Good morning. Polymarket makes a business out of uncertainty. Now it’s bringing some certainty to its own finances by hiring seasoned CFO Warren Jenson as its first finance chief.
Jenson, who has served as CFO of Amazon, Electronic Arts, Delta Air Lines, and NBC (then a General Electric business) as well as Nielsen, will lead Polymarket’s finance organization, set financial and capital strategy, strengthen planning, and build infrastructure for its next phase, the company announced Thursday.
Shayne Coplan, founder and CEO of Polymarket, said Jenson led finance at “some of the most consequential companies in the world, and his experience will be critical to everything we build from here.”
Jenson’s hire also lands at a pivotal financial moment: Polymarket is raising about $1 billion led by the venture firm where Donald Trump Jr. is a partner, 1789 Capital, at a valuation of roughly $21 billion, which is a 40% jump from the $15 billion mark it garnered just months ago.
Jenson’s most recent CFO role was at Nielsen, where he also served as president and led the company’s modernization and analytics business. Before that, he was president at LiveRamp, where he led finance and international efforts.
“I’m joining Shayne and the leadership team to put the capital strategy and operating discipline in place to move quickly at scale and continue to push the frontier 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 businesses and individuals managing digital assets, Fortune previously reported.
Instead of hiring someone from crypto or fintech, Polymarket tapped Jenson, with extensive experience at established large companies. But Shawn Cole, president and co-founder of Cowen Partners Executive Search, said he sees some synergy in Jenson’s background.
Nielsen and Polymarket share some similarities, Cole told me. “Both are data-driven businesses built around measuring, interpreting, and monetizing information at scale, with significant technology, regulatory, and institutional-market complexity,” he said.
Polymarket is working to scale its CFTC-regulated U.S. exchange and expand its global platform. It’s also hiring compliance roles that reference SEC regulatory experience, potentially signaling future filings, Cole said. “A CFO like Jenson adds credibility, public-market experience, and potentially valuable market relationships,” he said.
But Cole points out that Polymarket differs sharply from Nielsen in terms of risk. It’s operating in relatively new and evolving regulatory territory, with the potential for extensive scrutiny that could become political and involve agencies such as the Justice Department.
“That makes this a much heavier lift than stepping into an establishment like his past employers,” Cole said.
Polymarket, Kalshi, and other prediction markets allow participants to wager on probable outcomes, with contracts typically priced between 1 and 99 cents. The sector has certainly grown in popularity. Four-time NBA champion LeBron James has partnered with Polymarket on a campaign focused primarily on football.
Election-season trading, including this fall, is surging. But losses can be costly. A recent 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 the regulatory risk, not just the 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 2027 annual general meeting. Kaur will not stand for re-election as a director at that meeting. She’ll remain with the bank in an advisory role, supporting CEO Georges Elhedery on ongoing strategic projects. HSBC’s board has begun searching for a successor and will consider both internal and external candidates.
Michael Brous was promoted to CFO of rideshare company Lyft, Inc. (Nasdaq: LYFT), effective Sept. 28. Brous takes over from Erin Brewer, who plans to retire and will remain with Lyft as an advisor through Dec. 15. Brous has served in Lyft senior management 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 was the VP of finance.
Sumita Pandit was appointed SVP and CFO of Genpact (NYSE: G), a global professional services and digital transformation company, effective Sept. 9. Pandit succeeds Michael Weiner, who has served as Genpact’s CFO since 2021; he will remain as an advisor through the end of Q1 2027. Pandit brings nearly 25 years of experience and most recently served as president and CFO of Radian Group. Before Radian, she was chief operating officer of dLocal, which she led through its initial public offering.
Mira Mircheva has resigned from her role as EVP and CFO at Bally’s Corporation, effective Sept. 4, due to personal reasons, according to an SEC filing. Her last day will be Sept. 30. George Papanier, Bally’s president, will serve as interim CFO. The company is searching for a permanent CFO.
Ellen Conti was appointed partner and CFO of GoldenTree Asset Management, a global asset management firm. Conti joins 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 Sept. 21. Clifford brings more than 30 years of experience, including CFO and COO roles at The AZEK Company and Cantel Medical. Most recently, Clifford served as CFO for Filtration Group Corporation.
Jennifer Fulk was appointed CFO of Kura Oncology, Inc. (Nasdaq: KURA), a biopharmaceutical company, effective Sept. 8. For more than 15 years at Eli Lilly and Company, she held increasingly senior roles spanning commercial finance, research and development, investor relations, treasury, and global operations. Her positions included CFO of Lilly’s U.S. Bio-Medicines business. Fulk has also served in a series of senior finance and operating leadership roles, including as 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 Daily, looks back at three leaders who faced 9/11 head-on. Jeff Immelt was two days into his job as GE’s CEO when he watched the second plane hit the World Trade Center from a Seattle gym. Howard Lutnick, then CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, lost his brother and 657 employees. And Morgan Stanley security chief Rick Rescorla, who had warned for years that the towers were vulnerable to attack. Brady traces how each leader’s choices that day still shape how we think about leadership under pressure. Read more here.
Going deeper
Here are four Fortune weekend reads:
“Meta built an AI that can shop for you. The problem is that most people don’t want AI spending their money” —Tatiana Sataua
“This former Navy SEAL spent 5 years in private equity working 100-hour weeks before quitting and building a $9 billion startup” —Preston Fore
“Inflation won’t die. Now the bond market is daring the Fed to do something about it” —Eva Roytburg
“One in five Americans call sports betting an investment. For Gen Z, it’s twice as many—and they don’t come close to breaking even” —Catherina Gioino
Overheard
“September 11 is a deeply significant part of our shared history.”
—Brian Moynihan, chair and chief executive officer of Bank of America, said in an announcement this week. The bank has made a $250,000 commitment to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, building on more than $160 million in support for first responders, veterans, and military service members over the past 15 years, as the nation commemorates the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
