Tarek Mansour currently serves as Co-Founder & CEO of prediction market platform Kalshi, which launched in July 2021 and became the first CFTC-regulated operator to provide contract trading directly tied to event outcomes.
Almost eight years after founding Kalshi, Masour has been at the front of one of the largest 'gaming' industry evolutions in recent memory.
Who is Tarek Mansour?
Mansour was born in California but moved to Lebanon with his family aged five, eventually returning to the US in 2014 to continue his education. Shortly after graduating, Mansour gained early experience in quantitative finance and global macro trading, citing the start of his career as inspiration for Co-Founding Kalshi.
He and Luana Lopes Lara – having met at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) – eventually developed the platform in 2018 and received regulatory approval from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) by November 2020.
Education
After moving to Lebanon with his family, Mansour attended the Collège Louise Wegman – a non-denominational school serving students in kindergarten through high school.
Mansour then departed Lebanon to return to the US and attend MIT from 2014-2018, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Electrical Engineering & Computer Science.
Career journey
During his time at MIT, Mansour interned as an Equity Derivatives Analyst at Goldman Sachs, where his passion for macro trading and quantitative financing would first stem. As part of the title, Mansour was responsible for analytical, technical and client‑facing work on complex equity derivative products.
After serving with Goldman Sachs for eight months, Mansour eventually moved on to become a Forward Deployed Engineer for Palantir Technologies in New York during January 2017, staying with the software development company for just over one year.
While prediction markets and software development may not connect at first glance, Mansour eventually used his time with Palantir Technologies to serve as a Researcher at the Institute's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory throughout the summer of 2018.
Mansour balanced his research with a return to trading and financial analysis, having been appointed as a Macro Trader by Citadel in May 2018. Mansour worked within the company’s Fixed Income & Macro business, which focuses on interest rates, currencies, emerging markets, equities, commodities and credit, while also blending macroeconomic analysis with market execution to identify and capture investment opportunities.
Alongside his work at Goldman Sachs, the Citadel position helped Mansour eventually gain the knowledge required to develop Kalshi within the same year.
By May 2019, Mansour would step down from his role with Citadel to officially serve as Kalshi Co-Founder and CEO, beginning an eventful journey to reshaping the sports betting and overall gaming scene.
Key achievements
Since origin, Kalshi has generated over $175bn of trading volume, including $148bn over the first-half of 2026 alone. In May, Kalshi confirmed a previously reported $22bn valuation following a $1bn Series F funding round, just six months after receiving an $11bn valuation in December 2025.
Mansour and Lopes Lara also managed to turn Kalshi into the first-ever prediction market to be regulated by the CFTC, breaking new ground in event contract trading history. The platform first rose to prominence in 2024 after reporting over $2bn in trading volume for the US Presidential Election, as well as 400% revenue growth for the full-year period.
Over the past 18 months, especially, Kalshi has expanded its offerings to include event contract trading on a number of topics, including sports, entertainment, politics, weather, science and more. The operator unveiled partnerships with well-known figures like Lionel Messi and Timothée Chalamet to help promote its services during the 2026 FIFA World Cup and received financial backing from NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo.
In sports, Kalshi has built a presence across the MLB and NHL through collaborations with professional franchises or the leagues themselves, alongside a partnership with Genius Sports for expanded integrity monitoring and information sharing capabilities.
According to Kalshi, the platform recorded three million new users during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, also setting a record for single market volume after traders wagered over $1.2bn into predicting which country would win the global tournament.
Regulatory history
Despite Kalshi’s success, the operator’s rapid growth has brought forth concern over whether prediction markets are properly regulated in the US, and how much power state governments should hold in approving or prohibiting such services.
As of August 2026, Kalshi has been involved in legal proceedings across key markets such as Nevada, New Jersey, New York and Michigan, as well as the likes of Ohio, Utah, Washington, Arizona and many others.
While intervention from the CFTC has allowed Kalshi to continue conducting business in certain markets, Nevada regulators eventually agreed to a deal with Kalshi where the operator would pull its services out of the Silver State.
Efforts to counteract insider trading concerns have also needed to be deployed by Kalshi, following multiple cases found in trades related to politics and entertainment.
In July 2026, White House aide Gabriel Perez was forced to resign after allegations were made that he used advance knowledge of President Donald Trump's speeches to place prediction market wagers. Perez allegedly earned more than $100,000 by betting on words and phrases President Trump would use during his speeches through Kalshi.
Leadership strategy
Mansour has previously spoken on Kalshi’s “unusual” management structure – although still a purposeful tactic on the CEO’s part – where over 150 employees are reporting directly to himself and Lopes Lara at all times.
Former Kalshi employees have spoken to the “die-hard” attitude Mansour conveys, motivating the operator’s personnel to continuously achieve higher user and trading volume targets.
No better example of Mansour’s fierce competitiveness was shown than when Polymarket entered a similar financial realm as Kalshi, given the CEO likened their rivalry to an NFL-type atmosphere.
In Mansour’s own words, he is “one of these entrepreneurs who is kind of broken inside but uses entrepreneurship as therapy,” having evoked a “spiky” personality and leadership style built around heightened focus and persistence.
Fun fact: Mansour took part in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Autonomous Robot Design Competition, where students design, build and program fully autonomous LEGO robots to submit every January