US Equity Market Structure 2026: Retail Demand Driving Innovation

Tarek Mansour is the co-founder and CEO of Kalshi, the world’s largest federally regulated financial exchange for trading on events.  

Founded in 2018, Kalshi created and established prediction markets as a new financial asset class called “event contracts,” which allows traders to take positions on whether a future event will happen or not. Users can trade on real-world events to predict the outcomes of events that have real-time market impact, such as elections, economic indicators, cultural moments, and more. Kalshi has ushered in a fundamental shift in consumer behavior, where people have gone from passive watchers to active participants in what’s happening around them in the world. 

Mansour previously worked as a quantitative trader at Goldman Sachs and Citadel. He received a bachelor’s degree in computer science and mathematics, and a master’s in engineering from MIT. He is from Lebanon. 

Katherine Doherty covers market structure and finance for Bloomberg News. She started her career in journalism as a radio reporter at Rhode Island Public Radio, the NPR affiliate in Providence while at Brown University. At Bloomberg she has covered healthcare and the credit market with a focus on restructurings and bankruptcy. Born in Massachusetts, Katherine is a former Broadway actor and an avid Boston sports fan.

Chuck Mack is Senior Vice President for North American Markets. He’s responsible for strategic direction for the businesses in North America as well as strategic operations, public policy, innovation, and transformation.
Previous to his current role, Chuck was head of US Equities for Nasdaq where he was responsible for the management, operation and strategic direction for Nasdaq’s US Equities Transaction Business across three U.S. equities exchanges – Nasdaq, BX and PSX. In addition, Chuck oversaw the exchange traded product (ETP) and over-the-counter Trade Reporting Facility (TRF) businesses.
Chuck has over 20 years of experience within financial markets, most of which have been with Nasdaq. At Nasdaq Chuck has held various leadership, operational, management, and market structure roles across equities, options and futures.
Chuck holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Masters of Business Administration from Rutgers University.
Chuck and his family live in NJ.

Michael Blaugrund is Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at Intercontinental Exchange (ICE).  In this role, he leads a range of projects across the company’s business units that focus on the development of next-generation infrastructure and platforms.

Prior to re-joining ICE, Blaugrund served as the Chief Executive Officer of DriveWealth, a registered clearing broker-dealer whose “Brokerage as a Service” API technology powers U.S. securities trading for over 100 global partners representing tens of millions of retail accounts. He previously served as the Chief Operating Officer of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), overseeing strategy and operations of the NYSE Group’s five equity exchanges and two options exchanges. Prior to NYSE, he was the Director of Business Development at Tower Research Capital, where he was responsible for expanding the firm’s global market access and developing strategic assets. He also previously led U.S. equity product strategy at NASDAQ and held product management roles at Thomson Reuters. He previously served on the boards of SIAC, the Options Clearing Corporation, and tZERO.

Blaugrund holds an A.B. in Government from Harvard University and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).

Nicola White is the Vice President of Institutional Crypto and General Manager of Bitstamp at Robinhood Crypto. She joined Robinhood in 2025, bringing 20 years of experience across trading, technology, and executive leadership. She was previously Chief Executive Officer of B2C2, a leading crypto market making firm, and Global Chief Operating Officer of Fixed Income at Citadel Securities, where she built a top-ranked market-making business. Nicola spent nearly 15 years at Morgan Stanley, where she became Global Head of Electronic Markets in fixed income. She holds a BMath in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo.

Elliot Trexler is Head of OPEN, Figure’s On-chain Public Equity Network, where he’s building the network’s two-sided ecosystem – asset issuers and investors – and driving adoption of blockchain-native public equities. He brings more than two decades of investment and capital markets experience including portfolio management and algo and fintech development; including founding Global Return Asset Management, a technology-driven hedge fund with a 10-year record of industry-beating results. A recognized thought leader, Elliot has presented at nearly 20 industry conferences on AI and automation in investing, co-created the New York CFA Society’s largest annual event, and contributed to Forbes magazine.

Dushyant “D” Shahrawat is an Analyst, ex-Investment banker, MIT Sloan Fellow, and leading voice on the future of financial market structure with 20+ years advising institutions, innovators, and regulators. At Bloomberg Intelligence, he leads crypto and blockchain market structure, shaping how global clients navigate digital assets, stablecoins, and tokenization. A fintech specialist since 2014, he bridges Wall Street and emerging technology to drive institutional adoption. A six-time Singapore FinTech Festival speaker and World Economic Forum contributor, he advises senior executives worldwide on the transition to on-chain finance and the redesign of global financial infrastructure.

Dr. Scott Bauguess is VP Global Regulatory Policy at Coinbase, a position responsible for consultations with regulatory authorities that oversee the banking and financial market sectors worldwide, including global standard setting organizations. He previously served as the Deputy Director of the Division of Economic and Risk Analysis at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, where he supervised economic analyses of recommendations to enact federal rules related to capital raising, investment management, broker dealers, market structure, and derivative securities. Dr. Bauguess most recently was a member of the finance faculty in the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin and held a teaching appointment in the University of Michigan Law School. He received a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois and M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and Ph.D. in Finance from Arizona State University.

Neil McDonald is CEO at moomoo US as he brings over 30 years of global financial industry experience. Originally from the U.K., he started his career as an equity derivatives trader at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, and managed European equity and index options trading at Citadel Investment Group. Neil moved to New York in 2008 to lead JP Morgan’s global electronic options market-making business and U.S. derivatives trading. After running a few mid-size financial firms’ quantitative analysis and crypto trading, he joined moomoo in July 2024. McDonald currently oversees all moomoo’s operations in the US.

Paul Gulberg is the Director of Research (Americas) and a Senior Equity Analyst for the financials and specializes in banks, asset managers, asset servicers and exchanges. Prior to joining Bloomberg Intelligence, Mr. Gulberg was an equity analyst for Portales Partners and worked as an associate portfolio manager for AllianceBernstein, as well as a fixed income analyst for Infroma Global Markets. He is a CFA Charterholder.

Ms. Kurzrok is Managing Director and Head of Market Structure at Jefferies, where she leads the firm’s market structure advisory effort.  In this role, Ms. Kurzrok advises institutional clients on structural and regulatory developments affecting trading, market liquidity, order handling, and execution quality. She regularly engages with regulators, trading venues, and various market participants on key market structure changes and publishes written commentary on both established and emerging market structure topics and trends, including new trading models and developing areas of market activity, with a focus on trading and liquidity dynamics, and the impact of regulatory developments on U.S. equity markets. Prior to joining Jefferies, Ms. Kurzrok held senior roles at ITG, RBC Capital Markets, and Deutsche Bank, where she developed her foundation in equities, electronic trading strategy, regulation, and client advisory. Ms. Kurzrok serves on the Board of Directors of the Texas Stock Exchange (TXSE) and the National Organization of Investment Professionals (NOIP).

Joseph Mecane is Head of Execution Services at Citadel Securities. In this role, he is responsible for the firm’s client-facing equity, options, FX, and ETF businesses.
Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Mecane was Global Head of Electronic Equities at Barclays. Previously, he worked for the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), serving as the Head of U.S. Equities. His earlier career included roles at UBS Securities, Schwab Capital Markets, Knight Capital Group and Price Waterhouse.
Mr. Mecane is involved with numerous industry organizations, currently serving on the Board of Directors of NYSE American LLC and is on the Board of Trustees for the Museum of American Finance. He is a member of the National Organization of Investment Professionals and the SIFMA Board of Directors. He was previously a member of the SEC’s Equity Market Structure Advisory Committee, served on the FINRA Board of Governors, was Chairman of the Nasdaq Quality of Markets Committee, and sat on the Nasdaq Exchange Board and the BATS Exchange Board.
Mr. Mecane received an MBA, with honors, from the Wharton school of the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s degree from Pace University.

Joe Wald is co-founder of Mosaic Platforms and a serial entrepreneur with two successful exits in electronic trading.

Joe previously co-founded EdgeTrade, one of the first agency-only algorithmic providers, which was acquired by Knight Capital Group and later co-founded Clearpool Group, a pioneer in algorithmic trading as a service, which was acquired by BMO Financial Group. Following the acquisition, Joe served as Global Head of Electronic Trading at BMO, executing the firm’s electronic trading strategy.  During this time, Joe served on the board of PureStream ATS.

With 30+ years at the forefront of market structure innovation, Joe brings a proven ability to identify whitespace, build category-defining platforms, and deliver outcomes for stakeholders.

Larry Tabb serves as the Director of Market Structure Research at Bloomberg, LLP. He leads a research team providing insights into financial markets infrastructure, technology, and regulation. Tabb was previously Research Chairman at TABB Group, where he focused on capital markets. He has advised regulatory bodies like the SEC and CFTC on market structure and is a sought-after speaker in major industry events. His career includes roles at TowerGroup, Lehman Brothers, and Citibank.

Lisa Utasi is Managing Director of Global Execution and a Senior Equity Trader at ClearBridge Investments, with more than 30 years of industry experience. She is a past Chairman of the Security Traders Association (National) and a two-term past President of the Security Traders Association of New York. Lisa was inducted into the National Organization of Investment Professionals (NOIP) in 2004. She later served as Chairman of its Board of Directors and co-chaired the Conference Committee for many years. She currently serves on the NOIP Foundation Board of Directors.

Lisa has been a panelist in a Leaders in Philanthropy lecture series sponsored by the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, The Graduate Center, The City University of New York. She grew up in Texas and received her BA in Political Science and BBA in Finance from Southern Methodist University. Ms. Utasi now enjoys living in New York City where she is an avid traveler as well as a runner.