Polymarket hires ex‑Goldman partner Lisa Mantil to lead institutional push

Polymarket has hired former Goldman Sachs partner Lisa Mantil as head of institutional growth, the prediction market operator announced on Tuesday. Mantil spent 27 years at Goldman Sachs, was named a partner in 2018 and most recently led the firm's ETF Accelerator; at Polymarket she will focus on relationships with investment managers, trading firms, corporations and banks while also working on infrastructure and liquidity for those customers.

Polymarket’s institutional push: what the hire does and when it landed

The appointment brings a senior finance executive into a company that is explicitly courting professional investors. Polymarket said the hire was made public on Tuesday; the role covers building the institutional business and expanding how prediction markets are used across investment and risk‑management strategies. The company wants institutions trading contracts tied to elections, interest‑rate decisions, regulatory rulings and geopolitical developments — outcomes that can affect portfolios directly.

Polymarket argues prediction contracts give direct exposure to specified outcomes rather than relying on correlated assets. Mantil’s brief includes work on the trading infrastructure and liquidity arrangements institutions expect before they allocate capital.

"The opportunity to join Polymarket is a rare chance to help shape an exploding asset class at an inflection point in its development," Mantil said. "I've spent my career guiding institutions as they adopt new products and enter new markets, and I look forward to bringing that expertise to Polymarket as we build the institutional business and expand the role prediction markets can play across investment and risk‑management strategies."

How Mantil’s background maps to Polymarket’s aims

Lisa Mantil spent 27 years at Goldman Sachs and was elevated to partner in 2018. She most recently built and led Goldman Sachs’ ETF Accelerator, a team that helps institutional clients launch, list and manage exchange‑traded funds. That experience gives her direct experience taking new financial products from development into wider professional use — a skillset Polymarket sees as transferable to prediction contracts.

Her remit at Polymarket is explicitly institutional: engage investment managers, trading firms, corporations and banks; design infrastructure and liquidity solutions those clients need; and shape products aimed at portfolio hedging and risk transfer. The hire gives Polymarket an executive with longstanding relationships across institutional finance, which the company sees as central to winning professional flow.

Internal hires and recruitment signal a strategic push

Mantil’s appointment follows other senior hires at Polymarket this month. On Sept. 10 the company named Warren Jenson its first chief financial officer. Jenson previously served as CFO at Amazon, Electronic Arts, Delta Air Lines, NBC and Nielsen and is responsible for Polymarket’s finance organisation, capital strategy and long‑term financial planning as the company expands its US operations.

Polymarket has also recruited outside traditional finance. In February it hired Ari Borod as president of sports business development; Borod was previously chief business officer at Fanatics, where he worked during the company’s expansion into sports betting and online casino gaming. That move brought direct sportsbook experience into a business increasingly competing for sports trading volume in the market.

Why prediction markets are hiring from finance and betting

The pattern of hires at Polymarket mirrors broader industry moves. Operators are looking for two distinct skill sets: sportsbook and betting executives who understand customer acquisition and high‑value player experience; and traditional finance executives who bring institutional relationships, risk‑management expertise and knowledge of regulated market infrastructure.

Kalshi, a US futures‑style prediction market, has made comparable hires. In July Kalshi hired Dillon Borgida as head of private client sales and services; Borgida previously spent nearly three years at Underdog overseeing VIP and player experience. In August Kalshi appointed Jeff Bandman, a derivatives‑market veteran who previously held senior roles at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, as CEO of Kalshi Prime, its brokerage and intermediary arm. Bandman helped shape Kalshi’s early regulatory strategy.

These moves reflect how prediction markets are expanding beyond startup product development toward deeper market structures that institutions expect: deeper liquidity, clearer infrastructure and products aligned with portfolio risk.

What operators and vendors should expect next

Polymarket’s hiring indicates the company will prioritise tools and arrangements familiar to professional desks: connectivity to order‑routing and execution infrastructure, liquidity provisioning frameworks, cleared or custodial arrangements acceptable to regulated entities, and documentation that lets asset managers fit contracts into risk‑management workflows. Vendors that can help with those components are likely to be in demand.

For institutional adoption to scale, prediction market operators must deliver both the product design and the operational plumbing. Mantil’s background with ETF productisation and institutional distribution signals Polymarket wants to accelerate that process.

Where this sits in the market

Polymarket’s hires — from Lisa Mantil to Warren Jenson and Ari Borod — show a deliberate mix of traditional finance and betting experience. The company is positioning itself to capture professional trading by offering contracts tied to specific geopolitical, economic and regulatory outcomes. Whether institutions move capital at scale will depend on Polymarket’s ability to supply liquidity, acceptable infrastructure and risk‑management integrations.

Polymarket made the announcement on Tuesday and the company says Mantil will immediately begin work on institutional relationships and infrastructure projects.