Vlad Tenev

Vladimir Tenev (Bulgarian: Владимир Тенев; born 1986 or 1987)[1] is a Bulgarian-American billionaire entrepreneur who is the co-founder (with Baiju Bhatt) and CEO of Robinhood, a US-based financial services company.

Vladimir Tenev
Born1986/1987 (age 34–35)[1]
Varna, Bulgaria
NationalityAmerican, Bulgarian
EducationStanford (BA Math)
UCLA (PhD Math) (dropped out)
OccupationEntrepreneur
Known forCo-founder, Robinhood
Children1

Early life

Tenev was born in Bulgaria, and his parents migrated to the U.S. when he was five.[2] His parents both worked for the World Bank.[3] He attended Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology[4] in Fairfax County, Virginia.

He earned a degree in mathematics from Stanford University, where he met Baiju Bhatt.[1] He studied for a mathematics PhD at UCLA, but dropped out to work with Bhatt.[3][5]

Career

In 2010, Tenev and Bhatt started a high-frequency trading company called Celeris. By January 2011 they abandoned it to create Chronos Research, which sold low-latency software to other trading firms and banks.[6]

In 2013, Tenev and Bhatt co-founded the trading platform Robinhood.[1] Following a funding round in May 2018 which increased Robinhood's valuation to $6 billion, Tenev and Bhatt became billionaires.[1][7]

GameStop short squeeze

On January 28, 2021, Tenev defended Robinhood's decision to prevent users from buying stock or options in a variety of securities, notably GameStop, during the GameStop short squeeze;[8][9][10][11] the decision had sparked widespread criticism from users of the app as well as politicians in both major American parties.[12] On February 18, 2021, Tenev testified before the United States House Committee on Financial Services regarding Robinhood's role during the GameStop short squeeze.[13][14] Tenev came under heavy criticism from members of both parties and was criticized for struggling to provide answers to a number of questions.[15][16][17]

In its July 1, 2021 S-1 filing with the SEC, Robinhood disclosed that the US Attorney's Office had executed a search warrant for Tenev's cell phone as part of a probe into the GameStop short squeeze.[18][19][20]

Awards
Year Awards Category Result Ref.
2016 Forbes 30 Under 30 Young Traders Won [21]

Other awards

He was invited to be the keynote speaker at UCLA's 2019 Math Commencement Ceremony.[22]

References
  1. "Robinhood Founders Are Billionaires in Silicon Valley Minute". Retrieved 23 July 2018.
  2. "The founders of Robinhood, a no-fee stock-trading app, were initially rejected by 75 venture capitalists — now their startup is worth $1.3 billion". Retrieved 23 July 2018.
  3. "Vlad Tenev, 28". Forbes. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
  4. Thomas Jefferson HS. "Thomas Jefferson HS". Twitter.
  5. Ongchoco, David (12 August 2015). "Startup Insider: The Story Behind Stock Trading App Robinhood and Its One Million-Person Waitlist". Retrieved 23 July 2018.
  6. "Win the Stock Market with Crowd Sourced Advice from New App Robinhood".
  7. "Meet the 11 new tech billionaires that emerged in 2018". Retrieved 23 July 2018.
  8. Reuters Staff (2021-01-29). "Robinhood CEO says limited trade to protect firm and customers". Reuters. Retrieved 2021-01-29.
  9. "Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev speaks out on decision to restrict trading on GameStop and other stocks". CNBC. 2021-01-29. Retrieved 2021-01-29.
  10. "Robinhood CEO Says Trading Limits Will Protect Firm, Customers". Bloomberg.com. 2021-01-29. Retrieved 2021-01-29.
  11. Robinhood CEO speaks on controversy after GameStop stock chaos - CNN Video, retrieved 2021-01-29
  12. "Robinhood founder Vlad Tenev says app blocked GameStop buys to "protect investors"". Newsweek. 2021-01-28. Retrieved 2021-01-29.
  13. Popper, Nathaniel. "Grilled in the hearing, Robinhood's chief apologizes for limiting GameStop trades". The New York Times. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
  14. Collins, Eliza (February 18, 2021). "Who Are Keith Gill and Other Key Players at the GameStop Hearing?". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
  15. Popper, Nathaniel; Phillips, Matt (2021-02-18). "In GameStop Saga, Robinhood Is Cast as the Villain". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-02-19.
  16. "Under fire, Robinhood CEO apologizes to Congress for restricting trading". NBC News. Retrieved 2021-02-19.
  17. Sorkin, Andrew Ross; Karaian, Jason; Merced, Michael J. de la; Hirsch, Lauren; Livni, Ephrat (2021-02-19). "'Something Very Wrong Happened Here'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-02-19.
  18. Kay, Grace. "Robinhood's IPO filing reveals the US Attorney's Office executed a search warrant for CEO Vlad Tenev's cell phone". Business Insider. Retrieved 2021-07-05.
  19. Sigalos, MacKenzie (2021-07-01). "Feds seized Robinhood CEO's phone as part of GameStop trading probe". CNBC. Retrieved 2021-07-05.
  20. Westbrook, Jesse (July 1, 2021). "Robinhood Says U.S. Demanded Access to CEO Tenev's Phone Records". Bloomberg.
  21. Vardi, Nathan. "30 Under 30 Finance: The Top Young Traders, Bankers And Dealmakers". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-07-12.
  22. "2019 Math Commencement Keynote Speaker: Vladimir Tenev". UCLA. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.