The Rise of Prediction Markets 

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 allow 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 degree in Computer Science and Mathematics, and a Masters in Engineering from MIT. He is from Lebanon. 

Alex Michael is a Partner at LionTree, a global investment and merchant banking firm. He joined LionTree in 2015 as Head of Business Development & Operations. He leads LionTree’s sports, live events and digital media coverage. Throughout his tenure at LionTree, Mr. Michael has led M&A transactions across the media, sports and entertainment industries, including Ari Emanuel on his formation of Mari Live Events Company, The Athletic on its sale to The New York Times, AXS tickets on its sale to AEG, Second Spectrum on its sale to Genius Sports, Wondery on its sale to Amazon, Gamechanger on its sale to Dick's Sporting Goods, and Vox Media on its merger with Group Nine. At LionTree, Mr. Michael has developed and is the Co-Head of LionTree Growth, a platform that provides strategic advice and capital solutions to high-growth companies. He also served as the Chief Development Officer of Infinite Acquisition Corp., a $276M SPAC co-sponsored by Thirty Five Ventures (the family office of 2x NBA Champion Kevin Durant) and LionTree. He is a frequent host of LionTree's podcast, where he engages with industry leaders and discusses various topics related to media, technology, sports and finance. Before joining LionTree, Alex was the General Manager of National Sales at LivingSocial. Prior, he was the Head of Business Development at MSG Sports, where he directed efforts to grow the company through the acquisition of new sports franchises and increased monetization of existing core team and venue assets. He was also a Director in Business Development at Ticketmaster, where he executed M&A transactions and originated new revenue opportunities for the ticketing leader, which eventually merged with Live Nation. Mr. Michael currently serves on the boards of Unrivaled Sports, Transmit Live, Authentic Restaurant Brands, and Belzberg & Co. He is based in Washington, D.C. Mr. Michael has a Bachelor of Arts in History from Brown University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. 

Co-Anchor, Squawk on the Street and Money Movers

Sara Eisen is co-anchor of the 10AM hour of CNBC’s Squawk on the Street (M-F, 9AM-11AM ET) and co-anchor of Money Movers (M-F, 11AM-12PM ET), which both broadcast from Post 9 at the New York Stock Exchange. She is known for her deep expertise in financial markets and the global economy as well as regular news making interviews with some of the most prominent names in the financial world, including Phil Knight, Janet Yellen and Christine Lagarde, among others.

Previously, Eisen anchored CNBC’s Closing Bell, Squawk on the Street, Power Lunch and Worldwide Exchange. She also reported on the one-hour documentary, Inside Track: The Business of Formula 1, that explores the world’s most prestigious racing series, what is fueling its popularity and who is profiting. Eisen joined CNBC in December 2013 as a correspondent, focusing on the global consumer.

Prior to CNBC, Eisen was co-anchor of Bloomberg Surveillance as well as a correspondent for Bloomberg Television, where she covered global macroeconomics, policy and business. During that time, she covered the European debt crisis, the tsunami aftermath and Fukushima nuclear crisis in Japan. Eisen also hosted the Bloomberg Radio program, On the Economy.

She is the editor of Currencies After the Crash: The Uncertain Future of the Global Paper-Based Currency System published by McGraw-Hill in Jan. 2013. 

Eisen holds a master’s degree in broadcast journalism with a concentration in business reporting from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.