Robinhood Hires Ex-Amazon Executive as Chief Financial Officer

Robinhood, a retail stockbroker based in the US, announced that it has appointed a new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) on Tuesday. Jason Warnick will take up his new position at the start of next week.

He joins Robinhood after almost twenty years with retail behemoth Amazon. Way back in 1999, when Amazon was but a simple bookseller, Warnick joined the firm as a Senior Manager in its accounting division.

Over the next two decades, he worked his way up the company’s corporate ladder. Working as a Director in Investor Relations and a VP of Internal Audit along the way, Warnick was promoted to Vice President of Finance in August of last year - a position he held until this week.

From Amazon to Robinhood

That array of experience will likely come in handy as he starts his new job with Robinhood. A statement released by the broker on Tuesday indicates that he will be working on the company’s financial, treasury and accounting functions.

Warnick will also play a role in developing the company’s business as it attempts to expand. According to Robinhood, he will be reporting to the company’s co-CEO and co-Founder, Vlad Tenev.

“From the first time we met Jason, we were amazed and humbled by his problem-solving abilities and by the depth of his strategic thinking,” said Tenev. “We look forward to working with Jason to build out our operational and financial infrastructure and continuing to deliver the best possible financial products to our customers at the best possible prices.”

Robinhood has exploded in popularity since going live in 2013. A Bloomberg report in February of this year indicated that it had three million users at the start of this year, most of whom were under the age of 30.

The company has been criticized by some for selling its order flow to high-frequency traders, something that could create a conflict of interest.