent report from BadCredit.org Study found that 79% of prediction market users lost money in the past year, while 51% used credit cards, personal loans or other borrowed funds to place bets.
That math is the real bet here: Investors are pricing in Jenson’s ability to manage regulatory risk, not just accounting.
Sheryl Estrada
Sheryl.Estrada@fortune.com
Leaderboard
Notable moves this week:
Pam Kaur plans to step down as CFO of HSBC, effective no later than the bank’s annual general meeting in 2027. Kaur will not stand for re-election as a director at this meeting. She will remain with the bank in an advisory role and support CEO Georges Elhedery in ongoing strategic projects. HSBC’s board has begun the search for a successor and will consider both internal and external candidates.
Michael Brous was promoted to CFO of the ride-sharing company Lyft, Inc. (Nasdaq: LYFT), effective September 28. Brous takes over from Erin Brewer, who plans to retire and will remain with Lyft as a consultant until December 15. Brous has served on Lyft’s senior management team for nearly eight years, currently as head of Lyft Urban Solutions and Safety and Customer Care. He joined Lyft in 2018 through its acquisition of Motivate, where he served as vice president of finance.
Sumita Pandit was named SVP and CFO of Genpact (NYSE: G), a global professional services and digital transformation company, effective September 9. Pandit succeeds Michael Weiner, who has served as CFO of Genpact since 2021; He will remain as a consultant until the end of the first quarter of 2027. Pandit brings nearly 25 years of experience and was most recently President and CFO of Radian Group. Prior to Radian, she was chief operating officer of dLocal, which she led through its IPO.
Mira Mircheva has resigned from her role as EVP and CFO at Bally’s Corporation effective Sept. 4 due to personal reasons, a report said SEC filing. Your last day will be September 30th. George Papanier, Bally’s president, will serve as interim CFO. The company is looking for a permanent CFO.
Ellen Conti has been named partner and CFO of GoldenTree Asset Managementa global asset management company. Conti comes to GoldenTree from Sculptor Capital, where she served as Executive Managing Director and CFO and was a member of the firm’s Partner Management Committee.
Peter G. Clifford was EVP and CFO of Fortune Brands Innovations, Inc. (NYSE: FBIN), a home, security and digital products company, effective September 21. Clifford brings more than 30 years of experience, including CFO and COO positions at The AZEK Company and Cantel Medical. Clifford most recently served as CFO for Filtration Group Corporation.
Jennifer Fulk was appointed CFO of Kura Oncology, Inc. (Nasdaq: KURA), a biopharmaceutical company, effective September 8. For more than 15 years, she held progressively senior positions at Eli Lilly and Company in commercial finance, research and development, investor relations, treasury and global operations. Her positions included CFO of Lilly’s US biomedical business. Fulk has also served in a number of senior financial and operational leadership positions, including CFO of Talkspace, Chief Operating Officer and CFO of 120Water, and most recently CFO of Soleno Therapeutics.
Big deal
My colleague Diane Brady, author of CEO DailyHe looks back at three leaders who faced 9/11 head-on. Jeff Immelt had been on the job as CEO of GE for just two days when he watched from a gym in Seattle as the second plane hit the World Trade Center. Howard Lutnick, then CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, lost his brother and 657 employees. And Rick Rescorla, head of security at Morgan Stanley, who had warned for years that the towers were vulnerable. Brady traces how each leader’s decisions that day continue to shape our approach to leadership under pressure. Read more here.
Go deeper
Here are four Assets Weekend is:
“Meta has developed an AI that can shop for you. The problem is that most people don’t want AI to spend their money” —Tatiana Sataua
“This former Navy SEAL spent five years in the private equity industry, working 100-hour weeks, before quitting and building a $9 billion startup” —Preston Fore
“Inflation will not die. Now the bond market is daring the Fed to do something about it” —Eva Roytburg
“One in five Americans describe sports betting as an investment. For Generation Z, there are twice as many – and they don’t come close to breaking even” —Catherina Gioino
Overheard
“September 11th is a deeply significant part of our shared history.”
– Brian Moynihan, Chairman and CEO of Bank of America, said in a notice this week. The bank has committed $250,000 to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, building on more than $160 million donated to first responders, veterans and military members over the past 15 years as the country marks the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.