Robinhood, on the cusp of going public, is now adding board members who can make the case that the upstart broker is ready to take a central place in the investment universe.
The zero-commission investment app announced on Tuesday that it was adding three independent board members. Jon Rubinstein, a senior advisor at asset management firm PDT Partners who is a former Apple executive and the lead independent director atAmazon.com(ticker: AMZN), adds mainstream tech experience. Paula Loop, a partner at PwC, has experience in governance, accounting, and Securities and Exchange Commission compliance. And Robert Zoellick, a fellow at Harvard University, is a former president of the World Bank and U.S. Trade Representative. That brings Robinhood’s board to seven members, two of whom are co-founders Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt. The company declined to make any directors available for interviews.
After disrupting the traditional brokerage industry, Robinhood is expected to go public as soon as this month. Itconfidentially filed paperswith the SEC in March. Some analysts think the company could fetch a valuation of $40 billion. Adding directors with strong reputations will likely help Robinhood’s case, although those directors are now tying their reputations to a company that has attracted considerable negative attention as well.
Robinhood has walked a fine line over the past year, portraying itself to customers as a threat to the establishment. The founders have said they were inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement to fight the power of big banks and brokers. At the same time, the company has sold itself to regulators as a responsible operator ready to take an even bigger role in the country’s financial infrastructure.
Since the start of the pandemic, Robinhood has had to answer for a variety of irregularities, includingtrading outages last March, anda ban on purchases of certain stocksat the height of theGameStop(GME) frenzy in January. Massachusetts’ top securities regulator hassued the companyon allegations that it encourages risky trading for its own profit, a charge the company denies. Robinhood’s challenge will be to maintain its rebellious reputation, while also convincing regulators and customers that it is a responsible steward of their money.
The next few weeks will determine how well it can make its pitch on Wall Street.