# Alex Kayyal
> Chief Financial Officer at the trade desk
- Profile type: Person
- Profile status: baseline
- Last updated: 2026-05-03T00:00:00.000Z
- Canonical URL: https://thestateofstreaming.com/people/alex-kayyal/
## Summary
Alex Kayyal is chief financial officer of The Trade Desk, effective August 21, 2025. A longtime venture investor — most recently a partner at Lightspeed and formerly head of Salesforce Ventures — Kayyal joined the TTD board in February 2025 before being elevated to CFO, succeeding Laura Schenkein in a leadership reset under CEO Jeff Green.


## Profile facts

- Current title: Chief Financial Officer
- Current company: the trade desk (https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/the-trade-desk/)


## Career trajectory

- 2025-08-21 — Chief Financial Officer at the-trade-desk. Elevated from board director to CFO under CEO Jeff Green; succeeds Laura Schenkein.
- 2025-02-12 — Board Director at the-trade-desk. Appointed to TTD board of directors based on more than a decade of relationship with the company as an early investor.
- 2023-02-01 — Partner, Application Software Practice. Joined Lightspeed Venture Partners as a partner leading the application software practice.
- 2015-01-01 — SVP and Managing Partner, Salesforce Ventures. Spent nearly a decade at Salesforce in global executive roles, including building out Salesforce Ventures' international presence and helping deploy more than $5 billion in capital.
- 2010-01-01 — Co-founder. Helped establish Hermes Growth Partners (HGP), a venture growth fund where he led the firm's early investment in The Trade Desk.

_This page uses only public-professional information (roles, public statements, media appearances)._

## Key facts

- Appointed chief financial officer of The Trade Desk effective August 21, 2025, reporting to CEO and co-founder Jeff Green. — The Trade Desk Investor Relations: https://investors.thetradedesk.com/news-and-events/news/news-details/2025/The-Trade-Desk-Announces-Alex-Kayyal-as-New-Chief-Financial-Officer/default.aspx
- Joined The Trade Desk's board of directors on February 12, 2025, roughly six months before being elevated to CFO; remained on the board after the executive transition. — The Trade Desk Investor Relations: https://investors.thetradedesk.com/news-and-events/news/news-details/2025/The-Trade-Desk-Appoints-Alex-Kayyal-to-Board-of-Directors/default.aspx
- Succeeded Laura Schenkein, who served as CFO since June 2023 and spent 11 years at the company; Schenkein remained as a non-executive officer through year-end 2025 to support the handover. — CFO Dive: https://www.cfodive.com/news/tradedesk-names-new-cfo-warns-tariff-adtech/757238/
- Came to TTD from Lightspeed Venture Partners, where he had been a partner leading the firm's application software practice since February 2023. — CFO Dive: https://www.cfodive.com/news/tradedesk-names-new-cfo-warns-tariff-adtech/757238/
- An early investor in The Trade Desk through Hermes Growth Partners (HGP), which he co-founded; relationship with the company predates his board and executive roles by more than a decade. — The Trade Desk Investor Relations: https://investors.thetradedesk.com/news-and-events/news/news-details/2025/The-Trade-Desk-Appoints-Alex-Kayyal-to-Board-of-Directors/default.aspx


## Related

- the trade desk (CFO) — https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/the-trade-desk/
- jeff green (reports-to) — https://thestateofstreaming.com/people/jeff-green/
- laura schenkein (predecessor) — https://thestateofstreaming.com/people/laura-schenkein/


## External coverage

- 2025-08-07 — The Trade Desk Investor Relations: The Trade Desk Announces Alex Kayyal as New Chief Financial Officer (https://investors.thetradedesk.com/news-and-events/news/news-details/2025/The-Trade-Desk-Announces-Alex-Kayyal-as-New-Chief-Financial-Officer/default.aspx)
- 2025-02-12 — The Trade Desk Investor Relations: The Trade Desk Appoints Alex Kayyal to Board of Directors (https://investors.thetradedesk.com/news-and-events/news/news-details/2025/The-Trade-Desk-Appoints-Alex-Kayyal-to-Board-of-Directors/default.aspx)
- 2025-08-08 — CFO Dive: Trade Desk names new CFO, warns of tariff disruption (https://www.cfodive.com/news/tradedesk-names-new-cfo-warns-tariff-adtech/757238/)
- 2025-08-07 — SEC EDGAR — The Trade Desk: 8-K Additional Materials: CFO Transition (Aug. 7, 2025) (https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1671933/000167193325000124/ttd8725additionalmaterials.htm)
- The Trade Desk Investor Relations: Alex Kayyal — Board of Directors Bio (https://investors.thetradedesk.com/governance/board-of-directors/person-details/default.aspx?ItemId=a0fef6c0-9ac0-447c-823b-dc5e4bdcd6f7)

## Profile
Kayyal's path to The Trade Desk's CFO seat is unusual: he was an early outside investor through Hermes Growth Partners more than a decade before joining the board in February 2025, then took the finance chair six months later. The arc matters because the appointment landed in the middle of CEO Jeff Green's restructuring response to the Q4 2024 revenue miss — TTD's first earnings warning as a public company — and slotted a long-time investor-operator with venture-scale pattern recognition into the seat that owns Wall Street narrative.

Schenkein, who joined TTD in 2014 and rose to CFO in June 2023, stayed on as a non-executive officer through year-end 2025 to bridge the transition.

## Tags

- cfo
- the-trade-desk
- ad-tech-finance
- executive-transition

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